Nov 30, 2011
Yamaha shows lightweight retro 125cc motorcycle that gets 220 mpg
LG to Halve Greenhouse Emissions
LG Electronics USA has set a target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by the end of 2020, compared with a 2007 baseline. To accomplish this reduction, the company says it will focus on cutting its energy consumption through such means as expanding and enhancing energy management systems and technology; increasing efficiency in data centers, computers and HVAC equipment and purchasing electricity from green power sources.
Power Generation Costs in China
China's renewable and nuclear energy targets have recently been updated by the NEA (National Energy Agency). They now stand at 150 gW of installed wind capacity by 2020, along with 20 gW of solar, 380 gW of hydro and 80 gW of nuclear.
Thermal power is coal. Nuclear power is competitive with some coal power. Hydro is the cheapest
The NEA plans to increase non-fossil fuel energy to 15 percent of total primary consumption by 2020. These targets are additional to the country's goal of a reduction in energy intensity of between 40 and 45 percent by the same year. This implies that wind-energy generation should increase by an average of 12.5 gW every year through to 2020, according to the International Energy Agency.
Please read and follow: http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/power-generation-costs-in-china.html
Disease that attacks black walnut trees sweeps across US
Following on the heels of an Emerald Ash Borer infestation that wiped out millions of ash trees in the Great Lakes region, a new disease, dubbed Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD), has been decimating black walnuts in the western U.S. – and now it’s spreading east.
- greatlakesecho
Why Small Hydropower Beats Big Dams - Environment - GOOD
This graph from the Energy Information Administration communicates the reality of renewable energy in America better than any other single source. Renewable energy covers only a small slice, 8 percent, of the country’s needs. And despite the focus on biofuels and solar power, the chart shows that more than a third of that slice comes from hydropower. In the wider world, an even greater proportion of renewable energy comes from hydropower—83.8 percent of renewable generation, according to the International Energy Agency.
Cleantech 100 identifies top innovators in sustainability - gizmag
Recently the Cleantech Group, with the assistance of an advisory panel of corporate executives, sat down to decide upon the third annual Global Cleantech 100: the hundred "most promising and innovative" clean technology companies of 2011. The listed companies span a range of industries, and though solar energy firms, chemical recyclers, LED manufacturers and energy-monitoring software programmers certainly aren't under-represented, many companies in the hundred are defined by a single product or idea. Gizmag scoured the Cleantech 100 to find what we thought were the ten most innovative companies... Continue Reading Cleantech 100 identifies top innovators in sustainability
Nov 29, 2011
Economic study questions cost-effectiveness of current biofuels and their ability to cut fossil fuel
greencarcongress - A new study by economists at Oregon State University questions the cost-effectiveness of current biofuels and says they would barely reduce fossil fuel use and would likely increase greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers focused on the major mandated and currently used biofuels worldwide: corn ethanol, soybean biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass grown in the United States, canola biodiesel produced in Europe, and sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil and exported to the US or Europe.
| |
| US costs and scope for reducing fossil fuel use and GHG emissions with alternative interventions. Jaeger and Egelkraut. Click to enlarge. |
...The researchers concluded that all of these biofuel mandates combined would reduce fossil fuel use by less than 2.5%, or the same amount that a gas tax increase of 25 cents per gallon could achieve, but at an estimated cost of $67 billion compared with a cost of $6 billion with a gas tax....
Their results indicated that all of the biofuel crops were much less cost-effective than the two alternative policies in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use.
Our results suggest that existing biofuel policies have been very costly, produce negligible reductions in fossil fuel use and increase, rather than decrease, greenhouse gas emissions. Each dollar spent on energy improvement programs would be 20 times more effective in reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions than a similar cost for the corn ethanol program. Likewise, a gas tax increase would be 21 times more effective than promoting cellulosic ethanol.
—Bill Jaeger, lead author
Overall, it was estimated that US-produced biofuels would cost between 20 and 31 times more than energy efficiency improvements that would reduce gas consumption by 1%. The study also reported that combining a gas tax increase with energy efficiency improvements could reduce US fossil fuel use by more than 15% (or cut petroleum fuel use by more than 35%)...greencarcongress
Resources
Jaeger, William K. and Egelkraut, Thorsten M. (2011) Biofuel Economics in a Setting of Multiple Objectives & Unintended Consequences
Siemens launches 6MW direct-drive wind turbine
greencarcongress - Siemens Energy launched its new 6-megawatt (MW) ...features the Siemens direct drive design with 50% fewer parts than comparable geared wind turbines. With a towerhead mass of roughly 350 tons, the SWT-6.0 is the lightest machine in its class. This combination of robustness and low weight significantly reduces infrastructure, installation and service costs, and boosts lifetime energy output and profitability, Siemens claims.
