No More Winter, Barack?
Barack Obama has extended the Al Gore catechism of intermittent renewable solar and wind energy to include biodiesel.
Biodiesel mostly helps hasten the warming of the planet through diversion of agriculture to fuel crops, unless there is sufficient compensating starvation.
(I have not bothered with the prescriptions for warming the planet by Hillary Clinton as it is immaterial now in my view.)
What is wrong with replacing coal-fired power plants with surplus wood and other plant material? Surely even a city boy has heard of burning wood though Al Gore hasn't. Even now wood is scavenged from landfills in the U.S. and sent to Europe and China for burning in power plants. In the U,.S. we prefer to burn coal.
It is estimated by some that just the Salton Sea KGRA (known geothermal resource area) in California could supply the entire electrical needs of that state and leave room for export while the reborn environmentalist governor talks about (heh heh) clean coal.
Bush's DOE has approved grants for one outfit to build a cellulosic ethanol plant on a landfill in California that would utilize methane gases from the landfill to fuel the ethanol boilers rather than warm the planet. A pilot plant in operation iin Japan for a year or two has sold ethanol into the market.
Maybe Governor Schwartzenegger thinks it wasteful to utilize methane for biogas for heat when that same gas could more efficiently warm the planet.
There is a lot of hope for an Obama presidency from this quarter but precious little indication Obama has thought much about our looming energy problems and the threat of global warming.
Best, Terry
Biodiesel mostly helps hasten the warming of the planet through diversion of agriculture to fuel crops, unless there is sufficient compensating starvation.
(I have not bothered with the prescriptions for warming the planet by Hillary Clinton as it is immaterial now in my view.)
What is wrong with replacing coal-fired power plants with surplus wood and other plant material? Surely even a city boy has heard of burning wood though Al Gore hasn't. Even now wood is scavenged from landfills in the U.S. and sent to Europe and China for burning in power plants. In the U,.S. we prefer to burn coal.
It is estimated by some that just the Salton Sea KGRA (known geothermal resource area) in California could supply the entire electrical needs of that state and leave room for export while the reborn environmentalist governor talks about (heh heh) clean coal.
Bush's DOE has approved grants for one outfit to build a cellulosic ethanol plant on a landfill in California that would utilize methane gases from the landfill to fuel the ethanol boilers rather than warm the planet. A pilot plant in operation iin Japan for a year or two has sold ethanol into the market.
Maybe Governor Schwartzenegger thinks it wasteful to utilize methane for biogas for heat when that same gas could more efficiently warm the planet.
There is a lot of hope for an Obama presidency from this quarter but precious little indication Obama has thought much about our looming energy problems and the threat of global warming.
Best, Terry
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It's up to us to educate Obama and his team. But we'll get farther with him than with McCain.
February 22, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tom,
I think it's a given that any Republican is a bit difficult to educate. McCain is even getting hard knocks from the wingers for admitting that global warming is a threat.
Rather obviously I pointed to Obama because I think he is very educable.
Only a fool will predict future scientific breakthroughs with any assurance but the problem of intermittent energy, solar and wind notably, will not easily be resolved. No one wants electricity available only when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. For now, solar remains very expensive as well. Only my Swedish kin could have invented a solar-powered airplane. :-)
There are numerous quite adequate sources of baseload energy available now.
Obama might want to consider that Kenya is one country that is doing its level best to develop its magnificent geothermal resources. We are letting Canada and Iceland and Israel mostly develop ours.
Dum de dum dum.
Best, Terry
February 22, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
This entire industry/question/conundrum is very complicated. What the right or best answer will be long in coming.
The real question is how do we get projects that start working towards real solutions in motion in a way that finds the most efficient answer? The problem with letting the market decide is that each entity that comes up with a solution becomes invested in proving that they are right - sometimes at the expense of being wrong.
To me, "clean coal", for all of its downsides, will help us bridge the gap into a new answer. America (and many countries) kinda like having electricity. There is no way to just turn off one supply and turn on another without a long period of adjustment. This goes for our modes of transportation as well - unless we can make it work with horses again. Based on the price of grain these days, it might be a bit rough. And just think - all that horse manure...
February 22, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink