Visitors tour zero-energy home

Monday, April 30, 2007

Standing between an evaculated tube solar water heater (rear) and photvoltaic panels (front) on the roof of his Madison home, Jeff Riggert (center) explains how the systems work to people who came to the open house sponsored by the Madison Peak Oil Group and the Association of Energy Service Professionals (AESP). Jeff serves as president of the local chapter of the AESP and actively participates in the peak oil group.

Jeff prepared a detailed description and economic analysis of the home's systems complete with additional photos.

See an earlier post with more about the house.

Kind introduces bill to promote biogas

From a story on Wisconsin Ag Connection:

Wisconsin Congressman Ron Kind has introduced legislation that would take billions of gallons of fossil fuels out of use by developing renewable energy from animal waste. The bill would provide tax incentives and guaranteed loans for small businesses to promote biogas, which is a substitute for natural gas created by the anaerobic digestion of animal waste and other organic bi-products.

"By providing modest federal support for this technology, we can jump-start the development of renewable energy from what is now regarded as waste," Kind said. "I recognize that biogas is just one part of our larger course to energy independence, but its one that will invest in rural communities, protect our environment from harmful greenhouse gases, and grow our economy."

Update on progress toward Green Capital City

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Sherrie Gruder, chair of the Sustainable Design and Energy Committee provided an update on "what great progress the city of Madison has made toward becoming a Green Capital City since the Green Blueprint was approved unanimously by the city council February 1, 2005 and the Sustainble Design and Energy Committee first convened September 2005. The colorful, beautiful web version will be posted on the city website soon. And this doesn't capture everything. Together we have been making Earth Day every day for the City of Madison!"

Read Building A Green Capital City: A Blueprint for Madison's Sustainable Design and Energy Future.

A definitely different point of view

Friday, April 27, 2007

Watch Energy supply is more important than climate change on YouTube.

Small: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7L-R_a6rwk
Big: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfCPa0OrMV8

Investing in biomass fuels will pay off for Wisconsin

Thursday, April 26, 2007

From an editorial in the Appleton Post-Crescent:

Ask the average person what comes to mind when he or she hears the phrase, "alternative fuel sources," and you'll probably hear about solar power, and wind power, and maybe even hydroelectricity.

"Manure" probably won't pop up in the conversation.

But that needs to change, according to Wisconsin firm Better Environmental Solutions, which produced a report that highlights the abundance of biomass available for energy use in the state. . . .

Even if the results only alleviate our reliance on petroleum or coal and biomass ethanol doesn't become a booming export, it could still generate perhaps billions in in-state economic activity and free up resources to continue the state's reinvention.

Turn off the leaf blower

The following letter to the editor appears in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

In Barbara Miner's April 22 Crossroads article, she cited the World Resources Institute and wrote that "the average person in the United States currently is responsible for about 20 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year."

On that same Sunday morning, a friend and I were hitting tennis balls at some public courts in Whitefish Bay when a resident across the street started a gas powered leaf/grass blower. Not only was it a 15-minute assault on the senses, but it was obvious a broom or rake would have done the trick. This is one case where shrinking his "carbon footprint" would have also saved his neighbors from his noise pollution.

If we are going to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions 80% to 90% by 2050, we need to take a more serious look at our individual energy use. All of us can make small changes by carpooling at times, taking mass transportation and turning the thermostat down in the winter and up in the summer. Our lives might be better in the process.

Dave Dickinson
Shorewood

Contact Congress to support small wind tax credit

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

There are now two Small Wind Investment Tax Credit bills in Congress –one in the House (H.R. 1772), and one in the Senate (S. 673) – that would provide consumers a tax credit when purchasing small wind turbines for their homes, farms, or small businesses.

To become law, these bills must show a broad range of support from Members of Congress. Having your members of Congress add their names to these bills as co-sponsors is one of the best ways to build this support.

Ways you can help get co-sponsors:

1. Call or e-mail your Senators’ offices and urge them to co-sponsor Senate bill S. 673, the “Rural Wind Energy Development Act,” introduced by Senators Ken Salazar (D-CO) and Gordon Smith (R-OR).

2. Call or e-mail your Representative’s office and request that they co-sponsor House bill H.R. 1772 (identical to the Senate bill), introduced by Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Tom Cole (R-OK).

You can do this easily online at: http://capwiz.com/windenergy/home/

More information here.

Legislative Alert: Extend the Production Tax Credit

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Urge your Representative to cosponsor H.R.197 to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC).

Take action here!

Please contact your Representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 197, a bill sponsored by Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) that would extend the PTC for an additional 5 years at its current full value.

The more cosponsors on a bill, the more momentum a bill has in passing through Congress. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has provided a sample letter for you to use when you contact your Representative.

The PTC is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2008. The bill, H.R. 197, would extend the PTC until December 31, 2013. AWEA continues to pursue a long-term extension of the PTC. A long-term extension is necessary for the industry to build a supply chain, ramp up production, and create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Author of nation's toughest global warming law to speak April 25

The author of the nation's strongest global warming law tells us how California is responding to climate change and how she gained the political support to get it done ...

"Leading the Way on Climate Change"
a free public lecture by Fran Pavley

3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 25
Memorial Union (see "Today in the Union" for room)
800 Langdon Street
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Fran Pavley has served three terms in the California State Assembly, where she is known as one of the most effective legislators in Sacramento. The former Mayor of Agoura Hills and long-time public school teacher is the author of landmark legislation (the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) on global warming that has become a model for other states and countries. She is also author of the first regulations on vehicle carbon dioxide emissions. Eleven other states and Canada have modeled their laws after Pavley's Clean Car Regulations. She has been selected as one of Scientific American's Top Technology Leaders in Transportation and received the 2006 California League of Conservation Voters' Global Warming Leadership Award along with former Vice President Al Gore.

This event is co-sponsored by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at UW-Madison. For more information, please contact Steve Pomplun at the Nelson Institute or call Steve at 263-3063.

Beyond corn: State's power future in prairie grass, cow manure

Monday, April 23, 2007

From a story by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:

Making motor fuel from corn comes with a variety of problems, from the amount of energy it takes to produce ethanol to the impact on food prices.

But a report prepared today for a biofuels conference at Monona Terrace says other burnable material such as prairie grass, crop residue, papermaking waste or cow manure holds far greater promise for turning Wisconsin into an energy powerhouse.

Wisconsin has almost 15 million tons of potential excess "biomass" that could produce 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol per year, enough to displace half of the 2.6 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the state last year, according to the report from Better Environmental Solutions.

If burned to produce electricity, this same amount of biomaterial could also replace about 15 million tons of coal, roughly 55 percent of the state's entire coal use, the report said.

Wisconsin joins Midwest group to boost bio-based fuels

Friday, April 20, 2007

According to a story by Lee Berquist in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Wisconsin and 11 other Farm Belt states have formed a consortium aimed at promoting greater use of bio-based fuels and products.

The leader of the North Central Bioeconomy Consortium for the first two years will be Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary Rod Nilsestuen.

The announcement will be made formally today in Madison at a biofuels conference, where officials will also say that the new group has received $100,000 from the Energy Foundation of San Francisco to underwrite the venture.

The intent of the group is to collaborate and share research in the emerging market.

Read the group's press release here.

Gasify biomass for energy

Thursday, April 19, 2007

From a column in The Capital Times by Margaret Krome, a member of the state Board of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

. . . there's an important technology that is sometimes overlooked in these discussions. Biomass gasification is an existing technology for capturing energy efficiencies that has immediate and profitable application. It has been used for years by industry to convert coal into natural gas, and it can be used to convert biomass crops just as well.

The state should encourage industries' use of biomass gasification from biomass crops to take advantage of this existing and environmentally sound technology now to help stabilize and build an agricultural market that can serve the state in the future.

Ultimately, our nation needs to learn how to conserve energy better. For many years to come, investments in energy conservation will far outstrip the payback from energy production. However, as we proceed down the path of agricultural energy production, it makes sense to create market incentives for farmers to produce biomass crops that are both environmentally optimal and profitable.

Polar Bears to stage “Die-In” at MG&E for Earth Day

For Immediate Release
April 19, 2007

Polar Bears to stage “Die-In” at Madison Gas & Electric for Earth Day

For more information, contact:
John Peck (608) 262-9036
jepeck@wisc.edu

Kate Moran (608) 287-1488
katemmoran@yahoo.com

Polar Bears, threatened with extinction by global warming, will stage a “Die-In” at Madison Gas and Electric’s Blount Street generating facility on Saturday, April 21.

The Polar Bear Die-In will be the finale of this year’s Earth Day Action that begins with a rally at Noon on the State Street steps of the Capitol. The brief rally will be followed by a march to MG&E where Madtown Liberty Players will stage the Die In to dramatize the plight of polar bears, indigenous peoples and the entire planet.

The rally will promote specific, concrete proposals in support of the following general demands: “No More Dirty Coal”, “Cap Wisconsin CO2 Emissions” and “Renewable Energy Now”. At Capitol rally, organizers will call on rally participants to actively support the Miller-Black Bill capping statewide CO2 levels at 1990 levels. At MG&E, we will announce the formation of a Citizen’s Commission on Dirty Coal to develop further work on stopping the use of dirty coal in our community.

