On The Horizon: Liquid Fuels Made By Sunlight

Empowering the Free Energy Markets
Once again, Congress is poised to play the "winners and losers" game in Energy Policy, by extending various tax advantages to subsidize wind power, solar power, Biofuels, and various "Energy Efficiency" standards. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration has implemented a virtual Moratorium on exploration and production of additional domestic Oil and gas, and the White House is already sowing doubt in capital markets about whether America will be able to exploit the massive reserves of shale-gas an...

Energy Dept. backs solar plant in Arizona
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The first solar Power Plant in the United States capable of storing its own energy will service around 70,000 consumers in Arizona, the energy secretary said. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced his department provided Solar Energy company Abengoa Solar with a $1.45 billion Loan Guarantee to build what's described as the largest solar Power Plant of its kind in the world. "As today's announcement and other recent announcements of completed loan guarantees for ...

Using the sun to create hydrogen fuel
Image via Wikipedia BBC: A prototype solar device has been unveiled which mimics plant life, turning the Sun's energy into fuel. The machine uses the Sun's rays and a metal oxide called ceria to break down Carbon Dioxide or water into fuels which can be stored and transported. Conventional photovoltaic panels must use the electricity they generate in situ, and cannot deliver power at night. Details are published in the journal Science. The prototype, which was devised by researchers in the US ...

Tom Friedman on why the military is going green - Semper Viridis?
… what could save America’s energy future — at a time when a fraudulent, anti-science campaign funded largely by Big Oil and Big Coal has blocked Congress from passing any Clean Energy/Climate Bill — is the fact that the Navy and Marine Corps just didn’t get the word. God bless them: “The Few. The Proud. The Green.” Semper Fi. Spearheaded by Ray Mabus, President Obama’s secretary of the Navy and the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, the Navy and Marine

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...;

Blue collar desert town goes green
Solar power is taking off at the Lancaster JetHawks home stadium.Photo: Todd WoodyCities like San Francisco and Seattle usually get kudos for being green pioneers, but the blue-collar Mojave Desert town of Lancaster really shines. Located about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Lancaster has embarked on a program to solarize the community. Last week, for instance, the city and SolarCity, a Silicon Valley photovoltaic panel installer, announced that the local Baseball park would become the first...

Device creates fuel from sunlight
PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. and Swiss researchers say they've developed a solar device that can turn the energy of the sun into fuel. The apparatus focuses the sun's rays onto a metal oxide called ceria to break down water into hydrogen, which can be stored and transported, the BBC reported Thursday. Ceria has a natural property of emitting oxygen as it heats up and absorbing it as it cools down. If water or Carbon Dioxide are pumped into the device while the ceria is cooling down th...

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...

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...

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 ...

Engine Makers Sue to Block E15 Fuel
The Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of more Ethanol in the fuel recipe for some cars faces another Federal Court challenge. Most car fuel sold around the country is a mixture of 10 percent Ethanol and 90 percent Gasoline, known as E10, but Ethanol supplies, and Congressional mandates for using ethanol, are rising much faster than the market is absorbing the fuel. So in October, acting on the petition of an Ethanol industry group, the agency approved a 15 percent blend known as E...

Trends to Watch, Updated After Five Years, by Arnold Kling
Five years ago, I wrote As an end-of-year type post, here is a list of economic stories that I think will be worth following next year. Note that all of them are long-term stories, which won't be resolved in 2006 alone. The first issue I mentioned was labor Productivity growth--if it exceeds 3 percent, a lot of long-term Budget problems could be alleviated. As this chart shows, Productivity growth has been between 2 and 2.5 percent, which is better than some conservative long-term estimates, b...

Jim and Bills excellent misadventure
This is a web formatted version of the PDF found here on Dr. James Hansen’s Columbia.edu web site. I don’t have much respect left for Dr. Hansen, particularly when he uses the word “deniers” nine times in this interview. The interview itself is like pal-review, since McKibben isn’t capable of being an unbiased interviewer, and particularly since he co-authored a book with Hansen. Reading it, you can feel some of the anger these two guys have for people like you and ...

