Green Star Products, a biodiesel company, is building the world’s first biodiesel plant with almost zero net greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional biodiesel plants emit greenhouse gases from natural gas heating inputs. All for electricity from local utilities. Then they would imported methanol. However, Green Star Products’ plant will operate with its own electric generators running…
Source: CNN Money / Fortune
One tankful of the latest craze in alternative energy could feed one person for a year, Lester Brown tells Fortune.
The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy – promises a guilt-free way to keep our gas tanks full, the reality is that overuse of our agricultural resources could have consequences even more drastic than, say, being deprived of our SUVs. It could leave much of the world hungry.
By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press, MSNBC and Wikipedia
WASHINGTON — President Bush has requested $11.4 million for the EPA to implement parts of a federal energy law that includes writing rules for a new renewable fuels standard. It requires refiners to use 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol in gasoline annually by 2012.
The Bush Administration is considering lifting import tariffs on ethanol in a bid to alleviate any supply crunch of gasoline ahead of the peak summer demand driving season, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Thursday.
“It’s something the administration has considered and will continue to consider,” Bodman told reporters, after a meeting with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico.
BP’s Largest Oil Field Shut Down – 400,000 Barrels Per Day
By H. JOSEF HEBERTAssociated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
Source: Alaska Forum
The Energy Department is prepared to provide oil from the government’s emergency supplies if a refinery requests it because of the disruption of supplies from Alaska, a department spokesman said Monday.
Oil transit pipelines, including the one that led to a partial shutdown of the country’s largest oil field, would have to be regularly cleaned and checked for thin spots and leaks under a federal proposal issued Thursday.
The “low-stress” lines in rural areas are largely unregulated.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has been working on a plan for several years to regulate the low-pressure lines. The agency sped up the process after two Prudhoe Bay transit lines leaked in March and August, said PHMSA Administrator Thomas Barrett.
Source: Tesla Motors and Autoblog Green
…Tonight was the grand unveiling of the Roadster in a decorated airport hangar in Santa Monica, CA. I don’t ride in many sports cars, and I certainly have never been in one that zips across an airport’s tarmac without so much as a whisper. But tonight I got a quick ride in the Roadster and all I could hear from the passenger’s seat (not even Gov. Schwarzenegger, who flew in for a brief look at the car, was allowed to drive it) was wind noise. And myself saying “Wow” under my breath.
……..”Plug-in” hybrids aren’t yet cost-efficient, but some of the dozen known experimental models have gotten up to 250 mpg.
Tesla Motors unveiled their uber-chic Roadster, a powerful electric vehicle that looks, feels and drives like many other high-end sports cars Wednesday night. The main difference is the noise. Powered by a 3-phase, 4-pole AC induction motor, the Roadster can go 130 mph and does 0-60 in about 4 seconds, all completely silent.
