2007: a banner year for biofuels

Thursday, December 27, 2007

From a press release issued by Brett Hulsey of Better Environmental Solutions:

Madison, Wisconsin — 2007 was a banner year for biofuels as state and national leaders passed initiatives to expand and invest in biofuels to reduce energy costs, dependence and air pollution. A new Better Environmental Solutions study, Ethanol: A Convenient Solution to an Inconvenient Truth, showed that ethanol is one of the best ways to cut greenhouse gases, save drivers money, reduce oil imports and air pollution.

“This Better Enviro study shows that ethanol is a convenient solution to the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of global warming. Governor Doyle, Wisconsin and federal legislators should be commended for expanding biofuel usage and investment,” said Brett Hulsey MNS, president of Better Environmental Solutions and study author. “Ethanol is a homegrown fuel, costs less than gasoline, and moderate ethanol blends can be delivered with existing pumps and vehicles with no modification.”

The Convenient Solutions study shows that the 7 billion gallons of ethanol that U.S. drivers used in 2007 year will reduce CO2 emissions by 14 million tons, which is equivalent to taking 2.75 million cars off the road or not burning 1.45 billion gallons of gasoline.

“Ethanol lowers CO2 emissions by 20% compared to gasoline, making it one of our most effective greenhouse gas reduction programs currently in place,” said Hulsey. “The Convenient Solutions study gives us hope in this holiday season that we can tackle climate change in a cost-effective way.”

The Convenient Solutions report also found moderate ethanol blends:

· Can increase mileage to help immediately address soaring gasoline prices and our record 66% oil imports in 2006.

· Increase auto efficiency by 1-15%, saving drivers at least $4.35 billion annually and help increase our energy security.

· Help reduce smog and soot pollution that plagues many areas of the state and country.

A 2007 USEPA study shows that more ethanol use is one of the quickest and most effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions from transportation, the U.S.’s single largest and fastest growing emissions sector.

Road building gets lion's share; transit gets squat

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

From a column by James Rowen in The Capital Times:

John Norquist, transit advocate and former Milwaukee mayor for whom I worked from 1996 to 2004, used to joke that balanced transportation in Wisconsin meant "half asphalt, half concrete."

The line got a lot of laughs, but regrettably it's a true description of transportation spending in our state, and certainly in southeastern Wisconsin, where three current examples illustrate the primacy of road building to the detriment of transit services.

1. Waukesha and Milwaukee county governments have failed to come to a cost-sharing agreement to save Route 9, a Milwaukee County bus line that carries about 70 workers daily from Milwaukee to their jobs in Waukesha County. . . .

2. An upscale shopping mall is on the drawing board at the 1,500-acre planned community in western Waukesha County called Pabst Farms, at the outskirts of the city of Oconomowoc.

Someone forgot to pencil in an interchange off I-94 so shoppers could drive to the site, so in a matter of weeks this fall -- warp-speed for bureaucracies -- Waukesha County, the city of Oconomowoc, the state Transportation Department and the mall developer all pledged money toward the interchange's $25 million price tag. . . .

3. Transit also gets the complete brushoff in a massive, seven-county regional freeway system rebuilding and expansion that includes Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. . . .

Integrys Energy Services turning trash into electricity

Sunday, December 23, 2007

From a press release issued by Integrys, parent company of Gree Bay utility Wisconsin Public Service Corporation:

Rockford, IL -- Integrys Energy Services announced that all four units at its recently completed Winnebago Energy Center, a landfill gas-to-electricity plant located in Rockford, are now operational and actively supplying electric power to the grid.

The 6.4 megawatt plant uses methane gas produced by decomposing trash to power four Caterpillar engines which generate electric power that flows back to the grid. Using the methane produced by decomposing trash to create electricity means this greenhouse gas is beneficially used and not flared or emitted to the atmosphere. The renewable energy is sold in the PJM market.

The 6.4 megawatts of green power generated at the Winnebago Energy Center is annually equivalent to taking 56,000 cars off the road; or planting 76,000 acres of trees; or powering 5,000 homes. The facility is an important energy resource because methane generation from the landfill is fairly constant, unlike other renewable sources that are dependent on local wind or solar resources. The plant has potential for expansion up to 8 megawatts.