The evidence of human caused global warming is overwhelming and there is no longer any real debate about the underlying science. Burning coal and other fossil fuels releases CO2 that is warming the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere has resulted in less sea ice in the Artic. Polar bears use the ice as a way to hunt for seals that are a cornerstone of their diet. Without adequate ice cover, polar bears starve or drown trying to swim out to find ice on which to hunt.

Madtown Liberty Players is Madison’s own provocative, cutting-edge street theater performance troupe and a perennial favorite at similar events. Popular theater can play a powerful role in educating and entertaining our community and this performance will be no exception. Madtown Liberty Players’ March 17, 2007 performance entitled “Flushed Away!” can be viewed on line at http://madlibplayers.org/?q=node/427.

This Earth Day Action was organized by concerned citizens from fine community organizations including the Industrial Workers of the World, Four Lakes Green Party, Peak Oil/Climate Crisis Action Network, Peregrine Forum, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Madison Infoshop and others.

Old-fashioned Bulbs No Good, Even For Heat

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A letter from the Madison Peak Oil Group's own Ross DePaola appeared in The Capital Times on April 9:

Dear Editor: One of your readers argued that it wouldn't be a good idea to replace all our incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs because we live in a cold climate and would use the heat that is given off to heat our homes.

If your goal was to heat your home with electric heating, that wouldn't be a bad idea; however, we all know that electric heating is expensive, inefficient and creates more greenhouse gases. Burning coal to generate electricity for heating a home is equivalent to having about a 33 percent efficient furnace (67 percent goes to waste), while gas furnaces operate at 70 percent to 95 percent efficiency.

If that isn't enough, let's not forget that the bulbs will pay for themselves over a short period of time, the color the lamps give off is excellent compared to old fluorescents, and you'll replace bulbs much less often.

Ingenious and better than the original, compact fluorescent bulbs are an American idea and invention that we should be proud of.

Humbugs Along the Potomac

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
April 17, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 6

“Oh, no, my dear … I am a very good man. I’m just a very bad wizard.”
--The Wizard of Oz

In its latest staged display of bureaucratic omniscience, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week that retail gasoline prices across the nation, which have jumped 25% since January, will peak at $2.87 a gallon next month and then recede before the vacation driving season begins in June. The average price motorists will see this summer will be $2.81, a bit less than what they paid in the previous two summers. EIA’s current forecast comes one month after its previous prediction that gasoline prices would level off this spring at $2.67 a gallon. (Gasoline prices at $2.83 a gallon are Sky High Again in La Crosse.)

The agency’s sunny blandishments may cause a few eyebrows to be raised among the millions of West Coast motorists already paying more than $3.00 a gallon at the pump. Then again, maybe not. With a track record for erroneous forecasting that verges on the spectacular, why should anyone bother to listen to EIA when more reliable predictions can be found on the daily astrology page?

Continue reading here.

Biofuels no panacea for state

From a column by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:

. . . any claims about the Badger State becoming a "worldwide leader in the developing bio industry" must be taken with a grain of salt.

Overall, producers in the U.S. made nearly 5 billion gallons of ethanol last year, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. Nearly all of it was made from edible corn kernels.

Corn is a fundamental U.S. food ingredient, used in everything from soft drinks to pancake syrup. It's also a staple throughout Latin America, where soaring prices for tortillas has already sparked protests in Mexico.

Moreover, with farmers planting corn this spring at unprecedented rates to take advantage of rising commodity prices -- in some cases taking land out of conservation -- food costs will see more upward pressure.

In fact, national ethanol critic Lester Brown maintains the world is headed for a showdown over corn.

"The stage is now set for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles, and the world's 2 billion poorest people," he warns. "The risk is that millions of those on the lower rungs of the global economic ladder will start falling off as higher food prices drop their consumption below the survival level."

Because of those concerns, more observers are saying corn-based ethanol is already becoming an outdated technology. Scientists and a growing number of biotechnology companies are attempting to remove corn from the ethanol equation.

"There is enormous growth potential" for alternative fuels, says McKinsey & Co. analyst Jens Riese. "But we need to be smarter than just building the next corn ethanol plant."

For more information, check out Friday's conference "Sustaining the Wisconsin Landscape: Biofuels Challenges and Opportunities" at Monona Terrace. Details online or call 263-3063.

Why Switch to Switchgrass?

Monday, April 16, 2007

Wednesday, April 18th
12 noon – 1 pm
Wisconsin State Capitol
President’s Conference Room -Off the hall to the right of the Senate Chambers, 2nd Floor
From the State of the Union speech to ethanol production, many people are talking about using switchgrass, a native prairie grass, to make ethanol or replace coal. A recent US DOE study showed that switchgrass and other prairie grasses from Conservation Reserve Lands in Wisconsin could produce 3.447 million tons of biomass per year. This could produce 207 million gallons of fuel if converted to ethanol, about 1/12th of our gasoline consumption. It could replace 2.3 million tons of coal if burned, about 1/12th of our coal consumption.

This brown bag lunch will explore what switchgrass is and how we can use it to meet Wisconsin’s future energy needs, reduce air pollution, and create wildlife habitat.

Speakers:

Senator Kathleen Vinehout, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and
Gary Radloff, Policy Director, DATCP, How switchgrass can help Wisconsin’s farmers.

Kim Zuhlke, Alliant Energy Vice President for New Generation, on Alliant’s Iowa switchgrass test burn and plans for Wisconsin.

Brett Hulsey, Better Environmental Solutions, How switchgrass can light our homes, run our cars, clean our air, restore critical habitat, and protect our streams.

For more information, call Ed Blume at 608-819-0748, eblume@renewwisconsin.org or Brett Hulsey, 608-238-6070, Brett@BetterEnvironmentalSolutions.Com.

Sponsored by RENEW Wisconsin and Better Environmental Solutions.

ConocoPhillips supports mandatory limits on green house gas

Friday, April 13, 2007

According to USA Today, "As recently as January, the head of ConocoPhillips opposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions." Apparently, ConocoPhillips has seen the carbon. From a press release on ConocoPhillips' Web site:

HOUSTON, April 11, 2007 --- ConocoPhillips [NYSE:COP] today announced its support for a mandatory national framework to address greenhouse gas emissions and has joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a business-environmental leadership group dedicated to the quick enactment of strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

“We recognize that human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels, is contributing to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that can lead to adverse changes in global climate,” said Jim Mulva, chairman and chief executive officer. “While we believe no one entity can alone address the environmental, economic and technological issues inherent in any solution, ConocoPhillips will show leadership in finding pragmatic and sustainable solutions.

Pale Blue Dot

Thursday, April 12, 2007

From Ross DePaola :

Carl Sagan puts it all in perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M

Miller calls for legislative action on climate change

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

From an article by Craig Sauer in the Portage Daily Register:

MADISON -- State Sen. Mark Miller continued his call for the state Legislature to act locally on global climate change Tuesday, a day in which the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources held an informational hearing on the issue.

The committee, on which Miller sits, heard a presentation by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Jonathan Foley, who said the need to alter global climate change was immediate. Foley, the Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, compared efforts to curtail climate change to turning an ocean liner -- meaning action must be taken well in advance to avoid catastrophe.

"Our efforts to reduce the human impact on our climate will take time, but failure to act appropriately and soon -- to turn the ocean liner around — could be disastrous," said Miller, D-Monona. His district includes southern Columbia County. "As a new grandparent, I do not want to have to tell my grandchildren years from now that we failed to act. When they ask, 'Grandpa, weren't you in the state Senate and in the position to make changes to protect our environment?' "

Last month Miller introduced Senate Bill 81, the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act, that would require Wisconsin to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. Reducing greenhouse gases, Miller said, is a critical step in the fight against global climate change.

Small steps push cleaner, greener Green Bay

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

From a story by Paul Srubas in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

None of the steps are huge or major, but the city of Green Bay is planning, through a series of little steps, to tiptoe its way to a more sustainable future.

Mayor Jim Schmitt on Monday called a news conference to announce that the city was embarking upon a 12-step program aimed at a cleaner environment and reduced energy consumption. . . .

But taken collectively, they can make a difference, especially if they inspire the city's residents and neighbors to join the efforts, Schmitt said. . . .

Jeff DeLaune of Wisconsin Public Service . . . led a subcommittee that looked into energy efficiency issues.

"This provides us a wonderful opportunity to develop a program that has positive impact on the environment and on the economy of Green Bay," DeLaune said.

His subcommittee developed a plan to promote the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, a plan to power part of City Hall through alternative energy sources and to encourage better energy conservation by issuing annual awards for energy efficient design or improvements.

Compact Fluorescents Definitely Better

Monday, April 09, 2007

A letter to the editor of The Capital Times from John Reindl, recycling manager for Dane County:

In the past several weeks, there has been a controversy about the environmental impacts of using fluorescent bulbs, which contain mercury, vs. incandescents, which contain lead.

All fluorescents contain mercury, with compact fluorescents having about 5 milligrams. These bulbs are more energy-efficient than incandescents, and the reduction in energy consumption reduces the emission of mercury and other harmful substances from power plants.

According to fact sheets of the Federal Energy Star program and the Wisconsin Focus on Energy program, a typical compact fluorescent will reduce the emissions of mercury from power plants by 8 to 10 milligrams in comparison to the use of equivalent incandescents, which is more than the mercury contained in compact fluorescents.

All compact fluorescents should be recycled, but even if they weren't, they still reduce the amount of mercury emitted to the environment.

