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?

Tags: energy, environment, Politics

From the CBC: The Toronto Zoo is hoping to use feces from 5,000 animals to create biogas fuel to power a generator. Although the city is unwilling to put monkey –I mean, money– into the project, the zoo hopes that private financing will materialize. The zoo predicts that the energy generated from the project will not only power the zoo but produce a surplus that can be sold back into the grid.

There is precedent to the project. Some clever dairy farmers are already producing fuel from the tons of manure produced by their livestock.

Now, all we need to do is harness the energy expended by bloggers and reporters coming up with cleverly-worded headlines.

The American Response
Meanwhile,  Suzie Jonston of Salina, Oklahoma, is left pondering if she can harness the energy released by her good-for-nothing husband, Cody. “He Dutch Ovens me five or six times ever’ night. It’s disgustin’. Maybe I can just chuck him into a lawn-n-leaf bag and hitch it up to the grill. That way he’d finally be gettin’ off his butt and doin’ some work roun’ here.”

Tags: biofuels, energy, Science

From the University of Washington and the Nature Conservancy, here is a chart detailing all the dirty little details about biofuels that accompanied an insightful biofuels article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Corn? Fuggedaboudit. Algae? Wave of the future, baby!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com

The more I read about the algae, the more I like the concept. Save the Ethanol for drinkin’.

Click the image to read the associated story at SeattlePI.

Tags: algae, biofuels, energy, environment

The Boulder-based Solix Biofuels company is planning a 10 acre farm in Durango, CO, to produce biodiesel via algae. Although their website is all hat and no cattle, the $15 million project has an impressive list of backers: Valero, Infield Capital, and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. It promises 3,000 gallons per year from the plant, which will be constructed on the Southern Ute reservation.

From what I can find, Solix Biofuels started as an academic scientific venture that is now branching out in a reach for commercial viability. According to the Denver Business Journal, the pondscum field is starting to get pretty crowded, along with the addition of Chevron and NREL as big players. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: algae, biofuels, energy, environment, Science

The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) declares that by 2016 we could see a thirty-fold increase in solar power production, to the tune of 60 billion kilowatt-hours of solar generation. SEPA says that this level of increased solar power deployment would lead to 440,000 permanent jobs, and over $230 billion in investment and associated economic benefits.

To accomplish this, SEPA states that the task will require collaboration between power utilities and the solar industry, where the utilities shoulder much of the burden, but also retain ownership of the generation facilities. SEPA envisions that the generation facillities would be distributed; in other words, panel setups on homes and businesses. In a position statement, SEPA outlines the four major policy challenges that need to be adopted to realize this feat. It’s a short read.

Also in solar news…

The US Congress has extended the Solar Credit for 8 years. The enhanced legislation will:

• Extend for 8 years the 30-percent tax credit for both residential and commercial solar installations;
• Eliminate the $2,000 monetary cap for residential solar electric installations, creating a true 30-percent credit;
• Eliminate the prohibition on utilities from benefiting from the credit;
• Allow Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) filers, both businesses and families, to take the credit; and
• Authorize $800 million for clean energy bonds for renewable energy generating facilities, including solar.

Too bad we all can barely afford to put a solar battery charger on the windowsill. However, thanks to the credit, this may be what it takes to stimulate a renewable-energy economy. Heck…I may even look for a job installing panels.

However, thanks to the efforts by the Congress to provide tax credits that now extend to the utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) announced in Mid-August that they can now afford to proceed with an 800 Megawatt photovoltaic plan, building two facilities of 550 MW and 250 MW each in San Luis Obispo County. Covering 9.5 and 3.5 square miles respectively, these will be the largest utility-based photovoltaic generation facility. When complete, these plants will produce a combined 1.65 billion kilowatt-hours of solar electricity per year, enough to power 239,000 homes. Not too shabby.

Tags: energy, Politics, power, solar