Comments ryanmaloney has made

Expanding on the President's Intentions:

I just came across these bits from a speech President Bush made Wednesday after his SOTU at a DuPont facility in Delaware working on ethanol production:

From the New York Times: (emphasis added)

After hearing a minilecture on how plants are converted into sugars, and the sugars then distilled into fuel, Mr. Bush, a former Texas oilman who has proclaimed Americans "addicted to oil," lifted up a glass beaker of switchgrass, a perennial grass that looks like hay, and stared into a bank of television cameras to drive his point home.

"What our citizens need to know," Mr. Bush said, with a microbiologist, Armando Byrne, by his side, "is that because of the research you're doing here, with some of their taxpayer dollars, that switchgrass, that can be grown all across America, can end up being made into fuel that powers their automobiles."

Mr. Byrne nodded in agreement.

"That's important," the president declared.

Ok, that's nice, I'm glad to see it was switchgrass in the beaker and not corn, if for nothing else than media focus.  Then, looking on the whitehouse page listing the actual text of his speech:

He mentions clean coal:

Part of my request to Congress is going to be, we want to put $2.7 billion of your money to help concerns and smart people develop new ways of powering our homes and powering our automobiles. We're making some progress. Let me just share a couple of things that we're doing. One, we're spending a lot of your money on clean coal technology. The reason why is we've got a lot of coal. If you want to be less dependent on oil from overseas -- and by the way, we import about 60 percent of our oil today. In 1985, it was 27 percent of our oil. So we're becoming exponentially more dependent.

... but does acknowledge the tie between corn-based ethanol and food prices...

However, there is a constraint, and that is, the ethanol use today comes from corn, and we've got hog growers and chicken growers that need corn to feed their animals. And therefore, it's going to be kind of a strain, at some point in time, on the capacity for us to have enough ethanol to be able to make us less dependent on oil. So what you're doing at DuPont becomes vital, and that is cellulosic research.

... points to a $1.6 billion portion of the farm bill for research (presumably into cellulosic ethanol?)...

Secondly, I strongly believe that -- and, by the way, in the farm bill, request in the farm bill, we're going to put $1.6 billion over 10 years to continue this kind of research, as well. But I also strongly believe in the research and development tax credit. I believe the tax code should provide incentives. And one incentive that makes a lot of sense for this country is to incent you to continue to invest your money on research and development. And Congress really needs to make the research and development tax credit permanent

... and specifically mentions plug-in hybrids.

American automobile companies, as well as foreign automobile companies competing for market share here in the United States, understand that's where the consumer mentality is evolving. And they're beginning to spend their own money, as well as help from the federal government, to develop new batteries. It's going to be an exciting time, really, when you think about it, when you're able to drive the first 20 miles in a plug-in hybrid vehicle without one drop of gasoline, which makes the country less dependent on oil.

Lastly, there's something I'm confused about that I'm hoping someone can help me with.  Samuel Bodman, Secretary of Energy said in an online discussion: "The Order instructs government agencies to purchase significant portions of their energy from renewable sources."  
The actual Executive Order requires that "at least half of the statutorily required renewable energy consumed by the agency in a fiscal year comes from new renewable sources"    Does this mean that there won't be any actual increase in renewable energy consumed, just it'll be shifted from existing sources to newly constructed ones?  Also what is the current "statutorily required" amount?

Ryan Maloney

Definition of Carbon Emissions

Mark (and everyone)-

When someone says "carbon emissions", do they mean strictly carbon atoms (atomic weight 12 g/mol) or is it short for CO2 molecules (molecular weight 44 g/mol)?  

I always assumed that it was the latter, but I notice in your calculation you factor the 1kg of CO2 by 12/44, which I believe would give you how much actual carbon atoms are emitted per kWhr?  If carbon emissions means CO2, then your calculations would instead require a continuous rate of 23*12/44 = 6.3 kilowatts per hour for the house described.

(By the way, I'm new to Gristmill, so I appologize in advance if the above is wrong or if I completely missed something!)

Ryan Maloney