And, of course, using compact fluorescents also results in reductions in other emissions, including carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Dane County is fortunate to have nearly three dozen locations that accept these bulbs for recycling. While some recyclers have a nominal charge, it is minor compared to the estimated $30 or more that a consumer will save in electricity costs with a compact fluorescent.

These recycling locations can be found on the Dane County recycling Web page.

While most of the attention on the light bulb issue has focused on the toxicity of mercury in fluorescents, it should also be noted that incandescents contain significant quantities of lead - also a toxic material - in the solder on the base of the bulbs. These bulbs should also be recycled to protect the environment.

Small steps to living 'green'

Friday, April 06, 2007

From a story by Keith Ulhig in the Wausau Daily Herald:

Buy locally grown food. Ease away from a stop sign in a car, instead of jamming on the accelerator. Weather strip a home.

They're not exactly radical actions, but an environmentalist scheduled to speak next week at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County says that little things like these go a long way toward living a green life.

And, said environmentalist Steve Sandstrom, these steps can help people keep cash in their wallets, too.

"Green is also the color of money," said Sandstrom, an environmental education outreach coordinator for the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute of Northland College in Ashland.

Sandstrom, 56, and his wife own the Pinehurst Inn, a bed and breakfast just south of Bayfield, and they've operated it for years making environmentally sensitive choices. There are solar panels. There's locally grown food served on the tables. There is the use of nontoxic, biodegradable cleaners. There is the efficient furnace.

Urinetown begins in Madison April 20

Thursday, April 05, 2007

April 20 premiere thru May 4

UW Madison University Theatre Presents “Urinetown: The Musical” This impossible Broadway musical hit premieres in Madison. “Urinetown” is set in a dystrophic, drought-plagued future where city officials have come up with a unique way to conserve water: only public restrooms may be used, and people must pay for the privilege or be carted off to the ominous Urinetown.

Off-beat, yes; but it’s a Tony-winning satirical musical comedy with great songs, and it’s unique because it’s satire rooted in environmental ethics.

Mitchell Theatre, Vilas Hall, 7:30 p.m. Cost: $20 general; $14 UW-Madison students. Information: 262-1500, boxoffice@theatre.wisc.edu. Go to Isthmus to find more info.

Ethanol research looks at soybean

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

From an article by Nathan Leaf in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Over the past few years, ethanol plants have sprung up all over Wisconsin and much of the Midwest as the biofuel has been touted as the solution to America's energy woes. And so far, corn has been the undisputed king.

C5-6 Technologies of Middleton is working to change the landscape of the biofuel industry. It plans to do this with newly developed enzymes - proteins that catalyze chemical reactions - that will not only make production of corn ethanol more efficient but also expand the raw materials, or feedstocks, that can be used to create the fuel. . . .

Not only will the enzymes break down the [soybean] meal into ethanol, but they will create a valuable soy protein concentrate that can be used as a petroleum substitute in products such as adhesives and plastics.

"We could have a process that is by far the most profitable ethanol process out there," Biondi said.

Ethanol pros and cons debated

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

From an AP story by Arthur Max that ran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal:

Scientists weigh downside of palm oil
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Only a few years ago, oil from palm trees was viewed as an ideal biofuel: a cheap, renewable alternative to petroleum that would fight global warming. Energy companies began converting generators and production soared.

Now, it's increasingly seen as an example of how well-meaning efforts to limit climate-changing carbon emissions may backfire.

Marcel Silvius, a climate expert at Wetlands International in the Netherlands, led a team that compared the benefits of palm oil to the ecological harm from destroying virgin Asian rain forests to develop lucrative new plantations.

His conclusion: "As a biofuel, it's a failure."

Letter to the editor to the Journal Sentinel on ethanol's pros:

Fuel's use has had a positive effect
The Journal Sentinel was dead on in pointing out in an editorial that ethanol and other renewable fuels are not the panacea for America's energy problems ("The limits of ethanol," March 26). But by focusing on the limits of ethanol, it ignored what homegrown renewable fuel is already doing to turn the tide of foreign oil dependence. America's ethanol industry is helping stem the flood of foreign oil into this country.

Ethanol today is rapidly becoming a ubiquitous part of America's motor fuel market. It is blended in 50% of the nation's gasoline and last year helped reduce foreign oil imports by more than 200 million barrels, or nearly 9 billion gallons. As important, the increase in U.S. demand for gasoline between 2005 and 2006 was met almost entirely by ethanol.

Without question, new technologies, better efficiencies and improved conservation must be the heart of the effort to break our oil addiction. But we must not lose sight of what renewable fuels like ethanol are already doing and the potential they hold for the future.

Bob Sather
Chippewa Falls

And a letter to the La Crosse Tribune on the cons:
Ethanol is not the answer
By John Klouda, La Crosse, Wis.

I’m struggling with Paul Peterson’s claims for ethanol in his letter published March 5.

Paul claims that if all cars in America burned gasoline with 10 percent ethanol (E-10), we would eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. I disagree. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2005 U.S. net petroleum imports was 4.58 billion barrels. Domestic petroleum production was 1.89 billion barrels, and petroleum consumption for transportation was 5.24 billion barrels. If we assume that all petroleum for transportation is gasoline (ignoring diesel), the blending of 10 percent ethanol yields a savings of only 0.52 billion barrels of oil. This does not wipe out the need for importing 4.58 billion barrels of petroleum.

Claiming that blending ethanol results in a 50 percent to 60 percent reduction in fossil fuel energy use doesn’t add up. According to Chevron, a gallon of regular gasoline contains 115,000 Btu of energy. A gallon of E-10 gasoline contains only 111,000 Btu.

So, for the energy equivalent of a gallon of regular gasoline, 1.04 gallons of E-10 is required. That 1.04 gallons of E-10 contains 0.93 gallons of regular gasoline. So, from an energy content standpoint, the use of E-10 yields only a 7 percent reduction in fossil fuel use, not 50 percent to 60 percent.

Claiming that ethanol- blended fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions 35 percent to 46 percent doesn’t wash either. Assuming that the ethanol part of E-10 produces no greenhouse gas emissions, it seems that greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by only 10 percent, not 35 percent to 46 percent.

Paul, give me some numbers to back up your claims.

Governor's plan to benefit paper waste ethanol

Monday, April 02, 2007

From a story by Andrew Hellpap in the Stevens Point Journal:

Wisconsin's push to develop corn-alternative ethanol shouldn't leave farmers out in the cold, according to one state official.

Gov. Jim Doyle's goal for the state to generate 25 percent of its power and transportation fuels from renewable sources by 2025 includes a proposal to create the first cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States by making available $5 million in grant money to paper producers such as Stora Enso North America, based in Wisconsin Rapids, according to a release by the governor's office in January.

Potentially, cellulosic ethanol can be produced cheaper than corn from black liquor, a byproduct of the pulp process generated at paper mills.

More profitable sources of feedstock could take away a buyer for corn from central Wisconsin farmers, but the depth of resources needed to accomplish Doyle's goal should keep corn-based ethanol supplying farmers happy for a while, said Rod Nilsestuen, Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection secretary.

"We are going to need all the sources we can get to reach those," he said.

While corn is still the main source of ethanol, its time to be profitable was about three years, according to the developer of a potential cellulosic ethanol plant in Wisconsin Rapids.

ProAmbulate inhibits driving

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Submitted by Hans Noeldner:

1 April 2009
Evanston, Illinois

A research scientist who helped to develop the birth control pill in the late 1950’s has now invented, in the winter years of his life, a new wonder medication that may do even more than the oral contraceptive to save planet Earth from humanity’s thoughtless excesses – in this case, from the ravages of overconsumption.

Leonard Nysteuen, a humble, unimposing 85-year-old former employee of G.D. Searle & Company, today announced the commencement of clinical trials for ProAmbulate, the first known example of an entirely new class of drugs known as “contramotives”. The double-blind tests, co-sponsored by the deficit-imperiled US Department of Transportation, will include 5,280 driving-age residents from four of the lowest-density, most automobile-dependent “country estate” neighborhoods in the United States, and 4,735 demographically-matched residents from five of the nation’s most pedestrian-oriented urban areas.

Nysteuen explains: “Think of ProAmbulate as the opposite of Dramamine. A mere 25 micrograms per day will stimulate strong nausea the moment a user slips behind the wheel (or handlebars) of a motor vehicle, whilst simultaneously “programming” the human brain to release pleasurable levels of endorphins when the user engages in walking, bicycling, and use of public transportation. For only 58 cents per day we will produce the kind of behavioral changes necessary to slash highway spending, halt sprawl, avert climate change, and overcome our cancerous twin addictions to oil and the automobile.”

For more information and a prospectus, visit www.ProAmbulate.com or consider the date when this was posted.

GAO recommends federal strategy for peak oil

Friday, March 30, 2007

The Government Accounting Office recently issued a report titled Crude Oil: Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production

The report notes that "Most studies estimate that oil production will peak sometime between now and 2040, although many of these projections cover a wide range of time, including two studies for which the range extends into the next century."

In assessing the federal government's effort to mitigate the effects of peak oil, the GOA report says:

Federal agency efforts that could reduce uncertainty about the timing of peak oil production or mitigate its consequences are spread across multiple agencies and generally are not focused explicitly on peak oil. For example, efforts that could be used to reduce uncertainty about the timing of a peak include USGS activities to estimate oil resources and DOE efforts to monitor current supply and demand conditions in global oil markets and to make future projections. Similarly, DOE, the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) all have programs and activities that oversee or promote alternative transportation technologies that could mitigate the consequences of apeak. However, officials of key agencies we spoke with acknowledge that their efforts—with the exception of some studies—are not specifically designed to address peak oil.