...The direct-drive wind turbine is offered with two different rotor blades. The SWT-6.0-154 features the largest rotor blade in the 6-MW class, using the new 75m B75 Quantum Blade. The SWT-6.0-120 is equipped with the proven 58m B58 rotor blade.
The entire electrical system of the new 6-MW machine—including the medium voltage system and the full converter—is now enclosed in the nacelle, which also features an integrated helicopter-hoisting platform in the rear.... Read on at: greencarcongress
E. coli bacteria engineered to eat switchgrass and make transportation fuels
Strains of E. coli bacteria were engineered to digest switchgrass biomass and synthesize its sugars into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The switchgrass, which is among the most highly touted of the potential feedstocks for advanced biofuels, was pre-treated with ionic liquid, a key to the success of this study.
Read on at: sciencedaily
OSHA cites Wisconsin Rapids company
Wisconsin Rapids - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is accusing a Wisconsin Rapids company of repeatedly putting its workers in danger.
Rossi electricity generation claim is based on getting steam up to 450 celsius with Energy Catalyzer
Ecat World - Rossi claims - we have found a breakthrough with a primary fluid with which the reactors remain stable when we make steam at 450 Celsius. We are working on it together with our Customer. I am learning very much from him, and in particular I am learning from the person who made the test of the plant on October 28th. This person, now retired, is an engineer who used to test for military concerns thermic plants and missiles, so that he has a tremendous experience in thermodynamics. Here is to learn really and, honestly, when it turns to learn I am pretty fast. This collaboration is accelerating the development of the technological declinations.” The retired engineer Rossi mentions is Domenico Fioravanti, the consultant that was sent by Rossi’s military customer to test the first 1 MW plant in Bologna. Now it looks like the two are working together to find ways to make these 1 MW plants (the military entity has ordered 12 more) produce electricity and steam, and Rossi is evidently learning a great deal from Fioravanti, and he seems to be very happy about the collaboration.
Defkalion (once Rossi partner and now competitor) will have their big announcement of products on Wednesday, November 30 (tomorrow). Rossi also claims - We are building a 13 MW thermal plant, made of 13 plant such as
Hackers Can Remotely Set Ablaze HP Printers, Researchers Say
A security vulnerability discovered in Hewlett-Packard printers would allow hackers to steal data from the printers, cause them to burst in flames or be used as a launchpad to attack other computers connected to the printers.
The flaw lies in the design of HP’s LaserJet printer models, and possibly other printer models as well, which allows the firmware on the printers to be upgraded remotely, according to MSNBC, which first reported on the vulnerability.
Read on at: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/hp-printer-hack/
Greenversations » We’re moving!
EPA’s main blog site, Greenversations, has been the home of the High School Blog since August, 2009. But, like many students, we’re spreading our wings and taking on a new challenge: The EPA Students Blog!
Please come check out the brand new EPA Students Blog because it’s your special place to read, write and share your environmental experiences and interests with us and other students around the globe!
Who Owns America’s Farmland? | Sustainablog
Nationwide, farmers only own 60% of the land they farm. In many of the most productive row cropping areas of the Midwest, the percent of farmer-owned land is significantly lower (see Map above from the USDA, 2007 Census of Agriculture). Much of our farmland resource is owned by non-farmers and rented to those who actually farm. Some of that rented land is owned by investors or real estate speculators, but most of it is actually still owned by the descendants of the families who used to farm it, often several generations back. These are the families who have been part of the steady trend of urban migration for more than a century.
Why Does Farm Ownership Matter? This ownership question is important for several reasons. US agriculture not only supplies our domestic needs for many crops, but we are also among the major grain exporters of the world. Our farmers, and our farmland owners, play an important role in determining whether we will be able to supply the increasing, global demand for food. Land ownership is also a key issue for agricultural sustainability. The most sustainable row crop farming practices can actually “pay their own way,” but they do so over time by building soil quality. Those soil changes are at the heart of the environmental benefits, but they also increase the productive potential and yield stability of the land...by definition, sustainable farming must involve a long-term perspective. Many of the people who are in the key role of farmland ownership don’t know much of anything about farming of any kind, let alone what constitutes the cutting edge of sustainability. Therein lies both the challenge and the opportunity.
Read full and comment: http://blog.sustainablog.org/2011/11/who-owns-americas-farmland/
A more detailed analysis of this issue is posted on SCRIBD.
And source website is Applied Mythology.
