Supreme arguments, part 2

One of the more entertaining takes on yesterday's global-warming arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court is available today on the Slate website, written by its legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick. This is the first paragraph:

"If there is anything stranger than writing up your story on global warming in a T-shirt … in late November … in the District of Columbia, I can't quite think what it is. In fact nothing about this morning's oral argument, in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, is normal. The justices are perhaps deciding, after all, the most urgent scientific question facing the planet: They are deciding Bush v. Gore's Movie."

To read the full piece, click on:

http://www.slate.com/id/2154622

--Craig Pittman

Electric cars are back, says GM.

I was in the gym at lunchtime and while channel-surfing during my workout I was fortunate enough to catch CNBC's interview with Rick Wagoner, CEO at General Motors. He was talking at the Los Angeles car show about GM's new plans to build electric vehicles.
For those of you who have seen 'Who Killed the Electric Car' it seems GM has done another about-turn. This will come as too late for former EV1 drivers. But is welcome news anyway.

"Stung by criticism that it conspired to kill the electric car, the world’s largest automaker said it plans to make a plug-in electric hybrid version of the Saturn Vue Green Line, with double the fuel efficiency of any current sport utility vehicle," CNBC reports.
GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner called the plug-in hybrid technology a “top priority” for the automaker. “The technological hurdles are real, but we believe they are also surmountable,” he told reporters at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show.

The Saturn Vue Green Line is GM’s first hybrid in the U.S. market, running on gasoline and a battery that is charged while it is moving. GM also plans to expand the hybrid system to the Saturn Aura Green Line and Chevrolet Malibu sedans in 2007. The GMC Yukon hybrid will have 25 percent better fuel economy than the gasoline version, GM said.

The effort is part of a GM effort to demonstrate how it is investing some of the $9 billion saved through job cuts and plant closures in hybrid technology. GM says it recognizes that to change consumer attitudes about its brands, it has to address criticism that it has not done enough to drive advances in fuel economy. In an interview with CNBC Wagoner said GM's decision to opt for electric cars was a response to the "future of energy supply" and the need to diversify away from gasoline.

Asked about consumer attitudes, he said; "I think the public is ready for the next generation of automobiles. We need to supply their needs."

Wagoner said improvements in lithium battery technology were "impressive" and were well ahead of hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Wagoner said the company also planned vehicles that run on a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, as well as fuel-cell vehicles, which use hydrogen to create electricity and emit only water. All versions of GM's Hummer SUVs will offer an engine powered by bio-fuels within three years.

Click here for the CNBC report, plus Phil LeBeau's interview with Wagoner.

- David Adams

IDB promotes investment in alternative energy.

The Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) held a two-day conference this week in Washington DC on sustainable energy and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean.
It's worth listening to what the IDB has to say. It's the largest lending institution dedicated exclusively to this hemisphere, and can bring large amounts of investment capital to bear. The IDB has an impressive track record on renewable energy, and is currently led by a highly energetic president, Luis Alberto Moreno. The IDB has already lent $17 billion to energy projects in the region, including financing parts of Brazil’s pioneering ethanol program.
In his opening speech, Moreno launched a Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative. He highlighted growing concerns in the region regarding the environmental impact of fossil fuels, including air quality and climate change, as well as the balance of payments impact of imported fuels.
Unlike the brief boom in renewable energy in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis, Moreno said he believes this time it is here to stay for the long term. Two new factors had entered the equation this time round: the broad consensus over the urgency of the threat of global warming, and the breakthroughs in important technology for renewable sources of energy.

At the same time, he pointed out, forecasts indicate that energy demand in the region will grow 75 percent by 2030. “Latin America will be hard-pressed to meet its energy needs without a vast expansion of renewable energy sources,” he concluded.

The new initiative will focus on areas such as investments in energy efficiency, development of new biofuels, expansion of carbon finance and comprehensive mitigation and adaptation to the risks of climate change.

Click here to read Moreno's speech.

Supreme arguments

The oral arguments today in the first global-warming case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court signaled a possible divide among the justices over whether the Bush Administration should be doing more to regulate tailpipe emissions.

According to a Bloomberg News report, Chief Justice John Roberts said the 12 states suing the Environmental Protection Agency for its refusal to regulate those emissions were ``spinning out conjecture on conjecture'' to support the argument that they would benefit from EPA rules.

And Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that U.S. motor vehicles account for only 6 percent of the total carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

``So the reduction that you could achieve under the best of circumstances with these regulations would be a small portion of that, would it not?'' Alito asked.

But Justice David Souter pointed out that even a little improvement would be helpful.

``It will reduce the degree of global warming and reduce the degree of coastal loss,'' Souter said. ``That's their argument -- not all or nothing, but a part.''

Other justices suggested the EPA had relied on impermissible factors in deciding not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, Bloomberg reported. Justice John Paul Stevens questioned the EPA's reliance on three National Academy of Sciences reports for the notion that scientists are unsure whether so-called greenhouse gases are increasing the earth's temperature.

``They left out the parts that indicated there was far less uncertainty than the agency purported to find,'' Stevens said during the hour-long argument in Washington.

