April 2007 Archives

ecologee.net catalogs internet service providers that are run by solar, wind or a combination of eco sources.

Affordable Internet Services Online, Inc. solar powered network in Romoland, Califonia aiso.net

The Hawaii Gateway Energy Center in Kailua-Kona, designed by Ferraro Choi and Associates, Ltd., receives its power from the sun and is ventilated with cool temperatures from deep seawater.

The American Institute of Architects has announced its "Top Ten Green Projects," celebrating the best examples of sustainable architecture and environmental design.

"What few people realize is that buildings have the greatest impact on climate change — more than transportation and industry — because they consume so much electricity and natural gas, and they're all powered by power plants that themselves produce carbon emissions," said AIA spokesman Scott Frank. msnbc.com

"There are so many outages in the business right now that it is unprecedented," said Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "Refineries are running very hard to meet all the new regulations. Therefore, they are more susceptible to accidents." heraldtribune.com

But the good news is that Exxon Mobil Corp. is off to a great start for 2007 with a 10 percent profit increase, its best-ever first quarter after unprecedented profit last year, as higher margins after rising gasoline and diesel prices increased its refining profit.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Chairman and Chief Executive Rex Tillerson received $22,400,000 in compensation for 2006, his first year running the largest U.S. company by market capitalization.

Tillerson makes in one hour what most of his customers, scraping for groceries, make in one year. As U.S. workers become more productive and earn lower wages (epi.org), it appears that in the oil business you can be less productive, have "accidents" while trying to meet demand, and become more profitable.

A quote from W. Bruce Ruby during Emigsville, Pa. Story Night last Tuesday:

Now the traffic through town was pretty minimal in the 20’s and not every family owned an automobile most of them road the street car. full story

Ruby and his dad would enjoy a hot summer evening by jumping on the street car in Emigsville riding it around the county for a round trip back to Emigsville.

The total cost for two riders for three hours of joyriding was 30 cents. The Energy used was electric propulsion. Emissions on the street in Emigsville from street cars was zero.

More about the York Street Railway

The Nazareth Area School District (Pa.) took delivery of a diesel-electric Navistar School bus today.
-- 70 to 100 percent gain in fuel economy
-- run 90 percent cleaner.

The bus is just the third delivered in the United States - Manatee School District in Bradenton, Fla. got a pair of buses last month.

Move your eyes away from the tumultuous Middle East for a moment when considering the world oil supply. Africa is a major oil producer that the world is interested in as the Middle East becomes more unstable.

Oil has historically been a cheap source of energy for us. The cost of "new" energy has been a deterrent to it's development in the United States. We worry about the "cost" to our economy and personal way of life for the short-term without considering the future..

Most of Africa is poor and a shift in ocean levels displacing coastal population and a deteriorating climate for growing food will place people scratching for an existence in desperation.

Africa has a much slimmer margin of toleration to global warming than the United States. Several countries in desperation in the heart of an oil rich continent will threaten output from the region and the energy security of the world.

Part 3 - Skid-control module plays it safe
Part 2 - The dashboard display system
Part 1 - The airbag control module
techonline.com

Delta Air Lines is partnering with The Conservation Fund, to become the first U.S. airline to help its customers reverse some of the impact caused by jet exhaust that creates carbon emissions by buying trees.

To kick off the program, Delta is making a donation to The Conservation Fund for every customer taking a Delta mainline or Delta Shuttle flight on Earth Day, April 22, and is pledging a commitment to plant a tree for each of the airline’s 47,000 employees.

Beginning June 1, customers who purchase a ticket online at delta.com will have the option to contribute a donation to The Conservation Fund. Contributions of $5.50 for a domestic round trip flight and $11 for an international round trip flight will be used by TCF to plant trees throughout the U.S. and abroad. A small portion of the donation also supports the organization’s education and outreach efforts. www.delta.com/press release

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has cleared 21 preliminary permits, and about 35 are pending for wave and tidal projects, largely off the West Coast and shores of Florida and New England.

Widespread use of marine energy is about a decade away, says Roger Bedard, ocean energy leader for the Electric Power Research Institute. In 50 years or so, he says, 20% of offshore wave energy could be tapped practically. That, combined with tidal energy, could constitute 10% of all U.S. power sources. usatoday/tech

Solar cooking might seem like a great way not to consume energy or heat up a kitchen, but for hundreds of millions of people around the world who cook on wood fires, burn dung and have to walk miles or use meager incomes for fuel it is a blessing.

The basic design of a solar cooker is to trap heat from sunlight and or concentrate the amount of sunlight available and retain it. The solar cooker needs several hours of sun and an area protected by wind.

The lesson of the solar cooker for us western world thinkers is that it's a device that uses free energy. We are socialized to think that our lives are commodity controlled. And the corporate world teaches us that for a concept to exist, we must pay for it.

Raw materials, energy, products, information, advice, training... are sold to us by the nature of living in a free market system. Everyone is always trying to find a way to make money of off something so our entire existence is based on the transfer of money. It's a major obstacle for the United States in the development of renewable energy resources or more specifically energy sources that are free for the taking.

Section 45 of the tax code calls for tax credits for electricity produced from certain renewable resources, including poultry waste, as well as wood shavings, straw, rice hulls and other bedding material for the disposition of manure. The rational is that it is better to burn it than let it seep into the ground water even though the EPA already requires chicken farmers to take actions regarding waste disposal.