Two people hospitalized after Pleasant Prairie chemical leak - JSOnline
JSonline- Two people have been hospitalized after a chemical leak in Pleasant Prairie.
A hazmat team responded to the leak, which brought about an evacuation at the food processing plant at about 12:55 a.m. Tuesday morning.
According to police, some cleaning chemicals got mixed, creating fumes. »Read Full Article at WTMJ
How Rooftop Farms, Upstate Farms and Community Gardens All Help to Feed New York (Video) : TreeHugger
We've seen backyard "SPIN" farmers making a living on less than an acre. We've seen rooftop supermarket gardens providing produce for shoppers below. We've seen lots of community gardens and urban farms. And of course we've seen plenty of small-scale rural farmers integrating animal husbandry with vegetable growing.
But how do all these different production models fit together for a viable urban food system? Should we be focusing on urban farms, or on sustainable agriculture in the surrounding bioregions? Can rooftop agriculture really feed a city?
Of course the real answer to sustainable and resilient urban food systems is diversity. The more diverse our food production models are, and the greater the number of people who are engaged in feeding the community, the better chance we have of surviving and thriving in an always uncertain future. So The Perennial Plate's latest episode—which visits a rooftop farm in Queens, an upstate New York small farm, and an inspiring community garden—is a timely and effective reminder that this isn't about finding THE answer to sustainable food production. It's about developing as many answers as possible and watching as they interact.
Atrazine in water tied to menstrual irregularities, low hormones.
Women who drink water contaminated with low levels of the weed-killer atrazine may be more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles and low estrogen levels, scientists concluded in a new study.
Cadmium tainted rice a problem for Chinese consumers.
On a scale of China’s food safety issues, pollution-tainted rice might just be the biggest problem of all. Rice is the country’s national staple, a grain deeply intertwined with history, culture and all things Chinese.
Unstoppable Superbugs: MRSA more.
Antibiotics... 190 million doses are administered in hospitals every day. But what happens when your body becomes so used to the drugs it can no longer fight off serious or even simple infections?
Killer lung disease victims left for years on useless asthma inhalers.
James Thomlinson was diagnosed with asthma when he was ten. So for the next ten years James carried a steroid-based inhaler that didn’t really improve his breathlessness...James had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This covers conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis — where permanent damage has been done to the small airways.
This results in breathlessness, a cough and — because it tends to cause excess production of mucus — often leads to chest infections. The condition is linked to smoking, exposure to cigarette smoke and jobs such as mining or those involved in the chemical industry.
Other causes include low birth weight or serious chest infections, particularly as an infant (James, 27, had croup as a baby and whooping cough aged four, followed by serious chest infections every six months).
James had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
There are a million people registered with COPD in this country, yet the British Lung Foundation believes there may be two million who don’t know they have it.
It not only increases the risk of respiratory failure and cardiovascular disease, but quadruples the risk of lung cancer.
Though it is a progressive disease, the sooner it is diagnosed and treated the slower it will progress.
‘COPD is the second most common cause of acute hospital admissions in this country,’ says Professor Ian Pavord, a consultant physician in respiratory medicine at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester.
‘The disease normally comes on progressively over years and so initially some may get used to the symptoms.’
Brand new cleaner-burning power plant idled.
Minnesota's second-largest electric company has spent $437 million on a recently completed coal-burning power plant 85 miles west of Fargo that has the best-available pollution controls and draws city wastewater instead of fresh water. The new plant could supply about 63,000 homes. Instead, it is shutting down.
Is This North America’s Greenest Building? | ThinkProgress
The University of British Columbia has opened the most sustainable building in North America, a $37-million “living laboratory” that will help to regenerate the environment and advance research and innovation on global sustainability challenges.
The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is one of only a handful of buildings worldwide that will provide “net positive” benefits to the environment. It reduces UBC’s carbon emissions, powers itself and a neighboring building with renewable and waste energy, creates drinking water from rain and treats wastewater onsite.
The University of British Columbia makes its case for North America’s ‘greenest’ building in this video and the following news release. Feel free to link to other buildings that might vie for this title. South America’s green building of the moment is here. Read on and watch video at: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/27/376261/north-america-greenest-building/
Researchers Genetically Engineer Algae to Increase Oil Yields by Up to 50%: Should We Be Concerned?
Researchers at Iowa State University say they’ve unlocked a genetic pathway in algae that can dramatically increase.. oil yields for non-food based biofuels by as much as 50%...But do they represent a different environmental threat?
...Researchers led by Iowa State Professor of Genetics Martin Spalding figured out how to keep those genes turned on all the time, turning this strain of algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) into a CO2-sucking, biomass-producing machine:
When the two genes were expressed together, Spalding was surprised to see the 50 to 80 percent biomass increase.
