Green Technology - Biomass

On The Horizon: Liquid Fuels Made By Sunlight
Sunlight pours a lot of energy onto the surface of the Earth. But one huge challenge is to figure out how to capture that energy and turn it into fuels to power our cars and trucks. Fossil Fuels won't last forever, so scientists and engineers are looking for new and efficient ways to capture Solar Energy for fuel. One promising technique relies on a common material most people have never heard of: the element cerium. The ultimate goal is to say 'How can we take solar photons and convert that int...

New boimass rules could hamper growth in industry
By Stephan Burklin Maine Watchdog.org A recently released study claims that new regulations on the Biomass industry may hinder Renewable Energy development and jeopardize U.S. energy policies. The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) commissioned Atlanta-based Forisk Consulting to examine the potential impact of the “tailoring rule,” which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated in May to regulate greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act. The rule itself...

The new black?
Biochar: Is the hype justified? In search of a "magic bullet" for climate change that will simultaneously help with the growing problem of feeding the world, gurus from James Lovelock downwards have praised the potential of biochar. "I said in my recent book that perhaps the only tool we had to bring carbon dioxide back to pre-industrial levels was to let the biosphere pump it from the air for us," the originator of the Gaia concept told The Guardian newspaper last year. &qu...;

US Undermining China's Monopoly on Rare Earth Elements
© Technology Review Magnet mine: Molycorp is restarting active mining at this site in Mountain Pass, California. Full operations will start at a U.S. mine by the end of next year. Molycorp has secured the permits and funding needed to restart production at a mine in Mountain Pass, California, that would become the first U.S. source of rare earth elements in more than a decade. The mine is one of the world's Richest deposits of these elements, which are critical for making components fou...

Electrical plant closing results in lost jobs and money
FORT DRUM — A coal-powered electrical plant shut down in the last year, causing local officials to worry about lost jobs and Tax Revenue. Though Fort Drum owns the land where the plant sits on Second Street, which makes it tax-exempt, the facility itself has been charged taxes. Town of LeRay Supervisor Ronald C. Taylor said the plant ran a little over last winter, but just to keep it warm. "I believe they shut down in April," he said. "It's not going to be running this winter, from w...

NASCAR Gives Ethanol Green Flag; Who Will Follow?
When it comes to Ethanol, price, fuel economy and engine performance matter to lots of American drivers. The ethanol industry fights hard to shape Public Opinion of the fuel, and it has now found a new way to get its message across in a partnership with NASCAR. Our series on ethanol concludes with a report from Harvest Public Media's Jessica Naudziunas on the ethanol industry's attempt to answer longtime critics of the alternative fuel. Racers To Use New 'Green' Gas In NASCAR, a pit stop takes ...

Europe searching for right biofuel balance
BRUSSELS, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Europe needs to make sure the increased use of Biofuels doesn't have indirect impacts on the regional environment, a climate commissioner said. Europe in 2009 outlined a measure that calls for a 6-percent reduction in Greenhouse Gases for fuels in the transportation sector by 2020. As much as 10 percent of the energy used in the sector, meanwhile, needs to come from Renewable Energy resources. The European Commission said Biofuels are expected to make a "significant" c...

John Stossel: Top 10 government promises gone wrong
Of course, the list extends well beyond just 10: I see one glaring mistake in the above show and that has to do with Ethanol. Now don't get me wrong, I'm in no way pro-subsidy, but it's the science of ethanol that I contend. As I mentioned earlier this month when ReasonTV came out against ethanol for environmental reasons, there is only one researcher that claims that ethanol takes more energy to produce than you get out of it and that's David Pimentel at Cornell University. His analysis was wr...

Merry Christmas from Jerry Brown! More Green” and Tech Jobs Leave California
Merry Christmas from Jerry Brown! More “Green” and Tech Jobs Leave California Obviously “encouraged” by all of the incoming Governor’s dire warnings about Tax Increases and Budget cuts, more “Green Jobs” are running for  the border. Here ‘s the headline in the San Jose Mercury News. (OH, the irony, it’s a company based in Berserkley, the “mecca” for the enviro-mental faithful.) Nordic Windpower, a Berkeley-based Wind Turbine ...

Branstad: Power Fund likely will continue
Gov.-elect Terry Branstad campaigned against the Iowa Power Fund, which promotes development of Renewable Energy, but on Thursday said he expects the fund to live on within a retooled Economic Development department. Departing Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, championed creation of the Power Fund and the Office of Energy Independence, which administers the fund. Branstad said the office likely will be eliminated. The Power Fund has attracted support from business and agriculture because of Iowa's...

T. Boone Pickens: Our Ongoing Energy Crisis
One billion dollars every day. That's how much money we're sending overseas to fund our dangerous and growing Addiction to OPEC oil. This year, I've spent a lot of time talking about Natural Gas, and the need to tap into everything domestic--from nuclear to Natural Gas, from wind to Ethanol, from solar to domestic oil--to address our energy needs. Our dependence on OPEC oil is a national crisis. It threatens our economy, our National Security and our environment. How much of a concern is it?...

EPA Moves Toward Limits on Greenhouse Gases
In what could be one of the most significant regulatory changes since its founding, the EPA has moved toward imposing limits on Greenhouse Gases with a finding that such gases now present a “serious problem . . . for future generations.” The move could have widespread environmental benefits apart from Climate Change in forcing more fuel efficient cars and greater limitations on Power Plants and industrial sources. The EPA finding of endangerment prepares allows for the EPA to act if ...

