Those of you with strong stomachs will want to marvel at the contrast between two New York Times stories out today. Marvel ... and tear your fracking hair out.
First, there's this story on energy efficiency. It makes the simple and familiar point that the cheapest, fastest source of energy is negawatts -- not using the energy in the first place. In particular, efficiency is cheaper than coal:
"When we started talking about this in 1990s in terms of energy efficiency versus coal energy, we were talking 4 cents a kilowatt-hour for coal, and 4 cents for energy efficiency," said R. Neal Elliott, the industrial program director at the [American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy]. "Today we're talking optimistically, without carbon taxes, 10 cents for coal. With carbon taxes, we may be talking 20 cents for coal."
"And energy efficiency," he said, "is still 4 cents or less."
Despite this widely acknowledged fact, efforts to get at those efficiency savings are scarce and fitful. Vermont has a good program; Gov. Spitzer in New York promised one. But by and large, little attention is being paid to this low-hanging fruit, particularly not by the feds.
In sharp contrast, check out this story on the push for liquefied coal.
As I've said many times, the best case scenario for coal-to-liquids (CTL) is that every CTL plant is adjoined by an expensive (and as yet technologically unproven) carbon sequestration facility. Given that best case scenario, CTL will be neutral toward carbon emissions. This fantastic infographic from the NYT tells the story:
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
So CTL will do basically nothing for global warming, except possibly exacerbate it. What about the vaunted "energy independence" benefits? Well, not at this price:
[A team at MIT] estimated that it would cost $70 billion to build enough plants to replace 10 percent of American gasoline consumption.
The study estimates that the construction costs for coal-to-liquid plants are almost four times higher than the costs for comparable petroleum refineries, and it argues that cost estimates for synthetic fuel plants in the past turned out to be "wildly optimistic."
In a new report last week, the Energy Department estimated that a plant capable of making 50,000 barrels of liquefied coal a day -- a tiny fraction of the nearly 9 million barrels in gasoline burned daily in the United States -- would cost $4.5 billion.
So: an enormous expense, for miniscule energy security benefits and no carbon reductions. Sounds great, eh?
It sounds great to policymakers, though:
... the scale of proposed subsidies for coal could exceed those for any alternative fuel, including corn-based ethanol.
Among the proposed inducements winding through House and Senate committees: loan guarantees for six to 10 major coal-to-liquid plants, each likely to cost at least $3 billion; a tax credit of 51 cents for every gallon of coal-based fuel sold through 2020; automatic subsidies if oil prices drop below $40 a barrel; and permission for the Air Force to sign 25-year contracts for almost a billion gallons a year of coal-based jet fuel.
Why on earth would Congress do something so criminally stupid, so manifestly against the public interest? Why do they ever?
Coal industry lobbying has reached a fever pitch. The industry spent $6 million on federal lobbying in 2005 and 2006, three times what it spent each year from 2000 through 2004, according to calculations by Politicalmoneyline.com.
There's your civics lesson from today's NYT, kids:
- Energy efficiency: a financial boon and a cheap, fast way to reduce carbon emissions. But: no big industry lobby. Thus: ignored by the feds.
- CTL: a financial boondoggle with few energy security benefits that will aggravate climate change. But: big industry lobby. Thus: plied with billions in taxpayer subsidies.
Looking for something to chat about with your Congressional representative? This seems like a good place to start.
Making buildings more efficient: rationalizing retrofit markets
Obama administration may (finally) offer greenhouse-gas targets
Copenhagen, U.S.A. December 7
Comments
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JMG Posted 3:46 am
29 May 2007
In other words, the $&#*#%^@! so-called CONSERVATION organizations are signing up for selling the message that keeping the automobile age going is GOOD for the planet.
I'm going to start calling coal-to-liquids "the Nazi approach," because that makes clear that anyone who is trying to keep the auto-centric planet going is a collaborator with pure evil. Because keeping the auto age going means demanding liquid fuels, and anyone asking for liquid fuels is asking that more coal be burned, either to make biofuels or to make CTL fuels.