“Somehow these two genes are working together to increase the amount of carbon dioxide that’s converted through photosynthesis into biomass by the algae under conditions where you would expect there would already be enough carbon dioxide,” said Spalding.
The excess biomass naturally becomes starch through the photosynthesis process, and increases the biomass starch by around 80 percent.
By using some existing mutated genes, Spalding can instruct the algae to make oil instead of starch. This process requires more energy and the process results in around a 50 percent increase in oil biomass.
...But what if these organisms — which can very easily leave the lab on clothing, skin or through the air — escape into the natural environment and contaminate the gene pool of wild algae and dramatically increase growth rates?
... bioenergy expert David Haberman, criticize the government for not putting more thought into potential impacts, saying “the lack of study of the potential hazards is of great concern.”
Haberman has been warning of the threat of genetically modified algae for years — saying rogue organisms could disrupt fisheries, hurt recreation and make people sick. “There’s little oversight and no regulatory regime,” he says.
Read on at: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/28/374605/genetically-engineer-algae-to-increase-oil-yields/
Canada won't confirm it's pulling out of Kyoto | Reuters
OTTAWA - Canada dismissed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Monday as a thing of the past, but declined to confirm a media report it will formally pull out of the international treaty before the end of this year. Get update at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/28/us-carbon-canada-kyoto-idUSTRE7AR1M...
UN: farmers must produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed population | Environment | guardian.co.uk
A quarter of farmland is highly degraded, according to the ... United Nations global assessment of the state of the planet's land resources, finding in a report that a quarter of all farmland is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world's growing population is to be fed.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that farmers will have to produce 70% more food by 2050 to meet the needs of theworld's expected 9-billion-strong population. That amounts to 1bn tonnes more wheat, rice and other cereals and 200m more tonnes of beef and other livestock.
But as it is, most available farmland is already being farmed, and in ways that decrease its productivity through practices that lead to soil erosion and wasting of water.
This means that to meet the world's future food needs, a major "sustainable intensification" of agricultural productivity on existing farmland will be necessary, the FAO said in its report, State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture.
...the UN report found that 25% of the world's farmland was now "highly degraded" with soil erosion, water degradation and biodiversity loss. Another 8% was moderately degraded, while 36% was stable or slightly degraded and 10% was ranked as "improving".
The rest of the Earth's surface is either bare or covered by inland water bodies.
...The report found that water around the world was becoming ever more scarce and salinated, while groundwater was becoming more polluted by agricultural runoff and other toxins.
Future Farmers Hold Environment’s Fate in Their Hands - Yahoo! News
"Agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions could double by 2050 if current trends in global food production continue," study researcher David Tilman, of the University of Minnesota, said in a statement. "This would be a major problem, since global agriculture already accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions."
"Strategically intensifying crop production in developing and least-developed nations would reduce the overall environmental harm caused by food production, as well as provide a more equitable food supply across the globe," said study researcher Jason Hill of the University of Minnesota.
Different farming methods produce significantly different yields, the researchers found — in 2005, the crop yields for the wealthiest nations were more than 300 percent higher than what the poorest nations produced.
According to their analysis of the effects of extensive farming, if poorer nations continue using this method, by 2050 they will have cleared an area larger than the United States, about 2.5 billion acres. However, if wealthy nations help poorer nations to improve food yields by incorporating intensive farming practices, that number could be reduced to half a billion acres.
How bacteria can break down hazardous environmental pollutants
ScienceDaily — Researchers now understand how bacteria can break down phosphonic acids, persistent and potentially hazardous environmental pollutants found in many common medicinal products, detergents and herbicides."We've achieved a critical step that has evaded other research groups for nearly 50 years," says David Zechel, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and an expert in enzyme catalysis. "Having successfully identified the proteins that are needed to break down these molecules, we can finally examine how this reaction actually works and engineer specialized bacteria in the lab to render these compounds harmless."
