Alternative Energy, Energy Independence and Global Warming Reduction

  WHAT WE CAN DO A series on how each of us can conserve energy.
   #6:  Nostalgia As a Washday Softener    
Why We're Here:
The Need for an Alternative Energy Future

PlanetWatch.org works to increase public awareness of clean alternative energy solutions that will reduce reliance on an unpredictable and hostile world. That's as urgent as mitigating global warming. Failure to achieve independence will damage our lives sooner than failure to slow climate change. Success in the former will do as much to achieve the latter as any program that focuses on the latter alone.

Our In-Depth Background Reports:
wind power
Reaping the Whirlwind

In Jeremiahthe whirlwind"goeth forth with a fury" and will "fall with pain upon the head of the wicked". But that was then. Now, wind stands to bring great benefit to mankind. Tapping this clean and limitless gift of nature has become the fastest growing alternative to fossil fuels. One has to ask, what were we thinking all these years of neglect?

energy dependence
Living on the Razor's Edge - I

The prospect of alternative energy development leading to energy independence makes for a comforting view of the future. But we tend to ignore the perils of our dependence — right here, right now. Part I of a series looks at our hazardous reliance on a troublesome world.

energy dependence
Living on the Razor's Edge - II

The countries that sell us their oil and what they make with the manufacturing jobs we've exported have long sent our money back to Washington as loans to prop up our government. Now, with interest rates low, and our economy weakened by the mortgage crisis, they are buying huge dollops of American companies.

energy alternatives
Beyond Fossil Fuels

Over the last few months, we've seen an explosion in public interest and business investment in substitutes for fossil fuels. This authoritative article, by an editorial board member of the New York Times (and a founder of PlanetWatch.org), offers a survey of what is happening and what holds promise. Photo: rapeseed in bloom

solar energy
Dazzlingly Promising (Still)

The most powerful energy source of all — our Sun — offers the tantalizing solution to mankind's energy needs. Costs remain stubbornly high, but demand is soaring, even causing a worldwide shortage of processed silicon. The potential is vast, as this article makes clear.

CORN ethanol
Given Politics and Pork, Will We Switch to the Right Ethanol?

Midwest farmers are chasing corn-based ethanol, it has serious limitations as a fuel, its production releases greenhouse gasses and it has potentially negative implications for American agriculture and global food production.

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the column
A Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

Tom Friedman, the New York Times Op Ed columnist, wrote on May 28 that he believes our next President, whoever that might be, should ensure that gasoline for cars not be allowed again to fall below $4 per gallon. If the impact of high prices suppresses demand enough for the crude oil market to fall, he believes the government should impose a variable tax, adjusted monthly, so that drivers will continue to pay at least $4 per gallon for motor fuel. And he decries that none of the candidates are talking in these terms. In fact, two of them are suggesting a federal tax "holiday", to last the summer, effectively accomplishing the opposite.
     He further suggests that, had we in this country had the courage and insight to do this thirty years ago, when the first oil shocks occurred, we would be far better off today. We at PlanetWatch share this sentiment, and have been suggesting that for some time.
     So, we can lament opportunities lost, and complain about the extra money we are spending going to the Arabian peninsula and Hugo Chavez, rather than to better schools and infrastructure here at home. But we need to deal with the reality we face.
     There are a few optimistic straws in the
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Biofuels Come a Cropper

New "Science” Studies Say All Lead to Higher CO2 Emissions

As American farmers reap the  corn-ethanol bonanza and new ventures chase more efficient ethanol feedstocks, two troubling studies reported in “Science” magazine say that all forms of biofuels will result in higher CO2 emissions than petroleum.
     Earlier analyses based comparative ratings on the full production cycle -- from growing a crop to its ethanol conversion to its final burning -- and concluded that, while corn-ethanol might emit somewhat less than gasoline, other plants such as sugar cane and switchgrass might cut emissions by as much as 85%. But the “Science” studies factor in the
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Oil on the Water:                        June 30,'08

So, Should We Drill Offshore? Good Idea or Bad?

Artfully seizing on $4-plus gasoline as the ascendant issue for voters,  John McCain stirred up a squall when he proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling two weeks ago, which he said would "be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis".
     President Bush immediately signed on. He wants to compel Congress to overturn a ban that has been law for 25 years. "If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act," he said in the White House Rose Garden. "And Americans will rightly ask how high…gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something."

     That McCain and Bush sought to create the impression that revocation of the drilling ban will have anything to do with today's gasoline price was seen as an election tactic that had Democrats steamed. What's more, Congress is desperate to appear to be taking action in an election year, holding hearings and cranking out bills tailored to the public ignorance of the oil market. Our legislators — Senator Obama among them — want us to believe that penalizing the oil majors with a "windfall" profits tax, or legislation to curtail speculation, is the answer to high gasoline prices.
     Time to see if we can sort out the confusion — the conflicting arguments, the twisted facts, the political demagoguery — to see whether or not offshore drilling makes sense.
Why Is the Price of Oil So High?      Speculators of course have an effect on prices, but there seems to be universal agreement that there is no way of knowing just how much. One theory says speculation represents a flight from the declining dollar and resulting inflation (it is not for nothing that oil is called "black gold"). Arguing that speculators are the cause is an attempt Click to continue

