Filed under: Ethanol, Legislation and Policy

Not to be outdone by those Coors ethanol vehicles at the DNC, Republicans will get their own ethanol-dose during their national convention this week. On Tuesday night in the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council will host a "celebration" called AgNite (because you know that farmers are the first to ditch old school and correct spellings of words like night). The self-styled non-partisan AgNite will celibrate "America's food and agricultural industry with key policymakers, convention delegates, media, and top industry leaders" and will feature an ethanol angle thanks to the sponsorship of the Renewable Fuels Association.

Ethanol promoters have a lot of work to do to get Republican delegates on the same page. The National Review's Corner says that the GOP's party platform recently voted against strong ethanol mandates, following strong discussion.

[Source: AgNite via Domestic Fuel, National Review]

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Filed under: Cars and Transportation, Polit-eco, GreenTech

Over the past few months, the gas crisis has inspired an endless parade of suggestions for reducing America's dependence on foreign oil. From opening offshore drilling to distilling ethanol to fast-tracking a fuel-cell car program, there has been no lack of plans for cutting oil imports. Ironically, while these impressive, innovative solutions have crowded the news, relatively little attention has been paid to one of America's most energy efficient forms of shipping and transportation: railways.

Every day, tons of goods are moved across the United States. Most of this shipping is done by truck, resulting in the consumption of millions of gallons of fuel and the release of thousands of tons of exhaust. While container shipping and America's vast network of highways make trucking the simplest form of shipping, it is also among the most expensive.

One solution to this problem would be the increased use of rail shipping. According to the Association of American Railroads, U.S. railroads use, on average, only one gallon of fuel to move a ton of freight over 436 miles. This represents an 85% increase in efficiency since 1980, and is, according to AAR President Edward R. Hamberger, "three or four times more fuel efficient than trucks." Other sources claim that the difference is even more dramatic; Treehugger, for example, states that trucks can move a ton of freight only 59 miles on a gallon of gas, which would make railroads seven times more fuel efficient than trucks. Regardless, Hamberger goes on to note that "if just 10% of the freight currently moving by truck went instead by rail, the nation could save one billion gallons of fuel by year."

With that in mind, it seems mind-boggling that the vast majority of the United States' goods aren't moved by rail. According to Ted Michon, a noted rail consultant,"the class one railroads - and there are five of them - are currently working at or over capacity." Any expansion of operations will require a significant investment in locomotives, rail yards, and track. In the case of locomotives, this means placing orders several months ahead of time, in the hopes that the demand for increased rail service will remain consistent. Similarly, laying track and building rail yards also requires considerable advance planning. Unfortunately, fluctuations in the price of oil could alter consumer demand, undermining the cost-effectiveness of rail shipping.

Ultimately, the biggest roadblock to more widespread rail usage is America's lack of a long-term transportation policy. Unfortunately, as Michon notes, "Every major change in transportation policy has been caused by a crisis." This certainly is true of major expenditures in highways and airports; presumably, it will also be played out in the matter of rail infrastructure. While there isn't much that the average citizen can do to increase rail usage, it's worth paying attention to the rhetoric being employed by the major parties as we get closer to the next Presidential election. When political candidates speak out against rail infrastructure, they are, effectively, endorsing a more expensive and wasteful transportation policy!

 

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Filed under: Etc., Green Daily, USA

Photo by phogel. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

While increased gas prices didn't stop holiday weekend travel in the recent past, this year might be different. The double whammy of higher-than-last-year's gas prices and Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico means that around 1.1 percent fewer people in the U.S. will be traveling more than 50 miles from home this Labor Day compared to 2007, says the AAA. Prices for a gallon of gas in many Gulf Coast states is around a dollar higher this year than last year, which is contributing to the no-vacation-this-year mentality, according to the AP. A lot of people who still want to travel but can't afford to do so in their own cars will be checking out bus and train tickets (airline travel will be down 4.5 percent) says CNN. I'll admit to driving more than 50 miles this weekend - what's your plan?

[Source: AP]

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Ministers and officials from more than 100 countries, as well as representatives of multilateral development and financial agencies, are meeting in Accra, Ghana this week (Sept. 2-4) to discuss ways of making development aid more effective. 

At its best, development aid from rich countries to help the world's most needy can really touch the poor, giving them the means and the know-how to transform their lives and future in self-sustaining projects that profitably plug their labour and activities into the globalised world.

A project I visited in Senegal is helping Senegalese peasant farmers to become international exporters of melons.