Does Cow Power Pay Off? :: POWER Magazine
Livestock animals in the U.S. produce more than one billion tons of manure annually. ... farm waste emits two potent greenhouse gases: methane, which has 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide, which has 310 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100-year timespan. Since a 2008 University of Texas-Austin study showed that converting farm animal droppings into renewable power could generate enough power to meet up to 3% of North America’s consumption, interest in cow power has been piling up....(A recent) study found that a dairy farm with an average milking herd size of 1,212 cows amassed 69 metric tons of manure that were fed to an anaerobic digester daily, producing 5,295 kWh. The digester produced revenues from electricity of about $958 per day (at $0.181/kWh) as well as fuel savings from capturing combustion heat for hot water and space heating. But one critically limiting factor the study found was that farms with 600 to 1,500 milking cows needed a huge average initial investment of about $2 million to plan the project, obtain permits, and build the digester—making grants and subsidies from the government indispensable...Read on at: http://www.powermag.com/issues/departments/global_monitor/4182.html
More on EV Batteries to equal gas powered
...In the previous article I pointed out that Electric Vehicle Battery Packs need to have an energy density of around 675 Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) if they are to have an equal range to today's petrol-powered cars. I also pointed out that the Nissan Leaf - the world's first truly mass-produced electric car - has a battery pack with an energy density of around 131.57 Wh/kg. This means that the Leaf only has an effective range of approximately 117km (72 miles). "Range Anxiety" is truly a problem for Leaf owners - even though the total cost of charging the Leaf is lower per kilometre than the cost of filling up regular cars with petrol (the equivalent fuel efficiency for the Nissan Leaf is 2.4 litres per 100 km - 99 miles per gallon)...
Nov 28, 2011
Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future | CNET UK
Filed under "WTF"...
A would-be saboteur arrested today at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland made the bizarre claim that he was from the future. Eloi Cole, a strangely dressed young man, said that he had travelled back in time to prevent the LHC from destroying the world.
The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week...Mr Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his 'time machine power unit', a device that resembled a kitchen blender.
Police said Mr Cole, who was wearing a bow tie and rather too much tweed for his age, would not reveal his country of origin. "Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."
...Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.
Lawsuit on Minnesota wind farm forwarded to state's high court
The state Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in on the legality of the process used by state regulators to approve a Minnesota wind farm.
Army Corps to crank up power on electric fish barrier
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced late Monday that it will be cranking up the power on the electric fish barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in an effort to keep Asian carp from swimming up the canal and into Lake Michigan.
Worker, overcome by fumes, dies in Dodge County
One man was killed and another critically injured Monday afternoon when they were overcome by fumes at a Dodge County company.
Wind and aerospace lead demand for advanced composite materials
This week’s Graphic comes from Lux Research’s recent report forecasting market growth for advanced composites based on carbon fibers, carbon nanotubes, and graphene. All told, the combined market is on track to expand from $7.0 billion this year to $25.8 …Continue reading
Sobering Map Pinpoints Every Vehicle-Related Death in the US : TreeHugger
...the total scale of lives lost on America's streets and highways is profoundly disturbing. Mapping site ITO Worldrecently compiled data of virtually every fatality that occurred on roads in the United States between 2001 and 2009 into one sobering map.
According to information provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the map above represents the 369,629 drivers, passengers, pedestrians, or cyclists killed in vehicle-related accidents in the US in that nine-year period.
Read full from http://www.treehugger.com/cars/gut-wrenching-map-pinpoints-every-vehicle-related-death-us.html
Via The Guardian
UN warns 25 pct of world land highly degraded
(AP) -- The United Nations has completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the planet's land resources, finding in a report Monday that a quarter of all land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if the world's growing population is to be fed.
Ethanol company Corn Plus fined $760,000 for lying to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Burning ethanol in your car is supposed to be better for the environment, but when the company producing the biofuel falsifies air pollution monitoring data, things may not be as clean as they seem.
That's what happened to Corn Plus, an ethanol producer in Minnesota that plead guilty in federal court last week to the falsifying charge and was hit with a fine of $760,000 ($310,000 of which was a civil penalty from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, according to the Minneapolis StarTribune). The company was caught because, for three months in 2009, the exact same data was reported to the MPCA. Corn Plus said in a statement (available after the jump) that this was likely due to "the isolated acts of a few employees in 2009 and early 2010, and without the consent, knowledge, or endorsement of Corn Plus's senior management."Continue reading Ethanol company Corn Plus fined $760,000 for lying to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on AutoblogGreen
Will NASA Ever Recover Apollo 13's Plutonium From the Ocean - Slashdot
Houston, we've had a problem,' said astronaut Jack Swigert on April 13, 1970. But the problem wasn't as simple as three astronauts potentially trapped in the void of space, 200,000 miles from Earth. The catastrophic risk came from the SNAP-27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), a small nuclear reactor that was going to be placed on the moon to power experiments, carrying Plutonium 238 in Apollo 13's lunar module. As luck would have it, NASA had experience losing RTGs – a navigation satellite failed to reach orbit in 1964 and scattered small amounts of plutonium over the Indian Ocean. The SNAP-27 had been engineered to make it back to Earth intact in such an incident. The plutonium, like the astronauts, apparently survived reentry and came to rest with what remained of the lunar module in the Tonga Trench south of Fiji, approximately 6-9 kilometers underwater (its exact location is unknown). Extensive monitoring of the atmosphere in the area showed that no radiation escaped."Read more of this story at Slashdot
Toyota, BMW may build green cars together
Toyota and BMW have reportedly begun discussions on swapping their signature green technologies. The Japanese automaker would open up its hybrid tech to BMW, while the Germans would provide diesel engines for Toyotas. This is a little different than the recent memorandum of understanding signed between Ford and Toyota, since that partnership - if it comes to fruition - would see both companies jointly developing a hybrid system for trucks.
