|
About Me
As a man thinks, so he is. Some people are never. Recent Posts
Categories
Links
CarSpace Alternate RouteTurn off the nav system, crumple up that MapQuest printout, and let's find out where the next random turn may take us! May 6, 2009 - Chocolate Thunder
Mar 9, 2009 - Just Say No
Corn does not make a good fuel for our vehicles. The heavily subsidized industry has succeeded in reducing the mileage of my vehicles by a solid 10% from the instant ethanol-blended fuel hit my tank. Someone is going to have to explain to me how a 10% blend of ethanol that forces me to use 10% more fuel is reducing my consumption of oil at all. It's certainly not saving me any money. But now, the nation's ethanol producers are urging the Obama administration to raise the 10 percent limit on ethanol in motor fuel to 15 percent or more, a move they hope will create new demand at a time when many distilleries are idle. "This is about jobs, energy security for America, improving the environment and meeting our legal responsibilities under the 2007 energy bill," said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of a group of ethanol firms called Growth Energy. Brilliant move Mr. Clark. Take something that doesn't work and force us to use more of it? Read the entire article at washingtonpost.com
Jan 21, 2009 - Boondoggle
Useless or profitless activity; using or expending or consuming thoughtlessly or carelessly; an effort that brings no compensating gain, a waste; mindless dissipation of natural resources. U.S. ethanol maker VeraSun Energy Corp, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October, said on Tuesday that 12 of its 16 ethanol plants are in "hot idle," or ready to operate, but not currently making the alternative motor fuel. Most definitely a boondoggle. Read the entire article at Reuters.com
Jul 11, 2008 - It's A Gas
Read the entire story at BusinessWeek.com
Jun 9, 2008 - Recycling
The Orange County (California) Sanitation District plans to turn the inflow of excrement and other waste into hydrogen for vehicles that run on fuel-cell systems. While the waste sits in holding tanks, it produces gases, primarily methane. Most of the methane at Orange County's plant in Fountain Valley is filtered, then burned like natural gas for power, while any surplus is sold or burned off. Now the extra methane will be turned into power by an experimental fuel-cell generator. I'll take a wait and see attitude because the hype always seems to overshadow the limitations and unitended consequences. And there are those wondering if this process is all it's cracked up to be. It would be cheaper to make electricity by burning the excess methane and generating heat to turn a turbine, said Tad Patzek, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the U.C. Berkeley who has also spoken out against ethanol and other alternative energy sources. Time will tell if this project comes out smelling like a rose. Read more at Green Car Advisor
Mar 17, 2008 - Blarney
Everyone seems to be going green now. It's as if we're celebrating St. Patrick's Day all year round. Gone are the days when to be "green" meant that one was a Birkenstock-wearing anarchist. Now, even our bourgeois bohemians are hugging trees. But our embrace of green bears a resemblance to St. Patrick's Day in another important respect: On that one day of the year, everyone suddenly claims to be Irish whether or not that claim bears any relation to reality. A few years ago, even Ireland started holding parades on that day, not to disappoint the American tourists who made special trips to Ireland to celebrate (quite a bit like all the revelers at Mardi Gras who have no intent to observe Lent, nor possess even the knowledge of what Lent is). Our greenness is as substantial as our March 17 Irishness: Neither bears any relation to reality. A case in point: I attended an auto show not long ago and wasn't remotely surprised that every auto manufacturer prominently advertised all the ways that they are embracing a "green future." Signs bragging about the bright future of cars running on biofuels and electricity all sought to induce the collective illusion that we can continue to behave exactly as we've been doing and pay no costs. What this feel-good advertising campaign in fact promises is that we can continue to pay absolutely no attention to what it is we are doing. It's quite evident that we are all rushing to embrace the "green" label so that we can avoid actually thinking about what would be entailed to slow our destruction of the natural world. The leftist environmentalists, the bourgeois bohemian centrists, and the Schwarznegger Republicans – along with various automobile manufacturers – all share a great deal of excitement about the prospect of a "clean" biofuel-powered or plug-in electric car. No more dirty emissions; no more addiction to oil! Just fill it with vegetable oil, or plug it in and save the planet. Alas, if only it were that easy. It turns out that biofuels and electricity aren't exactly great ways to save the planet. As a new study reports, there is growing evidence of the enormous destruction and carbon emissions of biofuels, the boom in which is resulting in the destruction of huge swaths of carbon-consuming rainforests and nature preserves. It turns out our rush to adopt this new, "clean" energy source – which, incidentally, is also resulting in the starvation of poor people who cannot afford the related rising price of