The study calls for a more focused effort from the federal government:

While the consequences of a peak would be felt globally, the United States, as the largest consumer of oil and one of the nations most heavily dependent on oil for transportation, may be particularly vulnerable. Therefore, to better prepare the United States for a peak and decline in oil production, we are recommending that the Secretary of Energy take the lead, in coordination with other relevant federal agencies, to establish a peak oil strategy. Such a strategy should include efforts to reduce uncertainty about the timing of a peak in oil production and provide timely advice to Congress about cost-effective measures to mitigate the potential consequences of a peak. In commenting on a draft of the report, the Departments of Energy and the Interior generally agreed with the report and recommendations.

Access an abstract and the full report here.

Mercury in Energy-Saving Bulbs Worries Scientists

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Planet Ark carries a story on mercury in compact florescent bulbs:

NEW YORK - There's an old joke about the number of people it takes to change a light bulb. But because the newer energy-efficient kinds contain tiny amounts of mercury, the hard part is getting rid of them when they burn out.

Mercury is poisonous, but it's also a necessary part of most compact fluorescent bulbs, the kind that environmentalists and some governments are pushing as a way to cut energy use.

With an estimated 150 million CFLs sold in the United States in 2006 and with Wal-Mart alone hoping to sell 100 million this year, some scientists and environmentalists are worried that most are ending up in garbage dumps.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Gina Duwe of the Janesville Gazette reports on the groundbreaking for the North Prairie biodiesel production facility:

EVANSVILLE-"Evansville loves this project."

Mayor Sandy Decker's words at Monday's groundbreaking for the $60 million biodiesel plant summed up a year of planning and fund-raising for the project.

While biofuel plants in cities as near as Milton have spawned lawsuits and filled city council meetings with angry residents, that hasn't been the case in Evansville.

"It is a perfect fit for our community," Decker said during a ceremony Monday near where the biodiesel plant will be built on the Evansville's east side.

Electranet to replace power grid?

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Al Gore ponders the future of electric power generation through small, diversified and renewable sources of energy:

Taking a page from the early development of ARPANET, which ultimately became the Internet, we will rely on new kinds of distribution networks for electricity and liquid fuels. We will be less dependent on large, centralized coal-generating plants and massive oil refineries. Societies of the future will rely on small, diversified and renewable sources of energy, ranging from windmills and solar photovoltaics to second-generation ethanol- and biodiesel-production facilities. Widely dispersed throughout the countryside, these streamlined facilities will make the industrialized world more secure and less dependent on unstable and threatening oil-producing nations. Off-grid applications of renewable power sources can provide energy for the 3 billion people now stuck in poverty.

WPPI on-track to fulfill renewable requirement six years early

Monday, March 26, 2007

For a media release issued by Wisconsin Public Power Incorporated:

More than 150 MW of wind and biomass projects currently underway

SUN PRAIRIE, WIS., March 26 – Wisconsin Public Power Inc. expects to be six years ahead of schedule in meeting the state of Wisconsin requirement that at least 10 percent of electricity purchased by retail customers in the state be supplied from renewable sources by 2015. Based on its current renewable energy portfolio expansion plans, the Sun Prairie, Wis.-based utility anticipates that it will exceed the 10-percent requirement in 2009.

“WPPI and its members have directed considerable funding and effort toward meeting and exceeding Wisconsin’s renewable energy requirement,” said Roy Thilly, president and CEO. “We are committed to providing a diverse, cost-effective and reliable power supply – one that includes clean, renewable energy and substantially increased conservation and efficiency programs – to our members and their customers.”

Ethanol fumes are affecting leaders’ brains

Friday, March 23, 2007

Without question, biomass for transportation fuels holds pros and cons. Alan Guebert, whose column runs in The Country Today, sees more minuses than pluses.

Everything ethanol touches seems to get giddy on either the grain alcohol’s future or its fumes. For example, early last winter several farm groups endorsed a controversial Congressional plan to open America’s outer continental shelf for energy exploration. What dog could groups like the National Corn Growers Association have in the hunt for Gulf of Mexico natural gas?

A big one: More exploration may lead to more natural gas. More natural gas may mean more and cheaper gas-based anhydrous ammonia, corn’s chief fertilizer. More and cheaper fertilizer means more corn and more corn means more ethanol. So, in the circular logic that drives much of the U.S. ethanol industry, more tax-break driven, environmentally- questionable coastal drilling for a natural, clean-burning fuel now will power additional production of a subsidized grain that then will be converted into another, heavier-subsidized fuel.

The legislation passed, and on Dec. 11, NCGA announced its members were “very happy with the legislative victories securing more domestic development of natural gas, continuing our positive push for better trade and extending significant tax incentives for the ever-growing ethanol industry.”

If that recipe — a “positive push for better trade and significant tax incentives” — appears at odds with free market policies promoted by groups like NCGA, keep in mind the Kool-Aid being mixed here includes ethanol. Indeed, the offshore drilling legislation backed by NCGA also extended America’s 54-cents-pergallon tariff on imported ethanol through Jan. 1, 2009, thus protecting domestic producers from cheaper, chiefly Brazilian, ethanol imports for another year.

America’s biggest ethanol backer, Pres. George W. Bush, however, had a hard time swallowing the extension. He wanted — and still wants — an unencumbered U.S. biofuel market. It was a point he again made clear in his March 9 meeting (at an ethanol plant near Sao Paulo) with Brazilian President Luiz Incacio Lula da Silva.

When reporters asked Pres. Lula da Silva if he was going to push the American to cut or eliminate the U.S. tariff on ethanol, Pres. Bush interrupted to say Pres. Lula da Silva, like him, was stuck with the tariff “through the end of my term. It’s not going to happen.’” It’s not going to happen now, but pressure is building for it to happen from three already-apparent directions.

First, even though ethanol is an economically strong 30-year-old, it remains an almost purely political baby. If Latin and South American nations need to export ethanol to create jobs, strengthen their economies and stave off anti-American leaders like Venezuela’s oil-rich populist Hugo Chavez, ethanol’s domestic protection will be dropped like a bad habit. Second, pressure is building within the U.S. to make changes.

On Dec. 18, Pres. Bush’s brother, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, along with several prominent South American business and government officials, launched the Interamerican Ethanol Commission. The IEC’s mission is clear: make ethanol a global commodity and create a free, uninhibited international market for it. Pres. Bush, perhaps proving for the first time that ethanol, like blood, is thicker than water, took an enormous step in that direction March 9 with Brazil’s Pres. Lula da Silva when they agreed to share ethanol-making technology and expand its production across the hemisphere.

The third reason is Brazil itself. The nation that dealt U.S. farmers their biggest global trade defeat ever, the World Trade Organization’s ruling to kill U.S. cotton subsidies, possesses abundant land, cheap labor and a clear will to supply gas-guzzling American and European drivers with the fuel all believe is their birthright.

And like America drilling for more natural gas to make more ethanol, Brazil will burn its remaining rain forests to grow more sugar cane to make more ethanol to make it happen.

© 2007 ag comm
Alan Guebert’s Farm and Food File is published
weekly in more than 75 newspapers in
North America. He lives in Delavan, Ill., and may
be contacted at agcomm@sbcglobal.net.

Cow manure for furniture and flooring

Thursday, March 22, 2007

From an Associated Press article by David N. Goodman as it appeared in the York Dispatch (York County, Pennsylvania):

Under pressure from regulators and the public, more large livestock operations are installing expensive manure treatment systems known as anaerobic digesters.

The digesters use heat to deodorize and sterilize manure, while capturing and using the methane gas it produces to generate electricity. The systems also separate phosphorus-laden liquid fertilizer from semisolid plant residue.

The solids have some known uses, including animal bedding and potting soil, and agricultural scientists would like to find more.

"We really need to think outside the box on what uses for manure are," said Wendy Powers, a professor of agriculture at Michigan State University.

Scientists at Michigan State in East Lansing and at the USDA's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis., are conducting tests on various types of fiberboard made with the "digester solids."

'Better than wood': As with the wood-based original, the manure-based product is made by combining fibers with a chemical resin, then subjecting the mixture to heat and pressure.

So far, fiberboard made with digester solids seems to match or beat the quality of wood-based products.

"It appears that the fibers interlock with each other better than wood," said Charles Gould at Michigan State's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Associations issue biodiesel proposals

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

From a media release issued by the Wisconsin Soybean
Association and Wisconsin Biofuels Association:

Arlington, WI—At hearings across the state, Wisconsin farmers, biodiesel producers, high tech companies, and environmentalists will call on the Joint Finance Committee to expand state purchases of biodiesel, ensure quality standards, and testing. Members of these groups are holding a Biodiesel Information Workshop at 9 am before the hearing to be held in Arlington on Wednesday at the research station headquarters. . . .

In addition, the release included four key areas for legislative action:

1. Establish a uniform definition of biodiesel fuel and adopt fuel quality standards per ASTM D6751-07 to enhance quality assurance of the product and to
encourage statewide use. . . .