The BMW and Toyota talks are about swapping tech to save money on "core technologies." BMW's gain would be in the U.S.
Read more of Toyota, BMW may build green cars together on AutoblogGreen
Shocker! Newt Gingrich doesn't understand oil
energybulletin - I often don't bother arguing with the "Drill, Baby, drill" folks - the reason is that while I think they are misguided and their lack of understanding of the possibilities of US oil are embarassing, they also have a point - as we get further down the energy curve, most of our available energy resources will be exploited if it is economically viable to recover the oil or the gas. It simply will happen - environmental sensitivity will not be a major factor. read more
: EPA Releases Formerly Confidential Chemical Information
WASHINGTON – As part of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s commitment to enhance the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chemicals management program and increase transparency, the agency is making available to the public hundreds of studies on chemicals that had been treated as confidential business information (CBI). The move is part of EPA's plan to make public the chemicals that are not entitled to CBI status. Releasing the data will expand the public’s access to critical health and safety information on chemicals that are manufactured and processed in the U.S. Newly available information can be found using EPA’s Chemical Data Access Tool.“EPA is increasing the availability of critical health and safety studies on chemicals that children and families are exposed to every day. We are making important progress in making this information public and giving the American public easy access to it,” said Steve Owens, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Over the next year, we expect to review several thousand additional studies on industrial chemicals and make many of these more accessible to the public.”
Bloomberg News Launches Sustainability Section : TreeHugger
Bloomberg News has a new section dedicated completely to "all things sustainability." And it's already breaking news, as Sami made clear this morning in his post on renewable energy investments trumping fossil fuels for the first time.
The Bloomberg Blog explains more about the site:
The goal is to uncover what businesses are doing, or what they need to be doing, to thrive as global competition intensifies for strategic resources. We feel this is a unique yet critical way to report on sustainability issues - from inside the companies who are defining it.
Looks like the company is starting to understand and officially recognize something most TreeHugger readers likely already know:
If executives don't commit to making sustainability a vital part of their company, more than just their businesses will suffer. The communities they operate in, customers, and other non-financial players are also impacted by business decisions...
We can't stress enough the importance of our expansion into this space. When speaking to senior executives, many have said that if you don't have a sustainability plan, you don't have a business plan.
Click through to the blog post for an interview with Bloomberg Sustainability editor Eric Roston.
Cow You-Know-What Fuels Village Power Plant
Sure they’re methane producers of the highest order, but at least some of what comes out of cows is being put to good use. Take the Greenhill Dairyfarm Biogas Plant in the United Kingdom. The combined heat and power company Alfagy says a project it worked on there is using the waste from 600 cows, along with other organic matter, to fuel a 430-kilowatt power plant.
Alfagy says this anaerobic digestion plant, outside the tiny village of Ardstraw, Northern Ireland, is unusually efficient: “Normally, central power plants pump more than 50 percent of the energy into the air while turbines waste 75 percent of the wind’s energy. Run on muck, the cow power plant has an energy efficiency of 86 percent, wasting only 14 percent, which a huge step toward a sustainable Northern Ireland.”
Read on at: Earthtechling
Nuclear power takes too long to build? « Kaj Luukko
Finnish energy engineer Kaj Luukko published some useful homework on the French nuclear deployment, with comparisons to the recent global wind power deployment. Luukko’s website is in Finnish, but you can access the Google translation of this post here.
Post-Fukushima 'anti-radiation' pills condemned by scientists | Environment | The Guardian
The Green party's former science and technology spokesman is promoting anti-radiation pills to people in Japan affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, that leading scientists have condemned as "useless".
...Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College, London, describes his statements about heart disease caused by caesium as "ludicrous". She says that radioactive elements do not bind to DNA. "This shows how little he understands about basic radiobiology." Of the products and services being offered, she says, "none of these are useful at all. Dr Busby should be ashamed of himself."