Energy Center of Wisconsin launches daylighting newsletter

Friday, December 21, 2007

From the Energy Center of Wisconsin:

Enlighten, Volume 1, Issue 1
The bimonthly newsletter of the Daylighting Collaborative

Winter solstice, 2007
Welcome to the first issue of Enlighten the newsletter of the Daylighting Collaborative. The winter solstice marks the return of the sun as our daylight hours begin to lengthen over the next months. It is an appropriate occasion to invite you to learn how to light your buildings using the sky. The Daylighting Collaborative is your window on the world of daylighting design. Our bimonthly newsletter will highlight new developments in daylighting technologies, present research results and connect you with a community of daylighting practitioners.

The Daylighting Collaborative is a program initiated by the Energy Center of Wisconsin and supported by our sponsors. We work collaboratively with other companies, organizations, and individuals to promote the practice of using daylighting in buildings. We’re promoting daylighting because good daylighting creates beautiful, appropriately lit spaces while saving energy. Good daylighting design is an essential strategy for reducing energy use in buildings and meeting the 2030 Challenge.

The Daylighting Collaborative delivers information through our portal. There you will find direct links to other sources of information, citations of current research and annotated references to printed resources to help you successfully daylight your buildings.

Our newsletter is a snapshot of what’s new in the world of daylighting. It will notify you of new information posted on the website, including technical and design updates. In the future, the newsletter will include articles by experts in the daylighting design and construction community providing insight on projects, new technology developments or even random thoughts on the world of daylighting.

We look forward to working with you to light every building using the sky!

Energy Center of Wisconsin launches daylighting newsletter

From the Energy Center of Wisconsin:

Enlighten, Volume 1, Issue 1
The bimonthly newsletter of the Daylighting Collaborative

Winter solstice, 2007
Welcome to the first issue of Enlighten the newsletter of the Daylighting Collaborative. The winter solstice marks the return of the sun as our daylight hours begin to lengthen over the next months. It is an appropriate occasion to invite you to learn how to light your buildings using the sky. The Daylighting Collaborative is your window on the world of daylighting design. Our bimonthly newsletter will highlight new developments in daylighting technologies, present research results and connect you with a community of daylighting practitioners.

The Daylighting Collaborative is a program initiated by the Energy Center of Wisconsin and supported by our sponsors. We work collaboratively with other companies, organizations, and individuals to promote the practice of using daylighting in buildings. We’re promoting daylighting because good daylighting creates beautiful, appropriately lit spaces while saving energy. Good daylighting design is an essential strategy for reducing energy use in buildings and meeting the 2030 Challenge.

The Daylighting Collaborative delivers information through our portal. There you will find direct links to other sources of information, citations of current research and annotated references to printed resources to help you successfully daylight your buildings.

Our newsletter is a snapshot of what’s new in the world of daylighting. It will notify you of new information posted on the website, including technical and design updates. In the future, the newsletter will include articles by experts in the daylighting design and construction community providing insight on projects, new technology developments or even random thoughts on the world of daylighting.

We look forward to working with you to light every building using the sky!

Renewables course catalog posted for 2008 workshops

Thursday, December 20, 2007

From the Midwest Renewable Energy Association's Web site:

MREA offers workshops that cover a variety of topics in renewable energy. Come learn from experts in the field about subjects including:

- wind systems
- PV-photovoltaics (solar electric)
- solar thermal systems for domestic hot water and space heating
- photovoltaic, wind and solar thermal site assessor training and certification.
- women only workshops
- biodiesel and veggie oil for diesel vehicles and space heating
- window quilts
- masonry heaters
- energy efficient and alternative construction; women's construction. straw bale, superinsulation techniques, passive solar design, timber framing...

Access all of the courses and registration material here.

