I usually avoid commenting on items of a religious nature, but this article from alArabiya.net via  BioFuelsForum caught my attention:

A prominent Saudi scholar warned youths studying abroad of using ethanol or other fuel that contains alcohol in their cars since they could be committing a sin, local press reported Thursday.

Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi, member of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy, based his statement on a saying by the prophet that prohibited all kinds of dealings with alcohol including buying, selling, carrying, serving, drinking, and manufacturing, the Saudi newspaper Shams reported Thursday.

Although Najimi was quick to point out that his statement was a matter of opinion and not an official fatwa, his word still carries some significant weight in the Islamic world.  He stated further that this proclamation also affected Muslim students abroad, where ethanol is a common fuel additive and emerging fuel source.

Although I know that ethyl alcohol is forbidden in any form that may be ingested, such as use for food colorings, I am admittedly not familiar with other Islamic prohibitions against non-ingested ethyl alcohol. Ethanol, being an excellent solvent, is an ingredient in many non-ingested products as well as fuels, and an edict against any contact with ethanol as a solvent/fuel as well as ethanol as an intoxicant/food additive may hamper Muslims. If this becomes a full-on prohibition, this poses a significant dilemma for Muslims going about their daily lives. Shouldn’t there be some wiggle room here? If the ethanol in question is intended for eating or drinking, then yes, I can understand an edict being easily followed. However, people just aren’t going to guzzle a quart of unleaded gasoline just because it contains 10% ethanol.

A broad, non-specific prohibition could raise some sticky issues, considering that the human body normally produces about 3 millimoles daily of endogenous ethanol secondary to fermentation from bacterial breakdown of sugars. Not much, but it still needs a detoxifying metabolic pathway within the body to deal with it. Obviously, an exception should be made in this case of naturally-occuring ethyl alcohol, but is there one? I don’t know. Why not extend such an exception to other instances of ethanol used for completely non-intoxicating/non-food purposes? I need some education here.

I can understand the ban on dealing with ethanol being a more-than-reasonable cause for a Muslim not working at the local brewery. However, expecting total avoidance of ethanol in its many industrial and energy guises is a Damocletian sword that could wind up paralyzing the lives of Muslims.

The Washoe County commission have delayed voting on permits for the wind turbines slated for Virginia and Pah Rah Peaks until February 4th. Things look pretty shaky for the proposed wind farm.

The residents of Warm Springs Valley just west of the turbine site, have attended the most recent commission meeting and have voiced valid concerns over road traffic, turbine noise, transmission lines, and land values. The National Weather Service is also asking the project developers to detail plans ensuring that the massive turbine blades don’t interfere with the Doppler radar installation on Virginia Peak.

Since eighty percent of Nevada is unavailable for wind farm projects due to military restrictions or wilderness designations, there isn’t much space left for wind farms. Although the residents of Warm Springs Valley have a legitimate beef with the project, I’m hoping that they can iron out the differences so that the project can proceed. Nevada doesn’t have much going for it at the moment, other than an abundance of sunlight and wind.

Now, in light of this recent development, consider again the egregiously-sprawling Winnemucca Ranch project. Those developers have unctuously promised to make the project “green” by building a nearby windfarm to power the McMansions slated to sprout across the landscape. Like most developers’ promises, the Winnemucca wind farm/green concept are just fluffy, pump-and-dump bits to entice politicians into approving the projects.  I’m seriously annoyed that the Reno City Council, while reclining on Roman couches stuffed with developer money, has approved the Winnemucca Ranch project complete with a vapor-ware wind farm while Washoe County commissioners are threatening to put the kibosh on an honestly-viable alternative energy project. Which project will benefit the citizens of Northern Nevada more?

In related news, the aforementioned NWS Doppler radar on Virginia Peak was torn apart and destroyed this week by a 140-mph wind gust. I’m just trying to imagine a broken, 240-foot turbine rotor assembly flying through the air at that speed. That would be like a helicopter from hell.

Click on the image for a full-sized view of how truly huge Kentsnorth power station is. To get a concept of scale, look at the far right edge...that's a full-sized freighter.

Here’s something from the UK that we’re not really hearing much about here in the colonies.