This and others like clean-coal tax credit, which promotes coal over cleaner energies is known as a windfall by lobbyists, is enacted by legislatures and paid for by consumers.

With the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, a federal tax credit that took effect in 2005, when you buy E10 at the pump (which is 10 percent ethanol), the company that blended the fuel is getting a tax credit of 5 cents for every gallon you buy.

Add all the corn and ethanol subsidies up, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and you have subsidies approaching $1.40 per gallon of ethanol.

Volkswagen could have an incredibly frugal new car on the road within three years, capable of more than 200mpg, and for an affordable price. The head of the Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board Ferdinand Piech said.

I followed a Google ad off of greenmesh for Diesel Secret Energy fuel (DSE). The product boasts that it is better than bio-diesel, doesn't utilize the dangerous chemicals during manufacture involving a catalyst and an alcohol (usually Methanol) which could blow up the garage of a home brewer.

The website says that it uses technology of the original technology of the Germans who invented the diesel claiming DSE product is not a biodiesel, and that it is a "true biodiesel." The process basically involves using used restaurant oil, DSE additive, and a mixer and costs 46 cents a gallon to produce.

Sub-subcompacts "are the new hot darlings of the market," says George Peterson of industry consultant AutoPacific. And they appear to be draining sales away from compact sedans.

The Chevy Aveo, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan, Versa Hyundai Accent were among the minis whose sales doubled in the first quarter.

Expect the price of raw milk to go up 40 cents a gallon by summer.

Cows eat alfalfa and grains. The price of alfalfa goes up because farmers are growing more corn as the demand for corn for ethanol plants coming online increases. Add to this increasing energy costs for dairy producers and a reduction in milk production over the past few years because of slim profit margins for dairy farmers; with a strong global demand for U.S dairy products.

LG writes greenmesh:

We have had the ability to provide free energy to everyone for many years however, It's been locked up In the black program and what are we to do ? The answer Is nothing. The Bilderberg group who runs the Western World Is not about to let that happen anytime soon.

This man In Clearwater where I spend the Winter may have the answer but, he will be bought out or meet with an accident. Big oil will not allow us to drive around on water.

The Florida water car using "HHO" gas or Aquygen™ and earlier "water burning" inventions like the Garrett Electrolytic Carburetor that was patented in 1935 have some things in common...

Below is a TV news clip about the Florida water engine that is somewhat more fluff than stuff.

Turning to food based biofuel sources like corn and soy as a replacement for fossil fuel is already resulting in higher prices of those commodities greenmesh 3/29/07.

Although the ability for us to turn surplus food into gas should be part of an overall energy evolution, historically individuals in our market will seize on any idea that appears to make quick profit and ignore the long term effects for the rest of us.

The United States is no longer a major exporter of goods. We have U.S. corporations that do business on a global scale, but the advantage of using foreign labor and the demand for products in those countries (as simple countries become more complex) is a far more lucrative market than the U.S. Imports of oil (to feed our heavily developed, complex lifestyle) and goods (because our labor has gotten so expensive because of our lifestyle) exceeds our exports.

Food is our national security wild card.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, written by hundreds of scientists and reviewed by outside experts and government officials from more than 100 countries has come to the conclusion that our environment is already changing due to emissions, but will change more rapidly if we don't cut back on carbon emissions.

The findings state that if we continue to create greenhouses gasses at the current rate :
►A fourth of the world’s species extinction to eventual inundation of water into coastal areas.
►The greatest climate change to occur in the Arctic, coral reefs, and dry areas around the tropics

www.ipcc.ch

The Chevy Beat, Groove and Trax

This is more fun than voting in a presidential election and probably holds more hope of reducing oil use over any presidential candidate.

Consumers hold the power of change.

Domestic car makers have been struggling with an inventory of large cars/SUV's as consumers switch to smaller cars and General Motors through it's Chevrolet brand is attempting to mainline their customer base by asking them to choose a design and test the mini car concept in the U.S. market.

A low-cost, highly efficient car that can be serviced through a vast national network of dealerships is an excellent corporate plan to help reduce oil dependency and reduce emissions.

My choice is The Grove, not because I care about how it looks, but because of the possibility of it's 1 liter diesel engine. A 1 liter diesel engine in a car this small, lighter than an Aveo, would get incredible mileage and have ample power, probably even punchy. I would suspect mileage in the 60-70 mpg range? And a mini diesel can be a low maintenance, mechanically long lasting, simple solution to conserving oil. A tiny engine, with modern, clean diesel technology and our new ultra low sulfur fuel means clean burning.

The Trax may come in the form of gasoline electric car, with a gasoline engine in the front and an electric motor(s) in the back.

The Beat, aimed at a younger audience...

With the Supreme Court ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, California can now move ahead with efforts to set the standards to reduce greenhouse gases. California previously wanted to do this, but it was blocked by the federal government.

California regulations designed in 2002 expected to reduce the emissions from cars and light trucks by 25 percent and from SUVs by 18 percent starting in 2009. "We've reviewed the issues within the waiver request," EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said Tuesday. "We're moving forward to the next steps of the process."

The Supreme court ruled today 5-4 that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate those emissions from new cars and trucks under the landmark environment law.

The nation's highest court said the Environmental Protection Agency "has offered no reasoned explanation" for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change."

General Motors is testing the waters for the design and marketability of mini cars in the U.S. and we have a chance to vote.

www.vote4chevrolet.com after the debut at the New York Auto Show Wednesday.