Rep. Black's survey shows support for fuel efficiency and rail

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

From a press release issued by State Rep. Spencer Black:

Wisconsin should adopt higher fuel efficiency standards for new cars and should support development of a high speed rail system, according to the overwhelming majority of constituents responding to Representative Spencer Black’s annual legislative survey. Black released the results of his annual legislative survey of the 77th Assembly District.

“The holiday travel season is upon us and people want more energy efficient ways to
travel,” Black said. “My constituents would like to see a high speed rail system linking Wisconsin’s major cities with each other and with Chicago and Minneapolis. Our country is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not have fast trains between our major metropolitan areas.”

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of survey respondents supported a high speed rail system
and only nine percent (9%) were opposed. The remainder was undecided. However, support for a commuter rail system within Dane County was far less strong with only a slight majority of 51% in support.

Black’s survey also found strong support for Wisconsin adopting tougher mile per gallon standards for new cars. Thirteen states have already adopted the tougher standards. “The federal government has not updated the mileage standards since 1977 despite increased gas prices and the threat of global warming. States are taking action because of the failure of leadership at the national level,” Black noted.

Poll shows support for transit plan

Monday, December 17, 2007

A story from The Capital Times:

Edgewood College poll: While some Dane County communities have weighed in against a regional transit authority that would have the ability to set up a sales tax district to help pay for commuter rail, road and bus transit in the county, a recent survey shows popular support.

An Edgewood College survey of 262 likely Dane County voters on a variety of issues, conducted the second week of November, showed that 65 percent of the respondents supported the taxing authority, with 35 percent opposed. In Madison, residents supported the taxing authority by a 68 percent to 32 percent margin. Voters outside the city supported the taxing authority at a 61 to 39 percent margin.

The margin of error of the survey was 5.5 to 6 percent.

Asking for peace

Friday, December 14, 2007

Tonight I was pedaling home (to Oregon) from a wonderful Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin listening session in the Memorial Union. As I rolled into the north end of town I noticed quite a few cars and pickups parked outside a sports bar there. The thought flashed through my mind, "I could stop and ask the people inside whether they would give up driving to the bar if that is what it took to stop the war in Iraq."

As usual, I was terrified of doing such a thing. But for once I didn't do the usual thing - i.e. NOT do it and then brood and fume about what a chicken I am. I went inside and saw 7 or 8 younger guys sitting at a table, none of whom I had ever met. They looked up at me in a friendly way and several said "Hi". I said "Hi" and then asked them the question I was scared to ask.

One guy immediately yelled, "Hell yes!" He is a veteran of the current war in Iraq. I shook his hand, thanked him for serving his country, and then opined that I believe his country and his President have treated him disgracefully. He did not disagree - he related how much his views have changed since he volunteered a few years ago.

Then I spoke to the other guys. I told them that I want peace on Earth, but we are not going to buy that peace at Kwik Trip. I told them that I have no idea how to change how we live in Oregon. I said some other stuff and several of us talked a bit - I don't recall exactly what because by then my stomach was all butterflies. I couldn't believe I had done it.

I don't say this stuff to you to brag. I say it because I believe that if we are ever going to have a peaceful, sustainable world, we must speak it into existence.

I also know that tonight I truly lived. I want all of you to live.

Peace

Hans Noeldner

Biosolids: A case of waste not, want not?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

From an article by Deb Fitzgerald posted on WISinfo.com:

Bus tours carry people to Forestville from far flung places like Argentina and Brazil so visitors may witness the successful business practices of S&S Ag Enterprises, LLC.

Owned by Adrian and Kay Schmidt, in partnership with their son and daughter-in-law, Randy and Dena, the limited liability corporation is the largest heifer-raising farm in Wisconsin.

The custom operation is like a bovine daycare for 13 different dairy farms in northeast Wisconsin, boarding some 4,000 heifers, or young females that haven’t calved yet. . . .

The Schmidts’ heifers don’t produce calves or milk, but they do produce 14 million gallons of dung per year, which eventually fertilizes the Schmidts’ 5,000 acres of corn, wheat, alfalfa and soybeans.

With a $250,000 seed grant from Focus on Energy, the Schmidts will, beginning next year, first feed all that organic waste to a $1.8 million anaerobic digester that’s built into the ground like a 210-foot long, 72-foot wide, 166-foot deep septic tank.