But horror stories abound in the international aid community about wasteful proliferation, confusion and overlap of aid projects -- the so-called "Tower of Babel" syndrome in which aid projects sometimes go ahead without the full collaboration of host governments and may even compete with each other.

If badly conceived and applied, aid projects can squander hundreds of millions of aid dollars in costly "white elephants" that end up providing uncontrolled funds and expensive SUVs to a handful of corrupt officials, while leaving the intended recipients as poor as they were before. 

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, the African country which has received one of the highest levels of aid per capita on the continent since independence, has criticised some aid NGOs as being "greedy gobblers of aid resources, absorbing the best part of this through all kinds of schemes, in administration, travel and luxury hotel costs for so-called experts -- rather than spending on actions".  He recommends innovative aid initiatives that "help people to stand up".

Some might ask what Senegal really has to show for this aid influx over the years, when we see an exodus of many young Senegalese risking their lives every year in rickety, open boats to try to reach Europe to seek a better life.

Many economists believe the stress should very much be put on trade rather than aid.

What do you think a "good" aid project should consist of? Do you know any examples of failed aid projects and why do you think they failed? What changes should be made in the way the rich world delivers aid to the poor?

Filed under: Kids and Parenting

With diesel gas prices on the rise, school districts across the country are cutting back on their bus service bby eliminating busing, consolidating bus stops, canceling field trips and making students walk longer distances to school, according to an AP article.

While walking to school sounds healthier, some are alarmed. Bob Riley, of the American School Bus Council (not an objective group, but nevertheless) makes a great point: When you remove a school bus from the road, it doesn't mean that all of the kids are going to walk. Chances are many of them are going to be driven, adding 40 to 50 cars to the road. I would add that it's not just about the driving to school, but the idling in the dropoff or pickup line once there.

In addition, if students have to walk, they could be endangered if there are not proper sidewalks and crosswalks en route. Wendy Landman, the executive director of Walk Boston, a nonprofit group that promotes walking, said school officials needs to consider the effects of reducing bus service "in a panic call," without considering that communities may need to pay for sidewalks and crosswalks and bike racks first.

 

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Italy settled its colonial era dispute with Libya at the weekend with $5 billion in compensation for wrongs done during colonial rule. The money will be invested in a major new highway as well as used for clearing mines and other projects. Both sides say that will allow them to make a new start.

Relations between Libya and Italy had been especially difficult and this was a very specific dispute, but Italian colonialism did not last all that long in Africa - even if there were episodes of particular nastiness while it did.

What about the far more important colonial players in Africa: Britain, France and Portugal? Not only was their presence far longer lasting, but they were more heavily involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade, which sapped the strength of west and central Africa for centuries and forced millions of its people into death or slavery. Calls for reparations from some quarters have never died down.

The colonial powers later carved up the map of Africa for their own administrative convenience and with little regard for those living there. Independence movements were often suppressed with heavy force — including in Algeria, the former Portuguese colonies and Kenya.

Since independence, the former colonial powers have given billions of dollars in development aid and other assistance. They generally have far better relationships with former colonies than Italy had with Libya.

But is it time for other former colonial powers to apologise and pay up for misdeeds on the continent? Or should the past be left for the history books?

Italy settled its colonial era dispute with Libya at the weekend with $5 billion in compensation for wrongs done during colonial rule. The money will be invested in a major new highway as well as used for clearing mines and other projects. Both sides say that will allow them to make a new start.

Relations between Libya and Italy had been especially difficult and this was a very specific dispute, but Italian colonialism did not last all that long in Africa - even if there were episodes of particular nastiness while it did.

What about the far more important colonial players in Africa: Britain, France and Portugal? Not only was their presence far longer lasting, but they were more heavily involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade, which sapped the strength of west and central Africa for centuries and forced millions of its people into death or slavery. Calls for reparations from some quarters have never died down.

The colonial powers later carved up the map of Africa for their own administrative convenience and with little regard for those living there. Independence movements were often suppressed with heavy force — including in Algeria, the former Portuguese colonies and Kenya.

Since independence, the former colonial powers have given billions of dollars in development aid and other assistance. They generally have far better relationships with former colonies than Italy had with Libya.

But is it time for other former colonial powers to apologise and pay up for misdeeds on the continent? Or should the past be left for the history books?

Filed under: Celebrities, Gadgets and Tech, News

This is the sort of brilliant idea that seems so logical that it's hard to believe we're just hearing it now.

