biofuels
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Critical List: Biofuels kinda suck, biomass kinda sucks, Toys ‘R’ Us embraces solar
The Fish and Wildlife Service has promised to evaluate the endangered status of 251 species in the next six years, if only so those pesky enviros will be quiet for a bit. The country's largest rooftop solar-energy field will be installed in New Jersey, at a Toys "R" Us distribution center. No word on when […]
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Biofuel from pond scum could replace 17 percent of imported oil
Good news: Growing algae for biofuel could allow us to replace almost half our oil imports! Bad news: It would take a ginormous amount of water and land. Better news: Even if we plan the algae farming in a water-conscious, environmentally responsible way, we can still replace 17 percent of imported oil with biofuel. That's […]
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Europe to turn Africans into fuel
After discovering the disastrous consequences of turning its own food crops into fuel, China has turned to cassava — mostly from southeast Asia — as a source for biofuels. Europe, meanwhile, is buying up tracts of "marginal land" in Africa in order to grow jatropha for biofuels. In the U.S., of course, it's corn for […]
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Obama’s energy security plan lacks imagination, ambition, stones
[UPDATE: Obama has delivered the speech. It was indeed weak-ass and deserving of an overall thumbs down, but there are more complexities to be analyzed, which I’ll get into in a subsequent post.] Today, President Obama will deliver an address at Georgetown University on the subject of energy security. This is, potentially at least, an […]
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Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion
The future’s looking sooty.Photo: Tami Heilemann, DOIInterior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday an enormous expansion in coal mining that threatens to increase U.S. climate pollution by an amount equivalent to more than half of what the United States currently emits in a year. A statement from Wild Earth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife […]
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Afghan-produced biofuels could be one good thing to come out of the war
In a larger sense, nobody wins in the war in Afghanistan. But Marine sergeant Brian Nelson is hoping that in one particular instance — encouraging Afghans to convert some of their crops to biofuel — everyone can win. Marines win because they can help meet their alternative energy goals. They want to cut fuel usage […]
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Why it’s a good idea to put sugar water in your gas tank
Photo: Alexander KaiserWouldn’t it be awesome if we could solve our waste problem and our fuel problem simultaneously, by turning one into the other? Okay, we’re nowhere near the stage where you can just scrape your plate into your car, but there are an increasing number of procedures for turning useless crap into fuel. Most […]
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The gobsmackingly gargantuan challenge of shifting to clean energy
If I were king, I’d make everyone in America set aside time to watch the first hour of this video. It will change the way you think. Since I’m just a blogger, I expect most people won’t, so beneath, I’ve extracted some of the key slides from Saul Griffith’s extraordinary presentation, to give a clear […]
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How to get to 100 percent renewables globally by 2050
There are many reasons to move to a sustainable energy system: fossil fuel supplies getting tighter, easy oil increasingly having to be replaced by uneasy oil, accelerating climate change. And most indications are that we’ll have to go there as soon as possible. But is it possible? And when? At Ecofys, we’ve been working for […]