By next fall, the busloads of visitors will have another reason to tour the southern Door County operation: a renewable energy system that’s connected to the utility grid, converting heifer waste into enough electricity to power 400 homes.

Tar sands bring environmental doomsday?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

From an article by Nicholas Kohler posted on McCleans.CA:

Left unfettered, Alberta's energy sector will, by the end of this century, transform the southern part of the province into a desert and its north into a treeless, toxic swamp. Driven both by global warming and oil and gas developments, temperatures in Alberta will soar by as much as eight degrees. The Athabasca River will slow to a trickle, parching the remainder of the province's forests and encouraging them to burst into flame, generating vast quantities of CO2. "They're going to be the architects of their own destruction," says journalist William Marsden, whose new book outlines the environmental threats posed by Alberta's energy industry.

Even now, fish pulled from the Athabasca downstream of the oil sands taste of gasoline and smell of burning galoshes in the fry pan. The landscape is perforated by more than 300,000 oil and gas wells. Water in some areas to the south can be set alight with a match, likely due to coal-bed methane developments. Doctors administering to Aboriginal communities not far from the oil sands report high rates of thyroid conditions and rare diseases such as cancer of the bile duct. Some from those communities have been employed at the oil sands raking in the carcasses of ducks floating on vast pools of rotten water, the by-product of the sands' oil-extraction methods.

Such are the claims contained in Marsden's upcoming Stupid to the Last Drop: How Alberta is Bringing Environmental Armageddon to Canada (And Doesn't Seem to Care), which presents a scenario almost too frightening to contemplate and suggests Alberta may already be too far gone for redemption -- indeed, that it is environmentally doomed.

Money talks

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

From an entry by Hans Noeldner, a local peak oil activist, on The Oil Drum:

Somewhere along the way, we-the-people seem to have reached a consensus that when it comes to allocating natural resources, money should do the talking. In fact many true believers contend money is the only legitimate communicator.

“How much oil should I be able to burn? Every barrel I can afford.”

“How big a house – how many houses – should I be able to buy? Just as many as I can afford.”

“How much CO2 should I be able to emit? Not one damned molecule less than I can afford.”

“And if I want to burn and buy and emit more, then acquiring more money naturally gives me the right to do so.”

If our economy fails to charge us the “true cost” of denying future generations the fossil energy they might need to feed themselves 50 years hence; if our economy suffocates vast swathes of bio-productive land beneath highways and parking lots for our Happy Motoring convenience, if our economy fails to extract “flood money” from us to recompense millions of coastal dwellers for the loss of their ancestral homelands beneath rising oceans; well…perhaps the solution is to internalize those costs somehow.

Tellingly, the specific methods politicians might use to sneak such price-boosting tariffs past hyper-vigilant business interests and an unsupportive consuming public are seldom explained. But in any case it is deemed essential that we remember the distribution of natural resources is not – and cannot be – a “moral” issue.

Misplaced values

Monday, December 10, 2007

Landmark energy bill stalls in the Senate

Friday, December 07, 2007

A news summary on grist.com:

Today [Dec. 7], Senate Republicans blocked efforts to push through the landmark energy bill that was passed by the House yesterday. To cut off debate on the bill and avoid a filibuster, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) needed 60 votes; he got only 53. Republican leaders in the Senate now hope to strip out two key provisions of the bill: a Renewable Portfolio Standard mandating that utilities produce 15 percent of their energy from renewables by 2020, and a provision that would cut tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies. President Bush wants those components out of the bill too, and has said he would veto the bill if they're not removed. If the Senate does change the bill, it will need to return to the House for another vote, where advocates for clean energy won't be happy with a watered-down version.

Bali blog from Union of Concerned Scientists

Thursday, December 06, 2007

For the next two weeks, Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), will report from the United Nations global warming conference in Bali, Indonesia.

An e-mail from Knobloch explains the significance of the conference:

In 1992, countries from around the world, including the United States, signed the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—an international treaty addressing the issue of global warming. To date, 192 nations have ratified the treaty.

