<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Cleveland brewery attempts energy recyling yet is foiled by regulation]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Biodiversivist http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:32:04 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/1 Glad to see you used a brewery for an example

this time instead of a corn ethanol refinery ;)

I've learned a lot about regulatory barriers to clean energy from your posts. Examples like this along with others, like biofuel mandates, suggest that avoiding or overcoming generic governmental incompetence is going to be an ongoing struggle.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Glad to see you used a brewery for an example

this time instead of a corn ethanol refinery ;)

I've learned a lot about regulatory barriers to clean energy from your posts. Examples like this along with others, like biofuel mandates, suggest that avoiding or overcoming generic governmental incompetence is going to be an ongoing struggle.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

]]> Comment #2 by randino http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:53:23 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/2 Insult to injury.

To make matters worse for a great brewery, that produces great beer, with a green consciousness, they will be forced to buy electricity from a public power company that rammed through a dirty coal plant deal earlier this year. We are leaving the ordinary screwed up economics and regulatory rules of our archaic energy system, and entering a new realm that is demonic. Green City on a Blue Lake? ROFLOL.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH  

Randy Cunningham


]]> Insult to injury.

To make matters worse for a great brewery, that produces great beer, with a green consciousness, they will be forced to buy electricity from a public power company that rammed through a dirty coal plant deal earlier this year. We are leaving the ordinary screwed up economics and regulatory rules of our archaic energy system, and entering a new realm that is demonic. Green City on a Blue Lake? ROFLOL.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH  

Randy Cunningham


]]> Comment #3 by JakobFabian01 http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/ Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:56:41 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/cogen-beer/3 Good guys and bad guys

You can't point the finger of blame in only one direction on this one.  Champs and chumps alike can be found in both the public and the private sector.  The CLEVELAND SCENE article cited by Sean Casten praised a pioneering private company for inventing the new co-generation technology:

"Akron-based ReXorce Thermionics, Inc. just received a $4.3 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier Project, which funds innovative high-tech research to advance its work on waste-heat recovery."

But the local bureaucrats have to change the rules of energy distribution in order to implement this new technology.  And there are, as always, barriers in the practice of other, BIGGER private corporations.  As the SCENE reporter wrote:

"Privately owned utilities [...] usually discourage companies, large and small, from installing on-site waste-heat-recovery-based power generation by charging prohibitively high rates for backup power should the local supply break down. Such stand-alone power supplies threaten utilities' bottom lines. After all, profits are derived from costs passed on to users."

I do admire the Great Lakes Brewery.  This company has always had a strong environmental consciousness, which even shows in the name given to one of its great beers: "Burning River Pale Ale."  This name commemorates the infamous 1969 fire on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River, which served as an alarm bell for environmentalists.  These are the best of the good guys!

]]> Good guys and bad guys

You can't point the finger of blame in only one direction on this one.  Champs and chumps alike can be found in both the public and the private sector.  The CLEVELAND SCENE article cited by Sean Casten praised a pioneering private company for inventing the new co-generation technology:

"Akron-based ReXorce Thermionics, Inc. just received a $4.3 million grant from Ohio's Third Frontier Project, which funds innovative high-tech research to advance its work on waste-heat recovery."

But the local bureaucrats have to change the rules of energy distribution in order to implement this new technology.  And there are, as always, barriers in the practice of other, BIGGER private corporations.  As the SCENE reporter wrote:

"Privately owned utilities [...] usually discourage companies, large and small, from installing on-site waste-heat-recovery-based power generation by charging prohibitively high rates for backup power should the local supply break down. Such stand-alone power supplies threaten utilities' bottom lines. After all, profits are derived from costs passed on to users."

I do admire the Great Lakes Brewery.  This company has always had a strong environmental consciousness, which even shows in the name given to one of its great beers: "Burning River Pale Ale."  This name commemorates the infamous 1969 fire on Cleveland's Cuyahoga River, which served as an alarm bell for environmentalists.  These are the best of the good guys!

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