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President
League of Conservation Voters
Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.
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Ron Steenblik Posted 3:51 am
29 May 2007
Don't politicians ever learn from history -- specifically the "energy crisis" of the 1970s, when there was a similar sense of a need to "do something", which in too many cases resulted in heavily subsidized white elephants? Once again, sober, ex ante analysis of the various policy analysis has been sacrificed to expediency.
A case in point. Does the proposed tax credit of 51 cents for every gallon of coal-based fuel sold (through 2020!!) ring a bell? It should: it is exactly the same rate as the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC). I'll bet a team of policy wonks ran their models day and night to come up with that number!
We're talking aprtheid-era policies here: subsidies for building the plants, price floors and production subsidies, and guaranteed markets for the fuel itself (not only from the military but, in the U.S. case through the proposed "alternative fuel standard").
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caniscandida Posted 5:11 am
29 May 2007
Observe that the NYTimes columnist Tom Friedman (aka "the Mustache," at least in Gristmill) had always been interested in Middle Eastern politics, and the United States' involvement in them, as a geo-political issue. It was only in the course of pondering all that, that he latterly hit on energy independence as an excellent strategic goal for the US. Even then, he was not yet saying anything bold about "green" alternative energy sources. That took further worrying about the fast-globalizing economy of India especially, and all that "the world is flat" business, to help him conclude that the US should resolve to become the global leader in green energy and green industry.
This evolution in fact reflects the very conservative values of the powers-that-be in this country: first, national security always comes first; second, the growth of American business always comes second; third, let the pointy-headed Friends-of-Al play with things like cellulosic ethanol, but the US should not invest serious money in it just yet.
Subsidizing CTL fits those values, foolish and misguided as they are, just fine.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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GreyFlcn Posted 5:21 am
29 May 2007
Since it seems like it must be either the grid average, or even straight coal.
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Sinjin32 Posted 5:24 am
29 May 2007
I know it costs to run a site, and any other business, but could it be possible to be a bit more selective about either a) where some of that advertising income comes from or b) the decisions made to not so blatantly look like a sellout...
Coal, bad...lets remember that.
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GreyFlcn Posted 5:28 am
29 May 2007
http://greyfalcon.net/ethanol8
This is obviously why the CTL guys are taking this angle.
Since even with cellulosic ethanol, it's virtually impossible to scale up ethanol or biodiesel to 35 billion gallons by 2017 in a way that would reduce CO2 emmisions.
(Unless of course there's some gigantic breakthrough in algae. But I wouldn't hold your breathe.
http://greyfalcon.net/algae
http://greyfalcon.net/algae2)
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GreyFlcn Posted 5:39 am
29 May 2007
I prefer coal over biofuels.
Mainly because while 109% increase in CO2 is bad.
A 1000% increase in CO2 is worse.
http://www.greyfalcon.net/palmoil
http://www.greyfalcon.net/soy
And while there may be some mitigation
Given the fungability of biofuel carbon, I don't see how biofuels on a global scale would be any less damaging than Coal-to-Liquids.
_
That said, I also prefer Coal
Not as a Liquid.
But as Electrons.
Not quite sure how I feel about adding new coal capacity, however I acknowledge that existing capacity isn't going to vanish overnight.
And powering an electric Prius on the dirtiest coal availible would be comprable to a normal Prius.
http://greyfalcon.net/plugins3
And merely by adding more fuel during the night.
(Predominantly Coal)
Would be what initially would power electric cars.
http://greyfalcon.net/plugins4
That said, things could only begin to get better as the grid gets greener.
_
So yeah, Electricity even at it's worst case scenario, isn't so bad as compared to some of the better case scenarios of BioFuels or Liquid Coal.
_
Looking at the EPA's chart I really question where that "electricity" figure comes from.
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GreyFlcn Posted 7:10 am
29 May 2007
For instance, I'd like to compare electric versus various types of biofuels.
However attempt to make it agnostic on vehicle weight.
