Rick Perry has asked federal regulators to relax rules requiring use of corn-based ethanol in the nation's fuel supply, arguing the mandate is driving up world food prices and harming the Texas economy.
In a letter sent Friday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Perry asked the Bush administration to waive 50 percent of the federal mandate for production of ethanol derived from grain.
In pushing for the waiver, Perry injected himself into an ongoing debate over corn-based ethanol, an argument that touches on energy and environmental policy and affects numerous special interests.
Federal law requires that the nation use 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels this year and 11 billion gallons in 2009.
Ethanol is blended into more than half the gasoline sold in the United States, including in Houston and other cities struggling with the worst air-quality problems.
While the push for greater use of renewable sources may have been "well intentioned policy," the measure has "had the unintentional consequence of harming segments of our agriculture industry and contributing to higher food prices," Perry wrote in his letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.
full article
Saturday 26 April 2008
Friday 25 April 2008
Biofuels are not the way to go
In the rush for energy independence, U.S. policy isn’t helping. Don’t get me wrong: I strongly believe that we need to stop using Arab oil for diplomatic reasons as well as environmental ones. But government policies put in place to combat the use of oil are hurting the United States and rest of the world more than they help.
During the past few years, our government has begun subsidizing the conversion of land to grow corn for biofuel. According to a study published in the journal Science, biofuels may actually be worse for the environment than the fossil fuels they are trying to replace.
Forests and grasslands are more effective at absorbing carbon than the biofuel crops that are replacing them. Trees are cut down in the name of saving the environment, but the claim is fraudulent. All the carbon that has been stored in those trees for years is released into the atmosphere when the trees die.
It would take 93 years for ethanol, which does in fact produce fewer greenhouse gases when burned than fossil fuels, to make up for the carbon released in that initial landscape conversion. This figure takes into account only land in the United States that has already been converted for ethanol; soy biodiesel that is grown in the Amazon rainforest will take 320 years to make up its energy debt. Ethanol may start saving the environment 400 years from now, but there must be a more effective way that we can implement now.
full article
During the past few years, our government has begun subsidizing the conversion of land to grow corn for biofuel. According to a study published in the journal Science, biofuels may actually be worse for the environment than the fossil fuels they are trying to replace.
Forests and grasslands are more effective at absorbing carbon than the biofuel crops that are replacing them. Trees are cut down in the name of saving the environment, but the claim is fraudulent. All the carbon that has been stored in those trees for years is released into the atmosphere when the trees die.
It would take 93 years for ethanol, which does in fact produce fewer greenhouse gases when burned than fossil fuels, to make up for the carbon released in that initial landscape conversion. This figure takes into account only land in the United States that has already been converted for ethanol; soy biodiesel that is grown in the Amazon rainforest will take 320 years to make up its energy debt. Ethanol may start saving the environment 400 years from now, but there must be a more effective way that we can implement now.
full article
Friday 18 April 2008
Renewable energy powers home of county couple
The price of fuel to warm homes and water in homes over the winter winter has county homeowners looking for an alternative.
A Suttons Bay Township resident made that change 20 years ago.
Now Steve Smiley is looking forward to the day when 100 percent of homes in northwest Lower Michigan are powered by renewable fuel.
“It’s a race against time— we’re running out of oil, natural gas and uranium,” said Smiley, an energy economist with more than 20 years practical experience in energy efficiency, wind and solar applications.
The 2,400-square-foot home he shares with wife, Susan Kopka, is 99 percent “off the grid.” “This will happen (to all homes) in the next decades. It may be two or four (decades) — but it’s coming soon,” he said.
Construction of Smiley’s home began in 1985 and has continued in stages. Both a 1,600 square-foot main house and 800 square-foot studio area are entirely powered using renewable fuel sources: wind, sun and wood. A seldom-used backup of natural gas is available.
“Our goal is to be 100 percent renewable, we’re not quite there,” he said.
Smiley came of age during the “Energy Crisis” in the 1970s. While many discarded the implementation of alternative energies to fossil fuels as conventional energy costs decreased, Smiley continued to embrace it.
full article
A Suttons Bay Township resident made that change 20 years ago.
Now Steve Smiley is looking forward to the day when 100 percent of homes in northwest Lower Michigan are powered by renewable fuel.
“It’s a race against time— we’re running out of oil, natural gas and uranium,” said Smiley, an energy economist with more than 20 years practical experience in energy efficiency, wind and solar applications.
The 2,400-square-foot home he shares with wife, Susan Kopka, is 99 percent “off the grid.” “This will happen (to all homes) in the next decades. It may be two or four (decades) — but it’s coming soon,” he said.
Construction of Smiley’s home began in 1985 and has continued in stages. Both a 1,600 square-foot main house and 800 square-foot studio area are entirely powered using renewable fuel sources: wind, sun and wood. A seldom-used backup of natural gas is available.
“Our goal is to be 100 percent renewable, we’re not quite there,” he said.
Smiley came of age during the “Energy Crisis” in the 1970s. While many discarded the implementation of alternative energies to fossil fuels as conventional energy costs decreased, Smiley continued to embrace it.
full article
Monday 14 April 2008
Biofuels are a double-edged sword
Researchers have discovered a new source for fuel, using hydrogen made from plant sugar. This method may provide the cleanest and cheapest energy source yet.
"Global warming" has become one of those universally notorious villains that is urging the masses into action.
Scientists are attempting to create new and efficient ways to fill fuel tanks, politicians are concocting policies and protocols to abate carbon emissions, and the "average joe is doing all he can to create less pollution.
The question is: what is the total effect of such a trend? The answer lies within the framework of each new discovery, each new policy and each new unfortunate consequence that piggy-backs good intentions.
While some measures, such as the Kyoto Protocol, simply ask for the reduction of pollution, the slew of new biofuel and hydrogen fuel mutants that have been fueling this "green tech" revolution may be causing more harm than good.
full article
"Global warming" has become one of those universally notorious villains that is urging the masses into action.
Scientists are attempting to create new and efficient ways to fill fuel tanks, politicians are concocting policies and protocols to abate carbon emissions, and the "average joe is doing all he can to create less pollution.
The question is: what is the total effect of such a trend? The answer lies within the framework of each new discovery, each new policy and each new unfortunate consequence that piggy-backs good intentions.
While some measures, such as the Kyoto Protocol, simply ask for the reduction of pollution, the slew of new biofuel and hydrogen fuel mutants that have been fueling this "green tech" revolution may be causing more harm than good.
full article
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