Comments JerryPBO has made

  • Who's stimulated?

    This bill contains more for roads and airports than transit, and the stimulus to genuine green tech, such as wind, is dwarfed by the huge continued subsidies to ethanol, which is probably worse than fossil fuel from the point of view of environmental destruction and social justice. Renewable energy has been growing geometrically in the past few years, and has stopped due to the depression, so the bill will barely maintain the momentum, while breathing fresh life into nuclear, coal and ethanol which are also moribund due to the crisis.

    The tax cuts will only hasten the day that the US currency becomes worthless, which is certainly not the strategy to develop a sustainable economy.
    Its the same thinking that got us here......On House passes stimulus package with more than $100 billion in green spending posted 9 months, 4 weeks ago 6 Responses

  • Science?

    I fail to find anything supportive of positive environment of energy policy. Rather, it is using the same old ways of thinking...continued faith in "science" to solve the problems science has created, more efficiently destroying the remainder of life on the planet to keep our cars on the road as long as possible.
    Still asserting the US is the dominant power in the world, when that era is well dead; still asserting blind faith in the market.....a string of cliches and vague phrases that continue to allow everyone to believe what they want of him, and deny the essential continuity of his policies with those of his predecessors, despite PR tweaks. On Obama references energy, climate challenges in inaugural address posted 10 months, 1 week ago 13 Responses

  • Murdoch Green?

    "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell" (Edward Abbey)-- also of capitalism. Capitalism cannot ever be sustainable, any capitalist who tries will lose in the marketplace. Carbon offsets are a fraud, and also unsustainable, since Murdoch would love it if eventually everyone in India could spend more money than they now make on Fox and its advertisers. Its about energy -- all of these so-called green initiatives, from silicon valley to fox news use more, not less energy, even if it is temporarily sourced to a somewhat lesser source of ghg.

    When will Murdoch simply buy out Grist so we can get more fair and balanced fantasy?On An interview with Rupert Murdoch about News Corp.'s new climate strategy posted 2 years, 6 months ago 14 Responses

  • The numbers on biofuel

    Montenegro's article is useful, but misses a major point -- there is no free lunch.
    If you use switchgrass, or anthing else growing to create fuel, especially if you use the residual lignin for combustion, you are depleting the soil at an incredible rate. Yields will shortly fall dramatically unless tremendous energy inputs are used to maintain soil fertility.....so you're back to square 1 or zero.

    Second, when she talks of 93% more energy out than in, thats and energy return of less than 2:1. Petroleum yields 20:1, even now on the cusp of peak oil. If we restructured society to use perhaps 5% of the fuel we do now for vehicles, and none for heating or industrial processes, biofuel sources might make sense.
    On How the world got addicted to oil, and where biofuels will take us posted 2 years, 12 months ago 28 Responses

  • The numbers on biofuel

    Montenegro's article is useful, but misses a major point -- there is no free lunch.
    If you use switchgrass, or anthing else growing to create fuel, especially if you use the residual lignin for combustion, you are depleting the soil at an incredible rate. Yields will shortly fall dramatically unless tremendous energy inputs are used to maintain soil fertility.....so you're back to square 1 or zero.

    Second, when she talks of 93% more energy out than in, thats and energy return of less than 2:1. Petroleum yields 20:1, even now on the cusp of peak oil. If we restructured society to use perhaps 5% of the fuel we do now for vehicles, and none for heating or industrial processes, biofuel sources might make sense.
    On A Grist special series on biofuels posted 2 years, 12 months ago 28 Responses

  • The numbers on biofuel

    Montenegro's article is useful, but misses a major point -- there is no free lunch.
    If you use switchgrass, or anthing else growing to create fuel, especially if you use the residual lignin for combustion, you are depleting the soil at an incredible rate. Yields will shortly fall dramatically unless tremendous energy inputs are used to maintain soil fertility.....so you're back to square 1 or zero.

    Second, when she talks of 93% more energy out than in, thats and energy return of less than 2:1. Petroleum yields 20:1, even now on the cusp of peak oil. If we restructured society to use perhaps 5% of the fuel we do now for vehicles, and none for heating or industrial processes, biofuel sources might make sense.
    On A lighthearted look at biofuels through time posted 2 years, 12 months ago 28 Responses

  • The numbers on biofuel

    Montenegro's article is useful, but misses a major point -- there is no free lunch.
    If you use switchgrass, or anthing else growing to create fuel, especially if you use the residual lignin for combustion, you are depleting the soil at an incredible rate. Yields will shortly fall dramatically unless tremendous energy inputs are used to maintain soil fertility.....so you're back to square 1 or zero.

    Second, when she talks of 93% more energy out than in, thats and energy return of less than 2:1. Petroleum yields 20:1, even now on the cusp of peak oil. If we restructured society to use perhaps 5% of the fuel we do now for vehicles, and none for heating or industrial processes, biofuel sources might make sense.
    On The numbers behind ethanol, cellulosic ethanol, and biodiesel in the U.S. posted 2 years, 12 months ago 28 Responses