2. Establish a state regulatory program within the Department of Agriculture, Trade
and Consumer Protection (“DATCP”), and/or Department of Commerce
(“Commerce”) to ensure the quality of the biodiesel fuel product offered for retail
sale in the state. . . .

3. Establish tax incentives for wholesalers, retailers and bulk users (private fleets) of biodiesel that promote an expansion of biodiesel fuel consumption and
distribution network in Wisconsin. . . .

4. Establish that the Department of Administration, through its fleet management
policy, require all state agencies increase the use of biodiesel (B5 or higher) by
twenty percent (20%) by 2010 and by fifty percent (50%) by 2015.

For more information, contact David Crass, 608-283-2267, dacrass@michaelbest.com or
Brett Hulsey, 608-238-6070, Brett@BetterEnvironmentalSolutions.Com.

Poultry litter to fuel Minnesota power plant

Friday, March 16, 2007

In a story on RenewableEnergyAccess.com, Ted Olsen reports on a Minnesota project:

Biomass -- in this case in the form of hundreds of thousands of pounds of turkey litter with woodchips and sawdust blended in -- soon will be fueling a 55 megawatt [MW] power plant producing enough electricity to supply 50,000 homes in the Minnesota community of Benson.

"[The] facility will burn 700,000 tons of turkey litter per year and can operate on 100 percent litter but we'll also be using other biomass, including woodchips and sawdust." -- Terry Walmsley, Fibrominn, VP for environmental and public affairs

The first large-scale facility of its kind in the U.S., the plant is being completed in an industrial park on the edge of town by Fibrominn, whose parent company Fibrowatt already operates three litter-fueled facilities in the United Kingdom. The project, started in May 2005, is expected to begin operations in June.

Rural "Defenders"

Thursday, March 15, 2007

From the irrepressible Hans Noeldner:

Residents in the townships adjacent to metropolitan Madison are fond of proclaiming their determination to remain rural in character; they see themselves engaged in an epic struggle against annexation-obsessed cities and villages.

But it is delusional to think that such areas can REMAIN rural. Demographically, these townships can best be described as ultra-low-density suburbia; economically, ethnically, and racially segregated; and totally dependent on the private motor vehicle for movement. The townships themselves lack significant employment, retail, and services; and their residents are disproportionately dependent upon the motoring infrastructure for which they fail to pay anything approaching their fair share. Indeed, exurbanites have an essentially parasitical relationship with the rest of society; without nearby urban centers their way of life would collapse. The reverse is not true.

Very few exurbanites are conscious that their way of life presumes an open-ended entitlement to ever-expanding highways and abundant free parking at their every destination: such niceties are, like air, taken for granted. But the day is rapidly approaching when motor fuel (and the results of its combustion) shall be far too expensive for eight and twelve motor vehicle trips per household per day. Will exurbanites abandon their "rural” sleeping quarters, or take up the fork and hoe to become real country dwellers?

California: the energy miser?

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

From a story by Steven Mufson of The Washington Post as it appeared in the The Seattle Times:

. . .Since 1974, California has held its per-capita energy consumption essentially constant, while energy use per person for the United States overall has jumped 50 percent.

California has managed that feat through a mixture of mandates, regulations and high prices. The state has been able to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, keep utility companies happy and maintain economic growth. Now California is pushing further in its effort to cut automobile pollution, spur use of solar energy and cap greenhouse gases. . . .

Co-Dependency: The U.S., Russia, and energy security

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

A presentation by
David Knuti, U.S. Commercial Service (retired)
Tuesday, March 13, 7:00 PM
UW Menorial Union

Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter and largest natural gas exporter. Although only a minor supplier to the U.S., Russia plays a vital role in U.S. energy security by maintaining the precarious balance of world energy supplies without shortages or punishing price increases. No country other than the U.S. is such an important producer, refiner, long distance transporter, and consumer of energy. It also a key factor as a transit country for the oil and gas of other countries. For better or worse, world energy security depends on Russia’s future performance in these roles.

David Knuti was involved in energy development issues as a Washington analyst and commercial diplomat for the CIA and Commerce Department for 15 years, and continues to study these issues in retirement.

For more information contact Ed Blume, eblume@renewwisconsin.org or 608.819.0748.

A Nosedive into the Desert

Monday, March 12, 2007

In a lengthy analysis on The Oil Drum, Stuart Staniford agures that "since late 2004, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has entered rapid decline of their oil production, at least for the time being."

Saudi production can be divided into two eras. In the first, prior to the third quarter of 2004, KSA had spare capacity and acted as the swing producer, making large voluntary changes in their production to stabilize the market. . . .

Since late 2004, KSA has entered a new era where they cannot raise production in response to demand side needs, and instead the major features of the production curve correspond to supply side events.

Green advocates see contradiction in coal-fired ethanol plants

Thursday, March 08, 2007

From an Associated Press story by Tom Webb in the LaCrosse Tribune:

HERON LAKE, Minn. — The latest trend in the green world of ethanol is a surprising one: coal.

Minnesota’s first coal-fired ethanol plant soon will begin operation in Heron Lake, and it won’t be the last. The high price of natural gas is enticing new plant owners to embrace coal power. But while it may make economic sense, the choice of this fossil fuel to make a renewable one has some people shaking their heads.

Madison Peak Oil Group meeting, Feb. 8

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Everyone is welcome to join the discussion.
Peak Oil Discussion Group
March 8, 2007

Meeting Date and Time: February 8, 2007, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Location: RENEW Wisconsin Conference Room, 222 S. Hamilton Street

DRAFT Agenda

1. Introductions

2. Announcements/miscellaneous
a. Biofuels conference, April 20

3. Activities
a. Presentation on Russia
b. Participation in West Waubesa Preservation Coalition event
c. Tour of Jeff Riggert’s renewable energy installations

4. Other/discussion

5. Next meeting: April 5

Investor Pickens says peak at hand

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

From The Energy Bulletin:

Texas oilman Pickens says global oil production at its peak
Jim Krane, Associated Press

Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens sees today's stubbornly high oil price as evidence that daily global production capacity is at - or very near - its peak.

If demand for crude oil rises beyond the current global output of roughly 85 million barrels per day, Pickens told The Associated Press, prices will rise to compensate and alternative sources of energy will begin to replace petroleum.

...Forbes publisher Steve Forbes challenged Pickens' assumptions during an exchange in the conference, saying political - not technological, or geological - roadblocks stood in the way of increasing the world's oil output. With the right incentives in places such as Mexico more oil could be brought to market and prices could drop, Forbes said.

Pickens responded by saying that Mexico is a declining producer of oil, as are most other countries, naming the United States, Norway, Britain, Canada and soon, Russia.

Recent ruminations

Monday, March 05, 2007

Wonderful Hans Noeldner provided the following thoughts:

If conservation is the cheapest form of energy, then proximity is the cheapest form of transportation. Which is to say, nothing beats being there already.
---
The problem of America’s profligate resource usage is remarkably simple: a great excess of nonessential and often detrimental employment for fossil-fuel consuming machines, and a great shortage of meaningful, useful work for human beings.
---
Our attitude towards our twin addictions to oil and the automobile resembles nothing so much as the habit of alcoholics to vociferously deny that intoxicants are the vehicle of their demise.

Distorting Space & Time
-----------------------
By collapsing a mile into one or two minutes, the automobile in motion has so profoundly distorted our sense of space and time that few living Americans comprehend the nature of a truly walkable community. And the automobile further warps reality when at rest. The amount of real estate “consumed” by only four or five off-street surface parking stalls would suffice for a modest-sized retail business and several floors of residential units. Multiplied by hundreds and thousands in a community, the resulting patchwork of surface parking scatters day-to-day and week-to-week destinations over miles rather than blocks, thereby establishing a ceiling on density well below practical thresholds for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users. Multiplied by a billion and more, accommodations for the automobile have rendered the greater portion of modern-day “developed” America unfit habitation for the non-motorist. The species homo automobilicus dominates the field.

No Madison Airport?

Friday, March 02, 2007

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
February 27, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 4

Over the weekend I came across a web site (www.nomadisonairport.org) that advocates shutting down Dane County’s airport and moving it outside Madison city limits. The people behind the web site, mainly east side residents fed up with the increasingly obtrusive levels of jet noise in their back yards, envision a New Urbanist community springing up from the acres of tarmac where jets once taxied to and from the gates. Deriding the neighborhood surrounding the current airport as a “ghetto”, the web site states that the new airport could be situated in a greenfield location far from town, presumably in an area populated by half-deaf farmers too busy plowing and fertilizing their fields to notice the increase in jet traffic.

To airport relocation supporters—no doubt all Madison residents--this proposal is pure win-win. The skies become quieter above Madison, while its property tax revenues swell from the mixed-use developments rising up on what had been county-owned property. That Madison’s gain would come at the expense of an outlying township not yet overrun by commuter households is of little concern to the proponents. The objective here is simple: to find a place outside of Madison where noisy jets can ferry travelers to and from the metro area without disturbing Madison residents.

Continued here.

IndyCar Switches to 100 Percent Ethanol

Saturday, February 24, 2007

According to a story on the EERE Web site:

Fuel from corn is now powering some of the highest-tech race cars in the world, as the IndyCar Series has switched its fuel to 100 percent ethanol. IndyCar had been using methanol fuel but started using 10 percent ethanol last year and committed to switch to 100 percent ethanol this year. In a recent "Open Test" at Daytona International Speedway, all 17 drivers and their teams had their first chance to try out the fuel, and they gave it their approval and support. "I really didn't notice any difference at all, which I think is the point," said 2005 IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon.