Is There a Plug-in Hybrid in Your Future?        June 15, '08

Judging from the response at a Washington conference last week sponsored by Google.org, the non-profit foundation funded by Google and the Brookings Institution, the answer is likely to be 'yes'. Focusing primarily on the public policy issues, the conference participants, including those from the automotive industry, accepted the premise that technology for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is generally in place, although lots can be done to bring down price and support full-scale deployment.
     Reasons for encouraging the PHEV varied according to the participants’ broader interests. Former CIA director Jim Woolsey put great emphasis on the need to displace our dependence on foreign oil for geo-political reasons, arguing that the direct connection between oil imports and the use of gasoline in the transportation system called for urgent action as a matter of national strategy. Others were focused more on questions of climate change, with the strong argument that the electricity produced by even a coal-fired utility plant to power an electric car would produce less CO˛ than would a conventional gasoline powered automobile for the same distance. Congressman John Dingell (D-MI) who spoke at the conference dinner announced his intention to develop climate legislation that could pass the Congress—a clear reference to the failed Boxer bill—and that
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Wait 'til Next Year?

Freighted With Huge Costs, Climate Bill Sinks in Senate        June 7, '08

On the same day that oil leaped $10.75 to beyond $138 a barrel, causing a 394-point plunge of the Dow,  the  Climate Security Act, with some $526 billion for alternative energy development, including gasoline substitutes, sputtered and died in the U.S. Senate.
     The 48 votes to end the debate — the "cloture" that would have signified acceptance of the bill — fell far short of the 60 needed. Messages from 5 more senators were sent to the floor saying they would have voted yay had they been present. Senators McCain and Obama were among them, but just another day of campaigning was somehow more important than attending.
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And Time for Another Look at ANWR?

Although John McCain ruled it out in his speech, a chorus arose once again to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), with George W Bush leading the song.
     Columnist George Will laments that "One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there". This does not square with the economics of the time. At the then $16 nominal price of a barrel of oil, would anyone have drilled?
     Those economics gave ANWR critics an argument. Oil that could be recovered economically at such prices would provide only 3% of U.S. needs. ANWR has incorrectly been touted as a panacea, which it is not, while to others it is symbolic of excessive environmental concerns. Opponents to drilling have held that it is not worth infringing on a wildlife reserve blessedly free of humanity's contamination for so little gain.
The Economics Have Changed     The economics are as follows. A 1998 survey by the U.S. Geological Survey determined that at $24 a barrel (the price had risen since the 1995 veto), there was a 95% chance that 2 billion barrels or more could be economically recovered, which works out to something less than 500,000 barrels a day, and that for only 10 years. That equates to the 3% that has been regularly bandied about.
     But the economics change significantly at today's prices. The

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Pain at the Pump:

Is $4.00 Gas Finally Slowing America's Oil Addiction?        June 9, '08

For years, environmentalists, scientists and concerned politicians have suggested that higher fuel prices, or an increase in the federal gasoline tax, would force Americans to buy smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, car pool, use public transit or ride bikes. In the process, the argument went, Detroit would react to consumer preference by replacing their fleet of trucks and SUVs with more efficient vehicles or hybrids. Now, given the recent spike in gasoline prices, today averaging $4.00 a gallon nationwide, this argument has been put to the test.
We're Driving Less: The Federal Highway Adminstration reports that Americans drove 4.5 billion fewer miles this April than April of last year.      Even before gas prices reached $4.00 per gallon, Americans were buying hybrids or more fuel-efficient cars. This May, the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla were the two top-selling vehicles in the United States.Click to continue

Energy's 3rd Rail:

Where Does Nuclear Fit Into the Energy Future?

At PlanetWatch, we find it uniquely challenging to form recommendations regarding the role of nuclear power in future energy plans for Earth.
     First, the capital required to build a nuclear facility is very high. Second, no one wants a plant near where they live owing to fears, not completely unfounded, that another Three Mile Island or Chernobyl could ensue. Third, there are unresolved questions of how suitably to dispose of waste material from these plants. Finally, and perhaps most important, there is some risk that more nuclear facilities
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Energy Dept. Cancels Clean Coal Development

Four years into a project to develop the technologies for “clean coal”, the Department of Energy has pulled the plug, blaming higher cost Continue

Big Oil Is Playing the Shell Game

Despite the $.51 paid them for every gallon of ethanol they blend with gasoline, U.S. oil

companies are waging a stealth war against the gasoline substitute. Continue

Are Americans Catching On to the Bottled Water Hoax?

Drinking bottled water, especially imported brands, is dangerous to the planet’s health. It may also be hazardous to your personal health.
     This revisionist view of the nation’s chronic Continue

Laws And Sausages

An old political adage, attributed by some to Bismarck, says that two things you don’t want to see made are laws and sausages. That’s been particularly true this year as the 110th Congress has gone at the Continue

A Nation Ill-Prepared for the Future?

Both Presidential candidates want to adopt a cap-and-trade system tp force down CO2

emissions.
     But will this lead to shortages before alternatives come on stream? Continue

Introduction to Green Building Advocacy

"Green Building” is the 21st Century catch phrase for architectural designs that emphasize conservation of energy resources in harmony with their natural and nearby surroundings. The basic components are Continue