In 1997, at a meeting in Kyoto, Japan, the UNFCCC was strengthened by an amendment that set legally binding targets and timelines for reducing global warming pollution from developed nations. The “Kyoto Protocol” entered into force in 2005 and has been ratified by all industrialized countries—except the United States.

The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Therefore, a new framework of deeper emission reductions needs to be developed and approved. Countries hope to leave Indonesia with a “Bali Roadmap” that will lay out this new framework and, for the first time, include guidelines for developing as well as developed countries.

You can follow Knobloch's daily reports on the USC's Bali blog.

Have you truly asked?

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

From Hans Noeldner:

Last night I asked the Village of Oregon Board for a Christmas
present – a promise from Board members to walk or bicycle to at least half of Board meetings next year. I pointed out that minimizing their own "absolute reliance on the automobile*" on the way to such meetings is a very good way for Board members to put themselves into the proper frame of mind to lead the rest of us towards this goal as well. Then I held up the gas pump nozzle I bought on eBay, observed
that these devices are the real voting machines in America, and shared my dream to see cobwebs on most of the gas pump nozzles in Oregon.

Thus far one of the trustees has indicated he "believes" he will give me this gift.

---

Because the other day it struck me quite out of the blue that I have not been asking, truly ASKING, other people for the gift of a sustainable world. I am suddenly filled with the spirit of asking! I am not going to be too afraid or too proud to ask any more!

So I will ask for this Christmas gift from you: please imagine what would happen if dozens - HUNDREDS - of us asked for similar gifts from our municipal mepresentatives...and families...and friends... and co-workers. Then please follow your heart.

May God bless you this Christmas - whether you are a Christian or
not**.

Hans Noeldner
Oregon, WI

** I don't know about you, but I am thoroughly sick of the politically correct secularism that has suffocated the Christian spirit of Christmas even as it turns a blind eye to the heathen orgy of consumptive excesses (commencing with Black Friday) that has now comprises our "Happy Holidays". I dream that someday people of all
faiths - and of no "official" faith at all - will share the generous spirit of their own celebrations with everyone too. How could anyone in his right mind take offense?

Lego tourney sends robots on renewable energy missions

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

From a story in the Appleton Post-Crescent:

APPLETON — Appleton East High School will host the Wisconsin State Championship First Lego League Tournament from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

The event will feature 400 children ages 9 through 14. A total of 48 teams have qualified for state through regional events.

State team project presentations will run from 8:30 a.m. to noon, with opening ceremonies at 12:15 p.m. and robot competitions from 12:45 to 4:30 p.m. The competition is free and open to the public.

Fox Valley area children are among 100,000 students around the world who are taking part in the 2007 First Lego League Power Puzzle Challenge. To successfully complete the challenge, teams must build and program a Lego Mindstorms robot to complete "missions" involving solar panels, wind turbines, hydro-dams and tree planting.

Trade I-94 lanes for rail lines

Monday, December 03, 2007

From an article by Sean Ryan in The Daily Reporter:

Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman wants to rebuild Interstate 94 without additional lanes, and use the $200 million in savings for public rail projects.

Bauman pointed out the opposition to creating new car-rental or sales taxes to pay for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail line, but said he saw little reaction to the state’s plan to spend $1.9 billion rebuilding and expanding I-94 between Milwaukee and the state line.

His metaphor was that highway projects feast atop a high altar, and transit projects for rail and buses scurry on the ground below, picking up scraps.

“I’m just trying to get the debate going,” Bauman said. “Highways are like they’re in a sacred place. You never question it. You never consider it in conjunction with other projects.”

Bauman’s proposal is to spend $1.7 billion rebuilding I-94 with six lanes and safety improvements. The savings generated by not widening the highway to eight lanes could be invested in the KRM rail project or to run high-speed trains between Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. The city’s Public Works Committee, which Bauman chairs, will consider the proposal on Wednesday.

Through his spokesman Phillip Walzak, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said it is an interesting proposal worthy of investigation, and that the community needs to improve its investment in public and mass transit.