Biodiesel short course, April 2-4

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Consortium for Education in Renewable Energy Technology (CERET) is pleased to announce that Madison Area Technical College (MATC) is offering a new 1-credit short-course "Introduction to Biodiesel Fuel" on April, 2-4, 2007. This class may be applied towards the CERET Certificate in Renewable Energy Technology that is offered through the college.

Course details are included in the pdf file attached to this email, and are also available through MATC's online timetable:
http://matcmadison.edu/matc/ASP/showschedule.asp?CourseNum=10-468-122&cr=1

For more information on the CERET Renewable Energy Certificates as well as our online course offerings for 2007 please visit the CERET website: www.ceret.us, or contact Anne Scott at 608-246-6800.

Wisconsin Farmers Union sets renewable energy policy

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The Dunn County News reports on resolutions adopted at the 76th annual state convention of the Wisconsin Farmers Union:

In the area of renewable energy, WFU members adopted policy that calls for renewable energy expansion, to include biodiesel and other renewable incentives, in addition to the existing market for ethanol.

“We’re moving toward becoming a self-sufficient bioeconomy,” said [WFU President Sue]Beitlich. “It’s no longer a question of the validity or viability of renewable energy sources, but of when biofuels will be the choice of the majority of Americans. It will happen, and we’d like to see it happen soon. We have the technology; we just need continued incentives to make it an attractive alternative to our current system of petroleum-based products.”

Peak oil monthly meeting March 8

Monday, February 19, 2007

The Madison Peak Oil Group will meet on March 8, not March 1, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. in the conference room of RENEW Wisconsin, 222 S. Hamilton Street.

Also mark your calendars for a timely presentation by Madison Peak Oil Group’s own David Knuti:

RUSSIA AND U.S. ENERGY SECURITY
David Knuti, U.S. Commercial Service (retired)
Tuesday, March 13, 7:00 PM
UW Memorial Union
Russia is the world’s second largest oil exporter and largest natural gas exporter. Although only a minor supplier to the U.S., Russia plays a vital role in U.S. energy security by maintaining the precarious balance of world energy supplies without shortages or punishing price increases. No country other than the U.S. is such an important producer, refiner, long distance transporter, and consumer of energy. It also a key factor as a transit country for the oil and gas of other countries. For better or worse, world energy security depends on Russia’s future performance in these roles.

For more information on the briefings, contact Ed Blume, eblume@renewwisconsin.org or 608.819.0748.

So much for the federal commitment to end oil addiction

Thursday, February 15, 2007

It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic!

Federal Staffing Shortage Holds Up World's First Cellulose Ethanol Plant
2/15/2007 6:25:00 AM
(C) 2007 Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.. All Rights Reserved

WASHINGTON - All that's standing between the United States and the world's first cellulose ethanol plant is an obscure Washington office staffed by one federal contractor.

The office in the U.S. Department of Energy opened last summer to provide federal loan guarantees for producing clean energy and innovative technologies.

However, its sole employee hasn't been able to do more than literally open the mail. More than 100 so-called pre-applications for loan guarantees have arrived, only to be shelved because the Department of Energy hasn't had the money to hire more staff to assess them.

Read the full story.

Wisconsin's largest solar electric system.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee now boasts a 44 kW solar electric system, the largest in the state. Focus on Energy assisted with financing the installation.

Our insatiable appetite for coal

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Tom Content and Lee Bergquist cover Wisconsin's addiction to coal in an impressive series of articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One story includes a terrific quote from the Sierra Club's Bruce Nilles: “We're at the forefront of going backwards."

CLIMATE CHANGE: GLOBAL WARMING AND WISCONSIN
Wisconsin generates greenhouse gases linked to global warming at a rate that is about one-third faster than the national average, a Journal Sentinel analysis found.

This trend will only escalate because the state's utilities are on the leading edge of a national building boom of coal-burning power plants, fueled by an ever-increasing appetite for electricity.

The Giant Sucking Sound, Revisited

Monday, February 12, 2007

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
February 12, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 3

Remember the metaphorical “giant sucking sound” that Ross Perot invoked in the 1992 presidential debates? Perot employed that image to characterize the rapid exodus of jobs to Mexico that would surely result from ratifying the North American Free Trade Agreement. Fifteen years later, that vivid phrase could appropriately describe the increasingly desperate circumstances befalling Cantarell, Mexico’s largest oilfield, situated about 50 miles off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The giant sucking sound you might hear at Cantarell is what happens when hundreds of oil wells begin drawing gas and water from the very reservoirs that used to yield copious quantities of petroleum. It’s the sound of an oilfield rolling over its peak.

To unknowing American ears, the name Cantarell evokes a casual, Southwestern feeling, more suggestive of a dude ranch than the world’s No. 2 oil field. By far the most productive oil reservoir in the Western Hemisphere, Cantarell was yielding more than two million barrels per day (bpd) as recently as 2005, outperforming all other fields save mighty Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. At $50 per barrel that level of production translated to $100 million a day. When a wealth generator of that magnitude starts to sputter and lose productivity, other oilfields must pick up the slack or else the Mexican economy is bound to take a hit.

Continue reading here.

Focus on Energy presentation, noon, Feb. 12

Friday, February 09, 2007

Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Room 400 SE, State Capitol

RENEW Wisconsin and the Madison Peak Oil Group invite legislators, aides, Capitol staff, lobbyists, agency staff, and the general public to a series brown-bag lunches on energy-related issues.

Without a doubt, this legislative session will see several bills and administrative rules on energy issues, and the brown-bag lunches will provide the background and context to help with a better understanding of the underlying issues. The briefings will be non-partisan and will not offer positions on any proposals pending at the time.

Focus on Energy: Status and Future, presented by Kathy Kuntz, Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation. Focus on Energy works with eligible Wisconsin residents and businesses to install cost effective energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. Focus information, resources and financial incentives help to implement projects that otherwise would not get completed, or to complete projects sooner than scheduled. Its efforts help Wisconsin residents and businesses manage rising energy costs, promote in-state economic development, protect our environment and control the state's growing demand for electricity and natural gas.

For more information contact Ed Blume.

Winter newsletter online

Thursday, February 08, 2007

This winter's edition of the Wisconsin Renewable Quarterly, now posted online, includes the following articles:

RENEW and Clean Wisconsin Defend Wind Power Project;
We Energies Cops National Honors;
Don Wichert: RENEW Founder and Tireless Advocate;
How I Fell in Love with My Solar Dryer;
PSC Approves WE Wind Project;
Doyle Sets Plans to Expand Renewables.

Merrill fitness club uses sunlight to warm pool

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

A story by Amy Olson in the Wausau Daily Herald reports on a solar water heating project supported in part by Focus on Energy:

As a child, Paul Kienitz and his family heated their house with wood and grew their own vegetables. Now, the owner of Riverside Athletic Club in Merrill is heating its pool by harvesting sunlight.

Kienitz opened his fitness club 25 years ago. In 2002, he added a pool and whirlpool.

He had long thought about ways to save energy after the addition was built. The 60-foot long pool alone holds 50,000 gallons of water, and the whirlpool holds 800 gallons, Kienitz said. Add in showers for the 250 to 300 people who use Riverside Athletic Club each day, and you get a hefty utility bill.

In March, he installed solar panels with the help of a grant from Focus on Energy, a program that works with Wisconsin business owners and residents to boost energy efficiency and support renewable energy projects.

Largest Wisconsin Solar Array to be Dedicated February 10

Monday, February 05, 2007

Milwaukee, WI – At a huge 44.4 kilowatts, the solar electric panels now covering the roof at the Urban Ecology Center are the largest such solar installation in the state of Wisconsin. The system, originally installed in 2003 by H&H Solar Energy Services of Madison, started out as a 48 module array. With the addition of 208 solar panels, the completed system now consists of 256 Kyocera solar panels mounted directly to the Center’s metal standing-seam roof. The Kyocera panels are expected to produce over 55,000 kilowatt-hours each year.

The Urban Ecology Center is a unique, neighborhood based, non-profit community and nature center located in Milwaukee's historic Riverside Park.

A dedication ceremony to announce the completion and activation of the system is planned for Saturday, February 10th, at 1:30 p.m. as part of the Urban Ecology Center’s public Winterfest event for families.

Chairman Daniel R. Ebert of the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin which oversees electricity, gas, and telecommunication issues in the state is expected to be on hand to help christen the new system.

Read more here.

Update on new energy law, Feb. 5

Friday, February 02, 2007

Brown-bag Lunch Series on Energy
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Room 400 SE, State Capitol

RENEW Wisconsin and the Madison Peak Oil Group invite legislators, aides, Capitol staff, lobbyists, agency staff, and the general public to a series brown-bag lunches on energy-related issues.

Without a doubt, this legislative session will see several bills and administrative rules on energy issues, and the brown-bag lunches will provide the background and context to help with a better understanding of the underlying issues. The briefings will be non-partisan and will not offer positions on any proposals pending at the time.

The short briefing will allow ample time for questions and discussions.

February 5 – Wisconsin’s new Energy Efficiency and Renewables Law (Act 141), presented by Michael Vickerman, who served on the Governor’s Task Force on Energy Efficiency and Renewables. Vickerman will look at the background of the task force, its work, its recommendations, the final legislation, status of rule-making to implement the legislation, and what might come next.