Professor Ohtsura Niwa, a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, said that Busby had offered no evidence for his claims of deliberate contamination. "It is not possible for the government and Tepco [the company that runs the Fukushima nuclear plant] to cheat people, now that so many citizens equipped with dosimeters are measuring radiation levels all over Japan," he said.
Niwa described Busby's faith in magnesium and calcium supplements for guarding against radionuclides such as strontium, uranium and plutonium as "baseless".
A Japanese government spokesman also rebutted the accusation of deliberately contaminating other parts of Japan. Noriyuki Shikata, deputy cabinet secretary for public affairs in the prime minister's office, said that so far only tsunami debris from Miyako in Iwate prefecture has been transported to Tokyo for incineration, adding that the disposal of waste generated by the disaster applies only to Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, not Fukushima.
"At this point, there are no plans to transport radioactive waste outside Fukushima prefecture," Shikata said. "Efforts are now being co-ordinated to construct intermediate storage facilities for radioactive waste inside Fukushima prefecture."
Just an excerpt... Please read accurate article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/21/christopher-busby-radiation-pills-fukushima
The Next 25 Years in Energy - IEEE Spectrum
The latest annual energy outlook by the International Energy Agency, though not radically different from earlier editions in broad outline, nonetheless paints a very dramatic picture of the next quarter century.
...Like previous outlooks, this one distinguishes between a business as usual scenario and a New Policies Scenario in which governments generally try to curtail consumption of fossil fuels and promote green energy; it appears to consider the New Policies Scenario (NPS) the more likely one. Even in NPS, however, fossil fuels remain dominant for the next 25 years and renewables continue to account for only about 10 percent of total world primary energy demand, thought their share of electricity production grows sharply.
Some of the report's most compelling highlights are displayed in a free-standing document containing ten charts, which is well worth a look even if time is lacking to study the whole report. For example, those subscribing to that theory that oil accounted for the decision of George W. Bush's administration to launch a second Gulf War will find Figure 3.17 arresting: Among the countries expected to make large additions to the world's liquid fuel supplies in the next quarter century, Iraq leads the pack by a healthy margin and is well of ahead of Saudia Arabia and total world biofuels. Other highlights incude:
• with oil production declining in all existing fields, an increasing share of liquid fuels will come from natural gas liquids and oil sands
• despite all the current concern about the prospect of declining subsidies for renewable energy, the 2011 NPS predicts that total renewables subsidies will increase to $250 billion in 2035, from $66 billion in 2010; European subsidies will increase only modestly from a big base, U.S. subsidies more rapidly from a smaller base, and "rest of world" subsidies more rapidly still from an even smaller base
• in terms of power generation, NPS expects additions of renewable energy to roughly equal additions of gas and coal combined, with nuclear accounting for a considerably smaller share of increases
• even so, NPS sees a relatively robust future for nuclear, with the long-term Fukushima impact rather surprisingly small
• looking at where we are right now and how we got here, the Outlook finds that in the last decade, coal has met almost half of new demand for energy, roughly equally all other sources of energy
China Doubles Down on Nuclear Power - IEEE Spectrum
China's surging economy runs mostly on coal, which slakes four-fifths of the country's thirst for electricity. And all over China, the consequences of that dependence are apparent: Its major cities are swathed in deadly smog, regional blackouts ensue when coal trains bog down on clogged rail networks, and coal mining routinely kills more than 2000 people a year. China desperately needs alternatives to coal-fired power.As Yang puts it: "If everything is done well, the risks should be low. But we don't know if everything is done correctly."
IEEE Spectrum Editor's Note: This is part of the IEEE Spectrum special report:Fukushima and the Future of Nuclear Power.
So Beijing has launched an aggressive plan to decarbonize China's economy by pushing nuclear and renewable energy to 15 percent of energy consumption by 2020, up from 9.5 percent last year. Nuclear generating capacity would rise to over 80 gigawatts from the 11.3 GW currently in place. As a result, analysts expect China to meet its environmental goal for 2020: to reduce carbon emissions per yuan of economic output by 40 percent compared with 2005 levels.
To meet its nuclear numbers, China has embarked on the world's biggest reactor building program. Beijing has standardized its nuclear juggernaut around two pressurized water reactor designs: the Chinese/French CPR-1000, designed in the 1990s, and Westinghouse Electric's AP1000, designed in the 2000s. The country is turning both types out at high speed. According to the World Nuclear Association, 14 reactors were operating as of September, and 26 more were under construction. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection has said that 100 reactors may be feeding the grid by 2020. "They are not just building nuclear power plants. They are building an entire industry," says Chi-Jen Yang, a technology policy expert at Duke University's Center on Global Change.
