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POPSUS gasoline price marks biggest drop ever... I think this is great news and why would this not help our economy...which everyone seems to say is bad. I can't speak for anyone else but my own family, but the only thing that's been bothersome about our economy has been the increase in food prices. Lower gas prices should help...maybe...considering the transportation of food to local markets. Now if we can get rid of that dumb ethanol idea, pursue our drilling options and encourage the movement towards our alternatives, we have a go! The worse thing we can do is tie ourselves to the "global" financial option being proposed in Europe.
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POPSHope Your vehicle may be running on Seawed in the future
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POPSTurning Bacteria into Plastic Factories Cost will be the ultimate factor in whether this someday becomes a widely used plastic-making process; Genomatica says it's not sure how much its E. coli–produced BDO will cost, noting that results thus far have been confined to the lab.
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POPSIs wind the new ethanol? I think the differences between wind and ethanol are pretty substantial, to put it mildly. But they do both enjoy subsidies (with the occasionally stated idea that eventually the subsidies will be withdrawn once these infant industries have matured.) There was a similar argument in Friday's Economist from a solar company executive who said that one problem with subsidies is that companies spend their time paying lobbyists to keep the subsidy rather than paying scientists to improve the technology. I'll clipmark that next.
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POPSBig Oil as Venture Investor Wall Street Journal, in a special section today, includes a look at how giant oil companies have approached venture investment in energy. Exxon Mobil apparently has no interest. Canada's EnCana regards it as "social investment and supporting innovation." Also discussed is Shell's involvement with Virent Energy Systems, a company we looked at here: http://www.forbes.com/beltway/2008/03/11/virent-ethanol-gasoline-biz-cz_atg_0312beltway.html
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POPSEthanol Plant Management Services BioCnergy Europa B.V. is a leading global provider of bioethanol plant designing, processing, & manufacturing services in Europe, Russia, & Ukraine. BioCnergy offers ethanol and biodiesel plants based on variety of raw materials.
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POPSAlternative Fuels - Dimethylfuran The Future of DMF as a transportation fuel is up in the air. For example, some of its environmental effects are still unknown. However, according to the head of the research done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Dumesic, this process of production shows that “we can produce a liquid transportation fuel from biomass that has energy density comparable to petrol.”
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POPSObama and Iowa In this week's National Journal, the magazine's regular "Insider's Poll" asks Democratic and Republican luminaries (pollsters, strategists, and so on) which state is Obama's top pickup opportunity. Iowa ranks at the top for both groups. In the clip, James Barnes fleshes out a bit why. Note the importance of ethanol.
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POPSLet Them Eat Rice: Washington's Unedifying Ethanol Food Fight And what about the impact of the Chinese livestock and meat complex, alluded to by Senator Grassley? According to China expert, Darrell Ray, Director of the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, "China has not been importing corn to grow her livestock industry. China continues to export more corn that she imports. With regard to grains, China has been taking care of China as if it were a planet on to its own, completely independent of what is happening elsewhere. . . .To attribute today's international grain prices to China essentially assumes that beginning two years ago the market decided there may be a need for China to become a net importer of some corn in the future, say 2012, and so bid-up the price of corn by double." As this "let them eat rice" soundbite made clear, the debate over the food versus fuel issue is about as undignified as a full out real food fight at a summer camp cafeteria.
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POPSEPA Refuses to Cut Ethanol Requirements "Response to the decision fell along predictable lines: The Environmental Working Group's director of government affairs, Sandra Schubert, called the mandate "misguided" and said it was "forcing farmers to plow up marginal land and wildlife habitat while increasing global warming and dumping toxic fertilizers and pesticides into our precious water sources." "America should be focusing on viable clean energy solutions like conservation, solar and wind," she said. The president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Jim Greenwood, said the decision sent "a strong message that we must continue moving forward toward sustainable production of advanced biofuels" to cut dependence on important oil and to increase biofuel production from non-food sources. His organization represents biotech companies, among others involved in expanding the use of biofuels.""
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POPS106 mpg "Air Car" Creates Buzz.. & questions
The concept is similar to how a locomotive works, except compressed air -- not steam -- moves the engine's pistons, said Shiva Vencat, vice president of MDI and CEO of Zero Pollution Motors. Gas still plays a role The six-seater planned for the U.S. market would be able to reach speeds of more than 90 mph and have a range of more than 800 miles thanks to a dual energy engine, Vencat said.. The design calls for one or more tanks of compressed air under the car's floor, as well as a tank holding at least 8 gallons of fuel. Whether the engine uses just air or both air and fuel would depend on how fast the car is going. It would run purely on compressed air at speeds less than 35 mph, Vencat said. Since the car could only go a short distance when using just air, fuel is needed to get the full range, he explained. "Above 35 mph, there is an external combustion system, which is basically a heater that uses a little bit of gasoline or biofuel or ethanol or vegetable oil that wil
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POPSEPA Rejects Ethanol Waiver For Texas Cattle Ranchers Scott Faber with the Grocery Manufacturers Association says more than a third of the corn crop now goes to fuel and that increases the cost of food. Faber says food prices have already risen around 6 percent and critics say ethanol hasn't lived up to its promise. It was supposed to cut pollution and reduce demand for oil. Frank O'Donnell is with Clean Air Watch. It's not often he agrees with Texas, but he does today. He says the EPA got it wrong. Frank O'Donnell: We are actually seeing more air pollution this summer than last. Now, maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not, but we've got more ethanol and we've got more smog. Groups against today's decision plan to lobby Congress to ease the ethanol mandate.
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POPSEnvironmentalists Hold On Congress
What's the political response to our energy problems? It's more congressional and White House kowtowing to environmentalists, farmers and multi-billion dollar corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland. Their “solution," rather than to solve our oil supply problem by permitting drilling for the billions upon billions of barrels of oil beneath the surface of our country, is to enact the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of corn-fed livestock, such as pork, beef, chicken and dairy products, and products made from corn, such as cereals. Ethanol production has led to increases in other grain prices, such as soybean and wheat. Since the U.S. is the world's largest grain producer and exporter, higher grain prices have had a huge impact on food prices worldwide.
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