Free showing of Who Killed the Electric Car?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

You’re invited to a free showing of the acclaimed documentary film, Who Killed the Electric Car? Come join us to learn more about the rise and fall of the electric car.

Two show time options:

Monday, February 5th, 7:00 p.m., RP’s Pasta (1133 E. Wilson St.) – yummy treats supplied by RP’s

Wednesday, February 7th, 7:00 p.m., UW Memorial Union, Great Hall

Sponsored by Community Car.

Bring friends and family to this event – there’s a special deal on joining Community Car for attendees to this event.

The Icebergs Ahead

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
January 31, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 2

The State of the Union address presented President George W. Bush with the only scheduled opportunity he’ll have in 2007 to articulate a new energy agenda for this nation. Word dribbled out in advance of his speech that the President would unveil several ambitious energy proposals, including at least one specifically to lower the volume of greenhouse gases discharged by U.S. sources. As a result of this build-up, there were many viewers--I among them--who expected Bush to seize the moment and outline an energy initiative that would move this nation toward a more secure and environmentally responsible direction.

But like the protagonist in “Casey at the Bat,” George W. Bush struck out when it counted. Instead of announcing a bold plan to shrink America’s supersized energy appetite and shift to low-carbon sources of fuel and power, Bush offered up a potpourri of uninspiring platitudes along with an alternative fuels proposal that is richly deserving of the term “crackpot.” In so doing, he screwed up a room-service opportunity to rescue his energy legacy from winding up in the same dumpster that contains all his other policy failures.

Continue reading.

Madison Peak Oil Group meeting, Feb. 1

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Meeting Date and Time: February 1, 2007, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Location: RENEW Wisconsin Conference Room, 222 S. Hamilton Street

DRAFT Agenda

1. Introductions

2. Announcements/miscellaneous

3. Activities
a. Presentation on Russia
b. Participation in West Waubesa Preservation Coalition event
c. Tour of Jeff Riggert’s home
d. Other

4. Review of governor’s state-of-the-state speech

5. Next meeting: March 1

Madison station covers peak oil

Monday, January 29, 2007

Madison television station WKOW (Channel 27) ran a story on peak oil, including an interview with Ed Blume.

The following text is posted on WKOW's Web site along with a link to the video:

Preparing for Peak Oil

A Madison resident recently dropped off a report to the mayor and county executive's offices, warning of a looming energy crisis.

Recent publicity about the document is helping spark a conversation among environmentalists here.

Jan Sweet put the report together. He calls himself part of the Downtown Isthmus Group.

Sweet wants either mayor Dave Cieslewicz or county executive Kathleen Falk to form a peak oil task force. His suggestions include everything from having the city stock up on gasoline and penalizing people who drive cars on the isthmus, to planting fruit trees all over the city in case of possible food shortages.

"I would be foolish if I expected every recommendation to be included in the final report, but we're hoping this will begin the dialog," said Sweet.

In that spirit of dialog, we contacted a spokesperson for the energy awareness group RENEW Wisconsin. Ed Blume told us that while Sweet is bringing awareness to a predicted shortage in oil supplies, RENEW Wisconsin believes the focus should be on developing more renewable energy.

Blume also said Sweet is one of the people who attends a monthly meeting in Madison in which concerned citizens and groups discuss environmental issues.

So far, there's been no movement from officials on Sweet's recommendations. A spokesperson for Cieslewicz said the mayor hasn't looked hard at the document, though ideas like capping building heights at five stories would contradict the mayor's push for dense development. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Falk said the county executive initially thought the recommendations were tongue in cheek.

State Journal misses peak oil reality

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Wisconsin State Journal carried an editorial which dismissed peak oil as "twaddle."

RENEW Wisconsin and the Madison Peak Oil Group submitted this response:

Dear Editor,

You based your editorial (Put the brakes on anti-car drive, January 24) on your assumption that the peaking of world oil and natural gas production amounts to “twaddle.”

Twaddle it isn’t. In every country that was blessed with oil and natural gas, production has historically followed a bell shaped curve, as first theorized by Shell Oil geologist M. King Hubbert in 1956. Since 1970, U.S. oil output has been in terminal decline. Other nations in similar circumstances include the United Kingdom, Norway, and Mexico. We are very close to reaching a global peak if we haven’t already.

The Madison Peak Oil Group, a different animal entirely from the Downtown Isthmus Group, includes some of the state’s most respected energy professionals. We are a clearinghouse for information on peak oil and natural gas, and we communicate the information individually and collectively in presentations and briefings to policymakers, business leaders, and public at large.

On the national stage, Representative Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican and former high school science teacher, founded the Peak Oil Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Bartlett is no one’s idea of a leftist.

In a presentation to Congress, Bartlett stated that peak oil “is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse Bible sect or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is a scientific conclusion of the best-paid, most widely respected geologists, physicists and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by the phenomenon known as global peak oil.”

Bartlett offers advice on what needs to be done: “We need to change the culture. We have had a culture which says ‘the more energy you use, the more successful you are’. We need to have a culture that says ‘the less energy you can use to be comfortable, the better off you are and the better you should feel about yourself.’ We need to have a culture which has entirely new goals.”

No doubt the ideas of the Madison Isthmus Group will strike many as a bit off the wall. But that doesn’t relieve citizens and communities from the obligation to think about and plan for the end of cheap and plentiful oil and natural gas.

State gets first cellulosic ethanol plant

From a joint press release from Flambeau River Biorefinery and American Process:

Flambeau River Biorefinery, LLC of Wisconsin has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with American Process Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia to provide project management and engineering services for its cellulosic ethanol project at Park Falls, Wisconsin. The new biorefinery will be constructed adjacent to the Flambeau River Papers facility in Park Falls, Wisconsin.

Flambeau River Papers, LLC makes 400 tons per day of book printing and copy grades on three paper machines. The mill recently announced plans to replace its natural gas boilers with a biomass boiler or gasifier. This will make Flambeau River Papers the first energy independent integrated mill in North America.

The Flambeau River Biorefinery project will be the first modern U.S. based pulp mill biorefinery to produce cellulosic ethanol.

Read the full release.

Energy presentations at the UW-Madison

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The Energy Institute at the UW-Madison offers a long list of energy-related presentations in the next few months. Topics range from peak oil to a history of nuclear energy to a look beyond ethanol.

See a schedule for all of the presentations on the Energy Institute's event calendar.

U.S. petroleum demand dipped in 2006

Monday, January 22, 2007

From an AP article by Dan Caterinicchia:

WASHINGTON - While oil companies reaped gargantuan profits in 2006 amid high prices, U.S. demand for petroleum dipped for the second year in a row, a trade group said Friday.

Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, fell by roughly 1 percent to 20.6 million barrels per day, down from 20.8 million in 2005, which was below the 2004 level, according to a report by the American Petroleum Institute.

The analysis was released one day after the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimated that oil demand in the world's industrialized countries declined by 0.6 percent in 2006. Global demand rose in 2006 due to the strength of consumption in China and the Middle East, but the world's appetite has grown at a slower pace for two straight years.

Peak Oil Presentation, noon, January 22, State Capitol

Friday, January 19, 2007

Brown-bag Lunch Series on Energy
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Room 400 SE, State Capitol

RENEW Wisconsin and the Madison Peak Oil Group invite legislators, aides, Capitol staff, lobbyists, agency staff, and the general public to a series brown-bag lunches on energy-related issues.

Without a doubt, this legislative session will see several bills and administrative rules on energy issues, and the brown-bag lunches will provide the background and context to help with a better understanding of the underlying issues. The briefings will be non-partisan and will not offer positions on any proposals pending at the time.

Each short briefing will allow ample time for questions and discussions.

January 22 - Overview of Peak Oil, presented by Mark Daugherty.

Simply put, peak oil is the point in time when, on a worldwide basis, we will be extracting the most oil per day from the ground that we ever will. Before peak oil we were not extracting as much, and after peak oil we will not be extracting as much. Peak oil is the point in time of maximum extraction.

In the past few decades, there has been enough oil to meet demand because the supply has been growing at the same time demand has been growing. This will no longer be true after Peak Oil. Demand will not be met as supplies dwindle and oil prices will rise. Other energy sources will not be able to do for us what oil did.
Peak oil holds profound social and economic implications.

Madison eastside solar home

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Jeff Riggert, president of the Madison chapter of the Association of Energy Service Professionals and an active participant in the Madiosn Peak Oil Group, provided a photo and explanation of his home's new solar installations:

Check out the evacuated solar thermal tubes and photovoltaic panels.

This 1.6 KW PV array produces 2,100 kWhs/Yr, and meets 110% of electric usage.

The 6x9 ft. array of 30 6-foot evacuated tubes produces about 180 Therms/Yr. and meets 90% of my hot water demand and 10 percent of space heating load. The remaining space heat is met with a 71% efficient convective wood-burning stove.

The plan is to add more panels and/or tubes, if the 30% federal tax credit can be applied to future capacity additions. Wisconsin Focus On Energy provided a 25% incentive on both systems. The DC-AC phase inverter can go up to 3.9 KW.

Please note the "hot-box" beneath the bay window for winter gardening, biomass logs juxtaposed, and Duke the Devil Hound sitting in front of his dog house. Duke has never paid rent, but always sleeps on a futon in front of the stove (the warmest spot in the house).

