biofuels

His new piece says so in downright shrill terms

Jeff Goodell (see Grist interview) is apparently incapable of writing anything I don’t love. The latest is a piece in Rolling Stone called "Ethanol Scam." It’s downright shrill! Here’s what Goodell has to say about the ethanol hype: This is not just hype — it’s dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn’t burn cleaner than gasoline, nor […]

It’s not a ‘sustainable’ biofuel

So Europeans are buying Indonesian palm oil as a "sustainable" biofuel, but it isn't sustainable, as we've noted before. The tragedy continues:

Palm oil companies are burning peat forests to clear land for plantations in Indonesia's Riau province, despite government pledges to end forest fires ... Blazes have started flaring again since the end of June with the start of the dry season.

How a big deal is this? As The New York Times put it earlier this year, "Considering these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world's third-leading producer of carbon emissions that scientists believe are responsible for global warming." [Note to NYT: you can drop the "scientists believe" crap. Carbon emissions cause global warming -- deal with it, MSM!]

The emissions from the 1997 fires alone are staggering, as Nature reported in 2002 (sub. req'd):

Not very well

As reaction to Sarah’s post showed (rather more rudely than strictly necessary, I might add), Grist readers are not big fans of "Project Phin," the online video series launched by the Center for American Progress to promote flex fuels — i.e., ethanol. Ben Affleck dressed as a corn cob proved particularly irksome. CAP clearly got […]

New company says it can make better, cheaper biofuels

Picture a liquid fuel that is derived from the same feedstocks as cellulosic ethanol (switchgrass, sugar cane, corn stover) but contains 50% more energetic content and is made via a process that uses 65% less energy. Unlike cellulosic ethanol, this fuel can be distributed via existing oil pipelines rather than gas-hogging trucks and trains, dispensed […]

The TV show 24 will reduce its carbon footprint

Fans of 24 know that if there's one person that can stop climate change, it ain't Al Gore. It's Jack Bauer.

If you are not familiar with Jack, here are some of his qualifications from the site Random Jack Bauer Facts:

1. There are two hands that can beat a royal flush. Jack Bauer's right hand and Jack Bauer's left hand.
2. Most people would need months to recover from 20 months of Chinese interrogation. Jack Bauer needs a shower, a shave and a change of clothes.
3. The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.
4. If Jack Bauer had been a Spartan the movie would have been called "1".
5. Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.

Yup, Jack is one tough son-of-a-gun, and he and the producers of 24 have pledged to fight climate change and take the following steps to reduce their carbon footprint:

A conversation with energy guru Amory Lovins

If politicians think in sound bites and intellectuals think in sentences, Amory Lovins thinks in white papers. His speech is studded with pregnant pauses — you can almost hear the whirs and clicks as an enormous mass of statistics, analyses, and aphorisms is trimmed and edited into a manageable length. I’ve talked to experts who […]

Philpott on the ground in corn country

In my very first article for Grist a year and a half ago, I declared with confidence that “If you’re going to talk about poverty, food, and the environment in the United States, you might as well start in the Corn Belt.” Trouble is, I had never actually been in corn country, at least not […]

My product rules!

So, I’m reading this incredibly weak defense of corn ethanol, and I’m thinking, "who the hell would put their name on this swill?" Then I get to the bottom: Robert Gallant is president and chief executive officer of GreenField Ethanol, Canada’s largest ethanol producer. Ah.

Ignore those flashing lights! Full speed ahead!!

Yawn. Another story about the way production of biofuels (inferior substitutes for a commodity that is wasted in gargantuan quantities daily) consumes many times their weight in water, a truly vital liquid.

The money quote, the perfect encapsulation of all that is stupid, is here:

State Sen. David Johnson, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said he will not support regulations on how ethanol facilities use water until he sees proof that Iowa's aquifers are in trouble.

You go, Senator! Never address a problem until it's a crisis, that's the spirit! You are a true credit to your species, sir.