Your Piece of the Keeling Curve
Associated Press Plant Scherer, a coal-fired plant in Juliette, Ga. In an article in Wednesday’s Times, I discussed the rapid increase of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, and the scientific debate over the likely consequences of that rise. One point I did not emphasize much is the extent to which we all own a piece of this problem. Pretty much everyone on the planet is burning Fossil Fuels and contributing to the rise of Greenhouse Gases, but some of us are contributing a lot more than ot...

EIA Projects Climate Catastrophe
EIA Projects Climate Catastrophe The U.S. Energy Information Administration has projected that the United States will lead the world into catastrophic Global Warming over the next twenty five years. In its 2011 Annual Energy Outlook, the EIA predicts that energy-related CO2 emissions will “grow by 16 percent from 2009 to 2035,” reaching 6.3 billion metric tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (or 1.7 GtC): The fuel mix the EIA projects remains predominantly coal and oil, with a modera...

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...

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 ...

Obama to regulate refinery gases
The Obama Administration has said it will regulate greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants amid opposition from industry and Republicans in Congress. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would regulate emissions from Fossil Fuel Power Plants by 2011 and petroleum refineries by 2012. President Barack Obama is pushing the EPA to cut emissions after a Climate Bill failed in Congress this year. But Republican lawmakers have said the EPA's new rules will harm The Economy. The EPA...

Subsidizing stupidity
Ethanol isn't the only heavily subsidized energy source that won a multibillion dollar jackpot in last week's tax deal. The other big winner was the wind industry, which received a one year extension of a $3 billion grant program for Renewable Energy projects. Talk about throwing good money after bad. Despite more than $30 billion in Subsidies for "Clean Energy" in the 2009 stimulus bill, Big Wind still can't make it in the marketplace. Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind...

TN Moving Stories: Build Your Own Bamboo Bike, and Combatting Beijing Traffic
Fast rail, slow build out: “Only 20 miles of track on the 284-mile Amtrak route between Chicago and St. Louis will be upgraded to handle 110-mph trains by 2012, state officials said Thursday.” (Chicago Tribune) Want to build your own bamboo bike?  You can, in Brooklyn. Video below! (via ABC News) Turning Solar Energy into fuel: a new technique involves the element Cerium. (NPR) An explosion of drivers in China has led to some hasty transportation planning in Beijing: The future will...

LIPA becomes first utility in NYS to offer $500 Plug-In Electric Hybrid Rebate
The Long Island Power Authority is awarding a one-time rebate check of $500 to LIPA customers who purchase and register a new, qualified plug-in hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) or plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV). The rebate will be available until year- end of 2011 and equates to the approximate electrical costs for yearly charging the PHEV or the cost for purchasing the optional charging station. LIPA unveiled its new Plug-In Electric Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) Rebate program at Atlantic Chevrolet Cad...

Obama to regulate carbon from power plants
US President Barack Obama's administration said it will regulate greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power Plants, setting up a Climate Change battle with a skeptical new Congress. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it would set standards for Fossil Fuel power plants and petroleum refineries, which together emit nearly 40 percent of the gasses blamed for Climate Change in the United States. The decision comes after a bill to set up a "cap-and-trade" program to restrict emissions in the wor...

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.

Interview with Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Pioneer
Paul Gipe has been involved with Wind Energy for 30 years. He has authored several books in the field, and was instrumental in the successful campaign for Ontario's 2006 implementation of Advanced Renewable Tariffs to promote distributed Renewable Energy supply. Hassan Masum: Paul, thanks for talking to us. Let's start with a bit of background: what first motivated you to start working in the Renewable Energy field, and what changes in this field do you most notice when you look back at your car...

BYD to Announce Green Vision at NAIAS on January 10th
at the BYD booth in the Detroit COBO Center. BYD's "Three Green Dreams" focuses on Renewable Energy generation, environmentally-friendly energy storage and efficient Energy Consumption, covering solar power, Iron-phosphate energy storage and Electric Vehicles. BYD will present their short and long term "Green City Solutions" which includes plans to help cities electrify all Public Transportation, and reduce Air Pollution and Carbon Emissions at a low cost. BYD's pure-electric vehicle -- the e6 P...