Via Global Guerillas:   On November 28th, in full view of CCTV security cameras, a lone activist scaled not one but two razor-wire-encrusted, electrified fences, sauntered through one of the most secure coal power plants in Britain, moseyed into the generator room and coolly shut down a 500MW turbine. He or she then left a banner with “No New Coal” scrawled in gaffer’s tape across a bedsheet. The activist then turned and calmly left the plant the same way that he or she got in.

The mystery activist has been dubbed, “Climate Man” in the UK.

Greenpeace, mystified, said it wasn’t them because “We would never act anonymously.”  (Methinks they’re envious)  As Global Guerillas points out, these are the reason that Greenpeace fails: Ego and legacy protest thinking. He’s right–these days, no-one really gets inspired or thrilled by a couple of people hanging a banner on a bridge. That’s already old.   But THIS guy Climate Man…

From the Guardian (12/11) article:

All power from the coal and oil-powered Kingsnorth station in Kent was halted for four hours, in which time it is thought the mystery saboteur’s actions reduced UK climate change emissions by 2%. Enough electricity to power a city the size of Bristol was lost.

Of the many things that intrigue me about the article, this one ranks waaay up there. The reporter doesn’t validate his claim about a 2% CO2 reduction. I’m assuming here that he means during the 4 hour time the generator was offline that continuous CO2 emissions fell by 2%, as opposed to 2% of yearly total.  He doesn’t mention if alternate generating stations came on line to backfill the missing power, nor whether emergency generators at power-critical locations like hospitals kicked online. The multiple small CO2 sources that came online should have offset the CO2 reduction–but by how much? This is stuff I want to know.

Like, how did the power station representative know that the tape on the bedsheet was gaffer’s tape? Essentially, this is an expensive, black, cloth duct tape used by lighting people in theater, TV, and film. It’s not a product that your everyday activist is going to have handy lying about. If it truly was gaffer’s tape, that indeed thickens the mystery, yet narrows the field of suspects. Oooh! Was it the BBC fishing for a sensationalist story? Was it a speed-addled roadie from the Metallica tour?  Maybe it’s just British vernacular describing masking tape. I dunno.

This person really, really knew what they were doing. After navigating the fences, razor wire, and security cameras, they walked up to a monster turbine, went to the computer, and with a few keystrokes took down the turbine. How many of us can do that? Hell, I couldn’t. Most über-geeks I know would have had to study the computer interface a while to understand what they needed to do, during which time they would have eventually been discovered before hanging their tatty little bedsheet banner.  That’s the other thing–why would the activist go through the effort of planning and executing a flawless commando-ninja infiltration through the most heavily-guarded power station in the UK only to hang a sad little bedsheet with duct tape lettering? That’s just anticlimactic; if it was me, I would have left behind a widescreen multimedia extravaganza outlining my manifesto and heartwarming personal story as directed by Michael Moore. Not to mention–where the heck is the generator room? I’d have to tap some hard-hatted goon on the shoulder and ask for directions.

Who would have the essential and not-readily-available knowledge on how to shut down a massive generator, and do it elegantly without simply blowing it up?  I mean, come on–that’s half a freakin’ gigawatt of output. That’s really big. It’s not like unplugging the toaster. So…inside job? Disgruntled former employee?

Maybe. Since it’s more intriguing, let’s say this was a lone activist who studied carefully at the local library or on the internet. From some stray manual somewhere, they gleaned the knowledge on how to use the computer to shut down a generator without completely destroying it. Through patient surveillance, they learn all about the £12 million security systems and waltz right through them without raising a single alarm. This smacks of a Tom Clancy plot, or a near-impossible level in a video game.

Now let’s extend that thought process to Nevada. Let’s say that Bushie’s DoE gets their wish and Yucca Mountain goes online with three times as much high-level nuclear trash as was originally specified. Some lone actor then simply walks in and hijacks just a little high level nuke waste, waltzes back out, and then makes a dirty bomb out of it. With the action of the Climate Man in Kingsnorth, the possibility has just gone from “remote” to “feasible.” We hypothetically know that security is a mirage–with guns, mind you, but a mirage nonetheless. The hypothesis has just been proven. No matter how good the security seems, there’s a way around it (or straight through it, in this case) that a patient and clever person acting alone can figure out.