Put renewable energy into your life

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

You can learn to install and live with renewable energy by taking one of the many excellent workshops offered by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, which just released the on-line schedule for its 2007 workshops.

Pub Service will fund efficient technology programs

Monday, January 15, 2007

A story by Nathan Phelps in the Oshkosh Northwestern reports on requirements on the Green Bay utility in settling a lawsuit:

Four programs aimed at showcasing energy efficient technologies in homes and businesses will receive $500,000 in funding from Wisconsin Public Service Corp. in the wake of a settlement with two environmental organizations late last year.

Programs are expected to be focused in Brown County, but could flow to other areas covered by WPS if a saturation point is reached, according to a press release from the company.

Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club's Midwest Clean Energy Program in Madison, said the programs are intended to showcase new technologies that can increase efficiencies in electricity use, which is expected to reduce the amount of energy usage — and money sent out of the state and country to purchase energy — while protecting the environment.

"When people start seeing things around their community more often they'll become much more acceptable," he said. "When people see those squiggly compact fluorescent light bulbs at Home Depot, they're not going to say, 'What are those?' but they'll have seen them used at their daycare center or a neighbors home."

Programs include:

- Designating 300 low-income households with young children to receive 10 compact fluorescent light bulbs.

- Providing rebates to schools and daycares for purchases of energy efficient appliances

- Construction of four "super-efficient" homes — two by Habitat for Humanity and two by Energy Star Builders

- Additionally, 5,000 LED exit lighting kits will be provided to small- and medium-sized businesses, schools and government facilities.

Is Good Weather Bad for Sustainable Energy?

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Petroleum and Natural Gas Watch
by Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin
January 13, 2007, Vol. 6, Number 1

This winter’s weather has been the stuff of front-page stories, though not for the usual reasons. Where I live, in that part of the country formerly known as the Snow Belt, we haven’t seen the white stuff in 40 days. As we enter the coldest seven-day stretch in the calendar year, Madison’s largest lakes remain more than 99% ice-free. Even along shallow Monona Bay, where the ice-fishing season typically lasts three months, guys in snowmobile suits have given way to joggers in shorts and sweatshirts. Except for a slushy snowfall on December 1st, it has been clear sailing for commuter bicyclists like myself. On some days I didn’t even wear gloves!

A few days ago, the National Climate Data Center reported that the United States recorded its warmest year in 2006. The unusually balmy conditions that have prevailed this past month—it was the fourth warmest December on record--lifted 2006’s temperatures into record territory. Thus far, Ol’ Man Winter has confined his cantankerous self to just a few memorable visits to Colorado and neighboring states; elsewhere, he has been MIA since Thanksgiving.

Can this extraordinary mild weather—31 straight days with high temperatures in Madison above the freezing mark--be simply an outgrowth of the current El Niño phenomenon? Or is it yet another indication that Mother Nature is running a fever, brought about by our addiction to fossil fuels. Is Ol’ Man Winter’s long absence from these parts simply a one-time-only event or does it mean the Snow Belt is migrating northward?

Continue reading.

Biodiesel could power capital heating plant

Friday, January 12, 2007

In the wake of the State of Wisconsin announcement to study new fuels for the Capital Heat and Power Plant ("The reddish brick structure and tall yellow smokestack have been fixtures at 624 E. Main St. for nearly a century," according to The Capital Times), Brett Hulsey suggests that the State should consider biodiesel:

One cost-effective solution to coal that the Governor could put into the state budget is to switch these facilities to Bioheat, which is 20% biodiesel and 80% ULS Diesel. Capitol , Walnut and Charter Street Plants can burn either fuel oil or coal.

This would help drive biodiesel demand in Wisconsin.

Bioheat reduces pollutants C02, PM, NOx 20% and SO2 80%, according to Hulsey, president of Better Environmental Solutions.

For more information he suggests a press release, report, and FAQs from the National Biodiesel Board

New ideas for electricity and ethanol

Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Country Today carries two stories of interest:

Company proposes whey-to-ethanol plan
By Jim Massey, Editor

MADISON - Officials at a California-based company believe a whey byproduct could be made into ethanol at as many as eight manufacturing facilities in Wisconsin.

Jeff Lee, manager of project development for Earthanol, based in Newport Beach, Calif., made a sales pitch Jan. 5 to members of the Wisconsin Specialty Cheese Institute. He said Earthanol officials are developing a process to convert whey permeate - often discarded by Wisconsin cheese plants - into ethanol.

Farmer helps design small-scale digester
By Megan Parker, Regional Editor

Digester designers didn't consider small farms, but Duane Chapman of Chapman Brothers Farms in Tomah wants digester technology to be a tool for smaller farms in managing their manure.

Mr. Chapman and Universal Sanitary Equipment Manufacturing Company in Tomah, which builds city sewage systems, are designing an anaerobic digester for smaller dairy farms.

Interesting peak oil & energy events coming up

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

All events are open to the public. Contact Ed Blume for information on any of these events.

January 18 - Implementing Wisconsin's Climate Action Plan. A brown bag lunch presentation (noon to 1:00 p.m.) in RENEW's conference room (222 S. Hamilton) by Brett Hulsey of Better Environmental Solutions on the status of the implementation of Wisconsin’s plans to address climate change.

January 22 - Overview of Peak Oil, presented by Mark Daugherty. Brown-bag lunch briefing and discussion from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Room 400 Southeast of the State Capitol.

January 23 - Mexico’s Coming Oil Crisis. Hosted by Community Action on Latin America, funded in part by Community Shares of Wisconsin. Presentation in the UW-Madison Memorial Union. Check Today in the Union (TITU) for room location.

January 29 – Renewables in Wisconsin’s Energy Mix, presented by Ed Blume. Brown-bag lunch briefing and discussion from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Room 400 Southeast of the State Capitol.

February 1 - Madison Peak Oil Group brown bag lunch meetings from noon to 1:00 p.m. in RENEW's conference room (222 S. Hamilton). 1st Thursday of each month.

February 5 – Wisconsin’s new Energy Efficiency and Renewables Law (Act 141), presented by Michael Vickerman. Brown-bag lunch briefing and discussion from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Room 400 Southeast of the State Capitol.

February 12 – Focus on Energy, presented by a representative from Focus on Energy. Brown-bag lunch briefing and discussion from noon to 1:00 p.m. in Room 400 Southeast of the State Capitol.

Brown-bag Geothermal Workshop, January 10

Monday, January 08, 2007

Learn the fundamentals of geothermal heat pump systems, how they work and what makes them perform so well in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. We will also discuss what geothermal can do for you, your customers, Wisconsin ENERGY STAR Homes, LEED, green home and light commercial projects.

Time, Date, and Location:
11:30 - 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Chula Vista Resort
4031 River Road, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965

Sponsored by:
Alliant Energy

Mexico's Coming Oil Crisis

Friday, January 05, 2007

January 23
A presentation by Larry Walker
Madison, WI - Exact location will be posted here as soon as it's determined.
7:00 p.m.

Mexico's Cantarell oil field is about to play out a classic peak-and-rapid-decline scenario over the next 3 years. This will pose special challenges for Mexico's government, its national oil company Pemex, the U.S., and the world oil market.

Sponsored by Community Action on Latin America.
In English with Spanish translation.
More information from Carol Bracewell.

Personal responses to peak oil

Thursday, January 04, 2007

While we can understand and express concern about peak oil, we also need to confront the crisis globally as well as personally.

Fortunately, Sustain Dane offer several sustainability discussion courses all around Dane County. Consider this an opportunity to start the year by gaining fresh insights and meeting fascinating people that, like you, envision and are dedicated to creating a vibrant community and a healthy planet.

The course on voluntary simplicity helps "participants clarify how they spend their time, how to simplify to make room for meaningful activities, and how all this is related to living more lightly on the Earth."

The course on deep ecology helps "participants clarify earth-related values, discover how personal values affect the way we view and treat the earth and understand what it means to take personal responsibility for the earth."

Visit the Sustain Dane Web site for more information or contact Ann Scheerer by e-mail or phone (608.819.0689).

Help lobby the legislature, February 21

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Once again, RENEW Wisconsin will join with other concerned citizens to make certain legislators address the top conservation priorities, including renewable energy.

Join RENEW and dozens of other conservation organizations on Conservation Lobby Day, Wednesday, February 21st.

Conservation Lobby Day is your day to tell your state Assembly Representative and your state Senator why you care about clean energy, the Great Lakes, and special places.

Registration begins at 9:00 at the Inn on the Park in Madison. The program begins at 10:00. The day will end with refreshments and a Wild Game Feed at 5:00 pm at the Inn on the Park.

Register at the WLCV.

Peak oil meetings, January 4

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

The Madison Peak Oil Group will meet for a brown bag lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the lower level conference room of RENEW Wisconsin, 222 S. Hamilton Street (where S. Hamilton, W. Wilson, and Henry Streets meet). We will be planning a presentation at noon on January 22 for legislators, legislative staff, lobbyists, agency staff, and the general public in the state Capitol, as well as a presentation in March on Russia's emerging strength in the world market for natural gas and oil.

In the evening of January 4, a second peak oil group will meet at 6:30 p.m. at Escape Coffee, 916 Williamson Street.

Both meetings are open to the public. Anyone and everyone should feel free to attend one or both of the meetings.