Articles by JMG

W. Va. editorial says mining coal should be easier

This editorial is from 2007, not 1877: " First Things First: Let's Mine the Coal." Maybe there's something to the inbreeding jokes ...

We can talk about windmills, solar panels and biomass, and they undoubtedly are in our future. But those energy sources cannot meet the nation's growing energy demands now or in the foreseeable future. Nuclear energy may take on an expanded role, but not everyone will welcome it.

Our leaders must step up and tell the nation the truth: We need coal. It must remain a major source for electricity, and it certainly could and should be a source for motor fuels.

Is climate change an artifact of computer models?

Electric Politics has an audio interview on measuring climate change that might be of interest to many here.

A short video called ‘The Farm Bill Food Battle’

Funny and smart.

Interesting hydrogen-generating technology from Purdue

I hesitate to post this for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I think our fixation with maintaining automobility is going to be our undoing.

But there's no denying that if this works out as advertised*, this is a real step toward a noncarbon future that includes more energy, rather than less.

* Caveats:

1. The presser doesn't discuss the energy balance for reformulating the catalytic materials; aluminum is sometimes known as "congealed electricity" because of the energy cost of refining the virgin bauxite.
2. I have no idea how much gallium there is, although the presser suggests it's recyclable.
3. You would need to work out the energy cost of the whole process train, including the cost involved in building the windmills or PV panels needed to power the recycling process -- it's quite possible that this would turn out to be just another way to burn coal to make hydrogen, when all inputs and outputs are considered. We don't need ways to use coal to make hydrogen; we need ways to be entirely coal-free.