I must admit that I admire the Climate Man’s actions; however, I find the ramifications very unsettling, yet exciting. It seems very…well, equalizing.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from Biodiesel Magazine:

The U.S. DOE’s Ames Laboratory, operated by Iowa State University, is researching nanoscale particles to harvest triglycerides, neutral lipids and fatty acids from microalgae for biodiesel production. A recently completed research project used silica nanoscale particles to penetrate plant cells and inject chemicals into the cells. The new research project will use these particles to extract oil from the algae cells without killing the cells. Ames Laboratory received $885,000 from the DOE to carry out this research. “It’s basically nanofarming,” said Kerry Gibson, a media relations staff member of the lab.

Considering how rapidly algae can reproduce and grow, is this entirely necessary? Once algae has grown for about 30 days, then regular, non-nano harvesting can occur daily. I’m still searching for concrete information on the length of time it takes for an alga to replenish its pocket of lipids. If it happens in a couple of hours, then nanoharvesting would make sense, and it could reap a much more bountiful harvest than regular harvesting methods.

In essence, the McCormicks and Whitneys at the Department of Energy are building tiny little combines and tiny little gins and tiny little disk harrows to harvest fat out of tiny little plants. If you look *real* close, you can see “Erin” in cursive painted on the combine door.

Now imagine, if you will…

If the nanoharvesters escape into the wild, what happens? What if they get into the ecosystem, or if they get into the human body? At first glance, it looks like an amazing fat-burning weight loss plan, but what if they don’t stop at the extra Thanksgiving pounds, and continue harvesting every bit of fats and triglycerides–like the lipid layer in the myelin sheath around neurons? OOoops…  “Hey honey! The doctor says my cholesterol is down to zero! I wish my brain still worked, though…”

I’m sure that the nanomechanics will state in a huffy tone that they will engineer the nanoharvesters to only go after specific algae cells. However, knowing how prone humans are to shortcuts, especially when profit is involved, I think it’s entirely reasonable to expect them to shortcut on nanoharvester safeguards. “Gee, we can save money and increase profits if we keep the harvesting targets generalized. Don’t worry, though; they’ll never escape.

“Trust us, we’re government scientists.”

From the AP

Yucca Mountain North Tunnel Entrance. Note the circus bigtop right-center. What the hell? Does this mean that Bush's DoE is a bunch of clowns?

I kinda figured it had to happen. In a grand, F.U.  moment, Bush’s Dept of Energy has stated they want to lift the 77,000-ton restriction on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. They say that the mountain will hold three times as much waste, and that the 77,000 ton limit is arbitrary.

The Energy Department in its report said that if Congress gives authorization and adequate funds, it could have an interim storage facility running by 2015, but the Bush administration has argued against interim storage, saying it would take pressure off building a permanent repository and require waste to be moved twice.

Never mind that Yucca Mountain is a hot-button political topic in Nevada. The Bush administration is pissing on our backs and not even bothering to convince us that it’s raining.

One of the many ways paramedics survive a 72 hour shift is listening to podcasts.  Bob Edwards’ Weekend on XM radio includes archived interviews with leaders in business, politics, arts and education.  Mr. Edwards recently interviewed former President Jimmy Carter.   Topics included the Carter Center and it’s involvement around the world in peace negotiations, democratic election observation teams and human rights issues.  One section included a conversation on the  Carter administrative efforts to decrease the country’s dependence on foreign oil and efforts to turn the country to more renewable and efficient energy sources.  He briefly outlined some of his work on energy independence and efficiency. Then, former President Carter included an anecdote;  “one of the first orders from incoming President Regan was to remove the solar panels from the roof of the White House. ”

The following is a brief summary of one aspect of the Carter administration efforts by Fuel-Efficient-Cars.org:

In 1981 Joan Claybrook, the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for President Jimmy Carter, advanced a NHTSA notice that called for fuel efficiency standards to reach 48 mpg by 1995 in the last few days of his administration. Interestingly the notice pointed out that the auto industry itself said it could reach in excess of 30 mpg fuel economy by 1985 with GM saying it could do 33 mpg. The Reagan Administration didn`t waste any time and withdrew the NHTSA notice just three months after it was issued. After the original Congressional mandate of 27.5 mpg took effect in 1985, the Reagan Administration rolled the standard back to 26 mpg in 1986. Finally in 1989 the first Bush Administration moved the standard back to the 1985 level of 27.5 mpg. There was no improvement in the CAFE standards under the Clinton Administration.