food – is contributing mightily to the ravaging of the Earth. Further, enthusiasts of the electric car can spare nary a thought to the question of where electricity comes from. Electricity is really another dirty energy: We generate half of our electricity using coal, followed by natural gas and then distantly by nuclear, water, wind and solar. Our "clean" electric car future is going to be powered by a different (and still limited) fossil fuel, one that is considerably dirtier than refined oil and is mined in ways that destroy the land and unsettle communities. Once we begin to reflect on our desperation to continue our current rate of consumption and reckless addiction to profligate energy usage, it's quite clear that all the "green" that is being embraced is as genuine as the Irish heritage of many of our St. Patrick's day revelers. It's a fun day without any of the hard times. If we truly intend to go green, we have to fundamentally change our current way of life. We must make changes to our built community so that we can walk more, buy goods from more local sources, and live smaller and less wastefully. My money, alas, is on a big self-delusive continuation of our St. Patrick's Day party. Rather than luxuriating in our self-satisfaction over being green, why not do the difficult thing and start acting responsibly? Boy did he nail it on the head. There are a bunch of folks running around promoting hybrids, alternative fuels, and electric cars not because it's the right thing to do or even makes sense, but because they think it says something about them or makes them better than other people somehow. Worse yet, these greenies will accuse you of wanting to destroy the planet if you don't agree with them or have legitimate questions and concerns about problems that might result from a blind rush to their green nirvana. Everyone wants clean air. Everyone would like to find a more efficient fuel or vehicle. But this is a lot like losing weight. It took time to put it on, it's going to take time to get it off.
Mar 8, 2008 - Ask Dub Schwartz!
I bet your nickname is Chicken isn't it? You've got to stop listening to all the gloom and doom Charlie. We're not out of oil, and ethanol from corn, or switchgrass, or whatever other recipe someone comes up with isn't going to replace gasoline any time soon. Beats me why people are so worked up about a fuel that's expensive to produce, doesn't have the energy output of gasoline, pollutes just as much, if not more than gas, and has the potential to starve us to death. Actually it doesn't confuse me. There's money to be made anytime you can get people in a panic. It's in the finest tradition of snake oil salesman. Doesn't matter what problem you've got, the magic elixir will cure all ills. And the alternative fools will eat it up. Perhaps there's an economic opportunity here. There's quite a bit of power in the chili that's served here at the Emporium. All I need are the folks like you who ignore the realities and only see the fantasy of a chili-powered car and we'll have the next great replacement for gasoline!
Mar 7, 2008 - Reading Room
The rush to ethanol really reeks of snake oil to me and "Gusher of Lies" by Robert Bryce seems to be on the same page. True believers are likely to label him a heretic, but the truth hurts sometimes. Fuel derived from corn has channeled billions in subsidies to Midwestern farmers and agribusiness, Bryce writes, despite glaring shortcomings. It is expensive to produce and requires enormous amounts of water when irrigation comes into play. It produces much less energy than gasoline while emitting more pollutants into the air. Then there's this gem: Detroit loves ethanol because it can use it to inflate fuel-efficiency ratings on their cars artificially. The mammoth Chevy Suburban, produced as a flex-fuel vehicle capable of burning both ethanol and gasoline, magically boosted its fuel efficiency to 29 miles per gallon from 15, since under federal rules only a vehicle’s gasoline consumption need be factored into the equation. Ethanol, in other words, has allowed American car manufacturers to produce more gas guzzlers and contribute to increased imports of foreign oil. I feel a trip to the bookstore coming on. I'll let you know if the review sold me a bill of goods in a future entry! Read the entire review at the NY Times
Feb 19, 2008 - Best Thing Ever
Ethanol made out of wood chips, household garbage, grass, and old tires from something called a bioreactor from the labs at Coskata, a startup based in Warrenville, IL. Maybe this turns out to be a big deal, but I'm not holding my breath. The race is certainly on to produce ethanol. It's just too bad that it's not as efficient a fuel as good old gasoline. Read more about the bioreactor at Technology Review
Feb 11, 2008 - Not So Fast
According to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy, the rush to convert forests and farms once from food crops to biofuel feedstocks is raising rather than reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. So maybe, just maybe, we ought to slow down from reacting to all the gloom and doom predictions of global warming and take some time to think and study before we act. Imagine where we would be had we acted on the advice of those who 'knew" in the 70's that we were headed into a new Ice Age and that we had to melt the polar ice caps now before we were all buried in ice. Read the entire story at energycurrent.com
|