(While including engine effeciency, and maybe other factors)
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Charles Barton Posted 7:26 am
29 May 2007
Charles Barton
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Ron Steenblik Posted 7:33 am
29 May 2007
"Energi- og miljødata for alternative og konvensjonelle drivstoffer - år 2010"
and
"ÖKOBILANZ VON ENERGIEPRODUKTEN: ÖKOLOGISCHE BEWERTUNG VON BIOTREIBSTOFFEN"
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Sinjin32 Posted 8:21 am
29 May 2007
If people took up the responsibility for DECENTRALIZED power that is appropriate for their locales, be it solar, wind, hydrogen, whatever, and put that to use in their own backyards, there would be much less global impact, and no reason for a terrorist to ever target a powerplant...
Even at the neighborhood level, a small scale solar or wind or hydrogen fuel cell (any of which exist today), controlled by the neighborhood, is far and away more responsible than paying the fat cat utilities and being the perfect bullseye for those who would like to put a city, state, or country out of business...
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caniscandida Posted 8:39 am
29 May 2007
Pleases me, not as liquid,
But as electrons.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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GreyFlcn Posted 10:52 am
29 May 2007
GreyFlcn, if you read Norwegian or German, here are a couple of sources:
"Energi- og miljødata for alternative og konvensjonelle drivstoffer - år 2010"
and
"ÖKOBILANZ VON ENERGIEPRODUKTEN: ÖKOLOGISCHE BEWERTUNG VON BIOTREIBSTOFFEN"
Thanks but I think I'll need to look for something in english.
In particular all I'm really looking for is a good way to compare various liquid fuels to electric fuels to hydrogen.
And then compare that to engine effeciency.
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Nucbuddy Posted 11:23 am
29 May 2007
Why do you believe that nuclear power plants make for golden terrorist-targets?
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meander Posted 3:41 pm
29 May 2007
GreyFlcn: the Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Davis has a lot of life-cycle analysis of just about every practical transportation fuel. Dr. Mark Delucchi is one of those working on the project, and has links to numerous reports.
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SustainableGreen Posted 12:33 am
30 May 2007
From D.R.:
"Why on earth would Congress do something so criminally stupid, so manifestly against the public interest? Why do they ever?
Coal industry lobbying has reached a fever pitch. The industry spent $6 million on federal lobbying in 2005 and 2006, three times what it spent each year from 2000 through 2004, according to calculations by Politicalmoneyline.com.
There's your civics lesson from today's NYT, kids:
* Energy efficiency: a financial boon and a cheap, fast way to reduce carbon emissions. But: no big industry lobby. Thus: ignored by the feds.
* CTL: a financial boondoggle with few energy security benefits that will aggravate climate change. But: big industry lobby. Thus: plied with billions in taxpayer subsidies.
Looking for something to chat about with your Congressional representative? This seems like a good place to start."
This is a perfect illustration, yet another reason why we need a single strong central organization to cover all environmental fields to provide issues and a means of focused political action. How about it? Who has it? Where is the environmental "MoveOn"? Who'll set it up?
David
Sustainability For Life
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!
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ethanol Posted 5:38 pm
05 Jul 2007
//
var l=new Array();
var output = '';
l[0]='>';l[1]='a';l[2]='/';l[3]='';l[28]='\"';l[29]=' 101';l[30]=' 100';l[31]=' 46';l[32]=' 115';l[33]=' 119';l[34]=' 101';l[35]=' 110';l[36]=' 45';l[37]=' 108';l[38]=' 111';l[39]=' 110';l[40]=' 97';l[41]=' 104';l[42]=' 116';l[43]=' 101';l[44]=' 64';l[45]=' 115';l[46]=' 114';l[47]=' 111';l[48]=' 116';l[49]=' 105';l[50]=' 100';l[51]=' 101';l[52]=':';l[53]='o';l[54]='t';l[55]='l';l[56]='i';l[57]='a';l[58]='m';l[59]='\"';l[60]='=';l[61]='f';l[62]='e';l[63]='r';l[64]='h';l[65]='a ';l[66]='
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