This is not a republican or democratic failure, but, one of greed and stupidity.  Clinton made no efforts to address the issues.   Bailout for the big three automakers…… I’ll pass.

Silly President Carter, what was he thinking?

From an EPA news release (12/05/08):

“PTP, Inc., a Nevada-based developer, was fined $43,000 for violating its underground injection control permit at the Pineview Estates subdivision in Gardnerville, a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Companies must comply with underground injection control regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act for wastewater treatment and disposal systems that have the potential to impact subsurface waters. PTP has been working closely with EPA to comply with the UIC permit requirements.”

PTP, based in Minden, Nevada, was previously fined $76,800 in 2005 for allowing polluted storm water at Pineview Estates to run off into the Carson River. The details that the EPA blurb doesn’t mention: this time around, the EPA discovered raw sewage pooling at the surface at the same subdivision. Not only was this an obvious health threat by itself, but it also directly threatened drinking water aquifers.

David Albright, manager of the EPA’s regional groundwater office, stated, “As a public health matter, it is an indication the [sewage treatment] system is not working adequately.”

“They are working closely with us and have made the changes to the system we asked them to. We are pretty much at the end of the process,” he said.  I wonder, did the EPA say that the first time PTP got fined?

Since the development is on land leased from the Washoe Tribe, the EPA is in charge of wastewater enforcement instead of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

Reno. It ain't so little anymore.

As reported by Ken at the Urban Blog, Reno City Council voted 4-2 to give the developer permission to pursue further development of the Spring Mountain at Winnemucca Ranch. Thanks to Ken, who watched the video stream of the council meeting to develop his story.

The dissenting council members were Dan Gustin and Jessica Sferazza, who opposed the project because of concerns that the project is out of character with the region and doubts about the developers’ ability to follow through on the trip capture curve as set forth in the Planned Unit Development plan.

Speaking before the council, Erik Holland of Citizens for Sensible Growth argued for more planning within the preexisting, urban and developed areas, or for growth along east I-80. This would have placed much less burden on the infrastructure, and it would have kept residents within the city limits and spending money locally.

Ken makes an important observation:

The City of Reno defended their motives against suggestions that this development was before the City in an effort to short-circuit the standards in Washoe County’s open space and wildlife mitigation plans and to grow the size of Reno’s physical plant, respectively.

Watching how developers operate over the years, I suspect that the Reno City Council defending themselves against these accusations means that those people who pointed out the questionable motives were probably right on the mark. The Spring Mountain developers have paid loads of cash to lobbyists to push this project, and it looks like that investment is paying off. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of two photographs. The photo on the left is by Arlo Stockham, the project manager for “Spring Mountain at the Winnemucca Ranch”  (which coincidentally follows the previously-discussed [noun] at [adjective][geographical location]  pattern of Bad Development Names). The photo is the one that the Reno Gazette Journal decided to run with yesterday’s article.

The second photograph is from color satellite imagery courtesy of the insanely-awesome Google Earth program.

Now you tell me, which one of these has been tarted up to sell a shady bill of goods? Here’s a hint: For the past two years, Miss Fish has been driving past this scene every week. She looked one of the photos and burst out laughing.  Guess which one.

Wow!!1! Nevada looks like Ireland!

Satellite imagery of the same location.

Apparently, the Reno Gazette Journal is intentionally running a photo that has been altered to make the proposed Winnemucca Ranch project more enticing. I seriously question their journalistic integrity. This is an article about one of the most significant landscape-altering projects to be proposed in years, so journalistic integrity is paramount. What impartial editor would dare run that photo? The image they used is pure fantasy. If an image is presented by a paper as newsworthy part of a major story, then editing which alters or creates a message is intentionally deceptive.

Photographers and reporters have lost their jobs in disgrace for manipulations exactly like this. The Charlotte Observer’s Patrick Schneider jumps to mind. Oh, there’s the USA Today photo of Condoleeza Rice.  Oh yeah, and then there’s the L.A. Times and Brian Walski.