Nevertheless, the Fukushima disaster has highlighted the risks of the nation's aggressive nuclear build-out. In Fukushima's wake Chinese leaders put new reactor projects on hold while they reviewed the safety of existing ones. Officials concerned by a potential shortfall of trained reactor operators and inspectors suggested trimming China's 2020 goal for more than 80 GW nuclear capacity by 10 GW or so. Experts also worry that corrupt management of the build-out could affect the safety of China's reactors.
Read on and comment at: http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/china-doubles-down-on-nuclear-power
Selling the Oil Illusion, American Style - chrismartenson.com
Gregor Macdonald - US production of crude oil peaked in 1970 at 9.637 mbpd (million barrels per day) and has been in a downtrend for 40 years. Recently, however, there's been a tremendous amount of excitement at the prospect of a "new era" in domestic oil production. The narratives currently being offered come in the following three forms: 1) the US has more oil than Saudi Arabia; 2) the US need only to remove regulatory barriers to significantly increase production; and 3) the US can once again become self-sufficient in oil production, dropping all imported oil to zero...Now, three respectable publications have recently cast the advent of new oil extraction in America as a kind of miracle. And indeed, technologically, the refinement of hydraulic fracturing techniques -- first used to extract natural gas, and now used to extract oil -- is miraculous. But a technique such as this, although replicable and repeatable, will not change the fact that newer, unconventional resources are developed and produce oil at a much slower rate. One year after the Black Giant of East Texas was discovered in the early 1930s, it was producing just 1 mbpd. The US no longer has resources such as this to exploit. The history of US oil production over the past 40 years should make this clear.
However, this did not stop the Telegraph of London from making triumphant assertions in their October 23 piece:
World power swings back to America
The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy.
The US was the single largest contributor to global oil supply growth last year, with a net 395,000 barrels per day (b/d)," said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America, comparing the Dakota fields to a new North Sea. Total US shale output is "set to expand dramatically" as fresh sources come on stream, possibly reaching 5.5m b/d by mid-decade. This is a tenfold rise since 2009. The US already meets 72pc of its own oil needs, up from around 50pc a decade ago. "The implications of this shift are very large for geopolitics, energy security, historical military alliances and economic activity.
(Source)
The claims made here (or should I say the conjectures here), are completely over-reaching -- but worse, the data is completely wrong. This matters because the article was widely distributed and sustained a very popular position for several days on Twitter and in other media outlets. I have written extensively on the problematic nature of energy data that’s produced by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in Washington and International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. So it’s not really surprising that the public, the average reader, cannot fact-check these numbers easily.
In Secrecy by Complexity: Obfuscation in Energy Data and the Primacy of Crude Oil, I explained how difficult it can be -- even for journalists -- to obtain a time series of commodity production and flows that is continuous, let alone understandable. For example, if one includes biofuels (which, of course, are not oil in any sense and do not contain the dense btu content of oil), perhaps one could claim that 2010 oil production in the US outpaced the rest of the world. But according to the EIA in Washington, 2010 saw China make the largest new contribution to world oil supplies at 277 kbpd (thousand barrels per day), followed by Russia at 199 kbpd, and then Canada at 153 kbpd. The United States? US oil production grew by an average 114 kbpd.
So in a world of global crude oil production currently running around 74 mbpd, we are asked to believe a new era has dawned for the United States on the back of an additional 114 kbpd? That would be funny, if it were not so ridiculous. Let’s also include the 2011 additions to US oil production, at 141 kbpd. Are you feeling excited yet? These are the volumes that will allow the US to re-conquer the world with new oil production, and wean itself off global oil imports? The New York Times is quite enthused about these “major developments,” as evidenced by this October piece:
New Technologies Redraw the World’s Energy Picture
This striking shift in energy started in the 1990s with the first deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil, but it has taken off in the last decade as a result of declining conventional fields, climbing energy prices and swift technological change. The United States may now have the means to reduce its half century of dependence on the Middle East.
(Source)
Sigh. The New York Times has been selling that dream for several years now. Indeed, if you are old enough to have followed the presidential election cycle since the 1970’s, you’ll know that “energy independence” has been a standard, vague promise trotted out since the Carter Administration.
....So, now you know. The longest and deepest recession (actually a financial crisis and a depression) in the post-war period reduced oil consumption by 12.8%. The “miracle,” if you can call it that, of US oil independence lies not in the illusion that 5.5 mbpd of oil production can be lifted to wipe out 11.5 mbpd of oil imports. Instead, it lies in a further de-industrialization of the US economy, a huge reduction in miles driven on the nation’s roads and highways, and no doubt some energy efficiency.
Perhaps some of these are good things. Even very good things. But they are not unequivocally good things.
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