EPA continues war against Texas jobs
Image via Wikipedia Washington Post: The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would regulate greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants and oil refineries next year, targeting the nation's two biggest sources of Carbon Dioxide. The move, which comes as part of a legal settlement with several states, local governments and environmental groups which have sued EPA under the Bush Administration for failing to act, highlights the Obama Administration's intent to press ahead wi...

Clean Air standards coming for Americas biggest carbon polluters
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. In a big step forward to protect Americans' health and well-being, the EPA announced today a two-year plan to set clean air standards for Power Plants and oil refineries, the two largest industrial sources of the dangerous Pollution that drives Global Warming. Following on the heels of the Obama Administration's breakthrough clean car standards, the EPA is now taking the next logical steps under the Clean Air Act and the Supreme Court's l...

EPA Sharpens Its Regulative Teeth
A smokestack from a Power Plant near Lansing, MI. Though politically vague and without immediate action, the Environment Protection Agency has announced it will put some regulative pressure on power plants and oil refineries to limit greenhouse Gas Emissions by the end of 2012. —JCL The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse Gas Emissions from power plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such regula...

No deaths so far in Pa. mines in '10
The state is headed to end its first year without a mining fatality since it began keeping records. Pennsylvania mine-safety chief Joe Sbaffoni is almost afraid to talk of it for fear of a jinx, but, barring last-minute misfortune, the state is on track to have its first year without a known mine fatality. Records have been kept since the late 19th century. Sbaffoni, director of the state Bureau of Mine Safety, said 2010 could end with a clean record. Nationally, 49 people have died this year in...

EPA presents plan on greenhouse gases. Can Congress stop it?
Setting the stage for a New Year battle royale between Congress and the White House over greenhouse Gas Emissions, the US Environmental Protection Agency Thursday laid out a timetable for the nation's largest carbon emitters -- Power Plants and refineries -- to begin curbing those pollutants. Republicans have said all year that they plan to pull out all the stops to keep the EPA from phasing in greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations beginning in 2011, saying they would damage the energy industry, rais...

EPA Announces Landmark Greenhouse Gas Regulations Plan For Nation's Biggest Polluters
The Huffington Post Zoe Triska First Posted: 12-23-10 The Obama Administration announced landmark plans Thursday to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Unites States. A Press Release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that new standards granted under the Clean Air Act will be implemented in 2012. The EPA also announced that it is taking unprecedented action to issue air permits to industries in Texas, due to the state's non-compliance with new regulations...

Upton vows fight against EPA climate rules for power plants and refineries
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to set greenhouse Gas Emissions standards for Power Plants and refineries drew a quick threat from Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the incoming chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. "We will not allow the administration to regulate what they have been unable to legislate — this Christmas surprise is nothing short of a backdoor attempt to implement their failed job-killing cap-and-trade scheme,” Upton said in a statement.

EPA presents plan on greenhouse gases. Can Congress stop it?
Setting the stage for a New Year battle royale between Congress and the White House over greenhouse Gas Emissions, the US Environmental Protection Agency Thursday laid out a timetable for the nation's largest carbon emitters -- Power Plants and refineries -- to begin curbing those pollutants. Republicans have said all year that they plan to pull out all the stops to keep the EPA from phasing in greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations beginning in 2011, saying they would damage the energy industry, rais...

U.S. to fund fuel cell research
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Funding for fuel cell research in the United States will help the country stay ahead of the curve in greening up its economy, the Department of Energy said. The U.S. Department of Energy said it was accepting applications to tap into $74 million to support research in fuel cell technology. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the funding would help the U.S. economy develop its fuel cell market while at the same time reducing foreign dependency on oil and cutting greenhou...

U.S. threatens WTO action on China rare earth curbs (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China has refused repeated U.S. requests to eliminate export restraints on rare earths that have rattled its trading partners, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday. "Going forward, the United States will continue to pursue vigorous engagement with China on this issue and will not hesitate to take further action, including WTO dispute settlement, if appropriate," the trade representative's office said in an annual report on how w...

The outlook dimmed for coal in 2010
The Coal Industry is taking its lumps.Some may describe 2010 as a tough year for those of us working to protect clean air, create Clean Energy jobs, and combat Global Warming. Some will say that the Coal Industry still has a headlock on our political system in Washington, evidenced by the Senate’s failure to adopt comprehensive Clean Energy and global warming Legislation. But the reality is that 2010 was a rough year for the coal industry, as dozens of proposed new coal plants were taken o...

EPA issues timetable for greenhouse gas emission rules
The Environmental Protection Agency announced a timetable on Thursday for issuing rules limiting greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants and oil refineries, signaling a resolve to press ahead on such Regulation even as it faces stiffening opposition in Congress. The agency said it would propose performance standards for new and refurbished Power Plants in July 2011, with final rules to be issued in May 2012. Proposed emissions standards for new oil refineries will be published in December 20...

December 26, 2000: Mucko
Ten years ago today, a behemoth and bearded software wizard whose Personal Life was shorting out from financial static and social awkwardness methodically slaughtered seven of his colleagues working the day after Christmas at an Internet consulting company in Wakefield. The Dec. 26, 2000, shooting massacre at Edgewater Technology by Michael “Mucko” McDermott is the worst mass Murder in modern state history and ranks among the deadliest incidents of workplace violence nationwide. &ld...;