With the cost of oil skyrocketing, the value of things made with oil, like high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic, is rising too. In the past year, the value of a ton of HDPE has more than doubled.

Because HDPE is very heat and solvent resistant, it has a lot of commercial uses, like for pipes and chemical containers. It also turns up in domestic settings, in laundry detergent bottles, plastic chairs, and milk jugs. And hula hoops!

Now, imagine how many zillions of tons of this kind of plastic is unrecycled in landfills around the world. Since plastic is basically inert (leaving chemical leaching aside for the purposes of this discussion,) it's just sitting there, waiting for an industrious entrepreneur who see gold in the plastic.

Because sometime soon, the cost of "mining" it from these landfills will drop to the point that it's less that the profit that can be made from collecting and reselling it, creating a very attractive profit margin. You might call them scavengers now, but one of these days we're going to see a whole new class of "billionaire recycling barons."

Beyond plastics and oil-based items, there are many other valuable resources buried in landfills around the world, like metals and building materials. As the idea catches on we're probably going to see some interesting technologies for extracting and repurposing these resources, which will also create new industries and jobs.

It's definitely a positive way to approach the problem of our overflowing landfills, by looking at them as potential gold mines instead of time bombs. Combined with efforts to go landfill-free, it feels like the world is finally getting a handle on our trash issues. It might even be encouraging enough to put noted trash expert Oscar the Grouch in a good mood!

 

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The Week in CleanTech, Sunday Edition: The oil industry says possible damage from Hurricane Gustav may not be so bad — and is this the new Chevy Volt?

Gulf oil braces for Gustav: Industry analysts say that while a major strike by Gustav on the central Gulf Coast would cause disruptions in regional oil production, petroleum facilities are generally less vulnerable than just a few years ago. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita virtually shut down Gulf platforms and transit facilities in 2005, but since then, measure have been taken to harden both land-based and offshore installations. New rigs have been built higher and are better anchored, old platforms have been reinforced, and pipelines are now buried deeper to improve their survivability. Friday morning computer models of Gustav’s possible track have moved eastward, reducing the immediate danger to Texas and Louisiana facilities. Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency moved Thursday to calm investor jitters by promising to release petroleum reserves in the case of major supply interruptions. (CNN Money)

FACTBOX - Energy and tax proposals in Obama speech: In his Thursday evening speech accepting the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, Barack Obama laid out his vision for energy reforms in the United States. Topping the list: a ten year, $150 billion investment in wind, solar, and biofuel development. Obama pledged to end U.S. dependence on Middle eastern oil within a decade, stepping up deployment of so-called “Clean Coal” technologies and nuclear power. The Illinois Senator promised aid to American automakers in the creation of smaller, more efficient vehicles, and said that green investment would yield up to 5 million high-quality jobs by 2018. (Reuters/EcoDiario.es)

Ford Spends $75 Million to Retool Michigan Truck Plant for Small Car Production: Ford Motor Company appears to be keeping its promise to retool truck and SUV assembly plants to produce a new generation of smaller vehicles. Company officials announced this week it will spend $75 million to convert a Michigan plant’s Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator line to produce their new C-Class passenger car. It’s a major project, and production isn’t expected until the 2010 model year. Ford says it will move to consolidate its model line, producing some of their successful European models in North America and Asian markets. (Treehugger)

Compressed-air storage coming to wind power: One of the traditional problems with windpower is producing base electricity — the juice which must be available to customers at all times, regardless of whether the wind happens to be blowing. Storing electrical energy on an industrial scale is not currently practical. But a New Jersey company thinks they have a solution: storing that energy in the form of compressed air. Energy Storage and Power plans to invest $20 million developing a system which would pump compressed air into underground caverns, such as depleted natural gas well or salt domes. The compressed air could then be released on demand to run turbines and generate electric power. (CNET)

BREAKING: Is this the production Chevy Volt in Transformers 2?: General Motors is expected to officially unveil the final production-ready prototypes of the Chevy Volt plug-in car sometime in September, but it appears their hand may already have been tipped. Autoblog Green has a gallery of video screen captures from the filming of the upcoming movie Transformers 2 which appears to show a production Volt in all its purple glory. The overall look is more streamlined than earlier concepts, and agrees with the small teaser photographs recently circulated by GM. (Autoblog Green)

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Interesting news from Canada (Thanks to WorldChaning!) about exciting developments in what seems as a very eco-friendly alternative to trees as the source of paper: wheat straw.

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