Justice Antonin Scalia, usually no friend to increased government regulation, said the plaintiffs had made a ``persuasive'' point in comparing global warming to acid rain. The EPA does regulate sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain.

``Why isn't it air pollution within the meaning of the statute, when whatever it is that causes acid rain is?'' Scalia asked.

The divide among the Supremes may leave Justice Anthony Kennedy as the deciding vote, as he was in a Clean Water Act-related case in the court's last term. Kennedy didn't tip his hand today, directing a handful of questions to both sides in the hour-long argument, Bloomberg reported.

To read the full Bloomberg report click here:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBH9jnZ97EaM&refer=home

Gregory G. Garre, the deputy solicitor general who argued on behalf of the EPA, contended that that forcing the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions would require the agency to venture into an "extraordinarily complex area of science," creating unpredictable results, the Boston Globe reports.

But James R. Milkey, chief of the environmental division at the Massachusetts attorney general's office, told the justices that carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles contributed 6 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and those emissions threatened Massachusetts's 200 miles of coastline along with shores around the world, the Globe reported.

To read the Globe report on the case, which is Massachusetts v. EPA: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/29/supreme_court_takes_up_global_warming_case/

Carbon-offset business takes root.

Here's another great radio report from NPR on the promise of the growing "carbon-offset" business. Reporter Martin Kaste asks if buying a carbon offset for your gas-guzzler really makes it carbon neutral?

Click here to listen to his report.

New report says energy efficiency can make big difference.

Energy consumption could be cut by more than half over the next 15 years through more aggressive energy-efficiency efforts by households and industry, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute.

The energy savings can be achieved with current technology and would save money. The McKinsey report offers a long list of suggested steps, including the adoption of compact fluorescent light bulbs, improved insulation on new buildings, reduced standby power requirements, an accelerated push for appliance-efficiency standards and the use of solar water heaters.

This could reduce the yearly growth rate in worldwide energy demand through 2020 by almost three-quarters of current estimates, (to six-tenths of a percent, from a forecast annual rate of 2.2 percent) the report concluded.

The report highlights the need for better public education saying that many steps are not taken because energy users lack information. or do not value efficiency enough to change their buying habits. That helps explain the slow progress made by compact fluorescent light bulbs in the marketplace. Compact fluorescents are only slightly more costly than conventional bulbs, yet they last 10 times as long and consume 75 percent less electricity. The overall financial advantage of using compact fluorescent bulbs is obvious and sizable, even if the initial purchase price is higher.

By easing demand, efficiency programs can help restrain energy prices and help curb global warming.

Click here to read the McKinsey report:
Click here to read more in the New York Times.

- David Adams

Spanish wind giant looks to expand.

The Spanish power company  Iberdrola announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy  ScottishPower for $22.5 billion, creating one of Europe’s largest utilities.      

Iberdrola is Spain’s second-largest power company behind  Endesa and one of the world’s leading producers of wind power. The deal with ScottishPower would enable it to increase its wind power capacity by as much as 50 percent, analysts say.

Iberdrole. based in Bilbao in northern Spain, has operations in 28 countries with sales of $15.3 billion last year. The new, combined company would be worth $84 billion.

Click here to read more in the New York Times

- David Adams

Listen to a radio broadcast on Brazil's ethanol industry.

If you missed it NPR had a good report on the ethanol boom in Brazil over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The report,titled "Brazil's Sugar Cane-Powered Future" takes you onto a sugar cane plantation as well as inside an ethanol plant. It highlights that ethanol is now a $65 billion industry in Brazil, producing 4 billion gallons a year. It is predicted to double output over the next five years. About 80% of new cars sold in Brazil today are ethanol-adapted 'flex-fuel' vehicles.

However, the report correctly points out that ethanol is only part of a global energy solution. To replace a mere 10% of the world's gasoline consumption would require 10 times Brazil's current sugar cane crop. (Brazil is the world's largest sugar cane grower.)

Click here to listen to the report.

- David Adams

Happy Feet: The Petition

On Tuesday a non-profit conservation organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add 12 species of penguins worldwide to the list of threatened and endangered species.  Reasons cited included global warming. 

"Abnormally warm ocean temperatures along with diminished sea ice have wrecked havoc on penguin food availability in recent decades," according to a news release from the organization. "Less food has led to population declines in penguin species ranging from the Southern Rockhopper and Humboldt penguins of the islands off South America, and the African Penguin in southern Africa, to the Emperor Penguin in Antarctica.  The ocean conditions causing these declines have been linked by scientists to global warming and are projected to intensify in the coming decades."

Among the Center's supporters quoted in the press release: John Collee, co-writer of “Happy Feet,” the animated movie about a dancing penguin which the top box-office draw in the United States over Thanksgiving weekend.

“The planet is largely covered with water yet we have this bizarre delusion that we can utterly destroy our marine ecosystems and somehow emerge unscathed," Collee said in the Center's news release. "The horrible reality of our war on the environment is so dark that most people don't want to contemplate it.”

--Craig Pittman

Supreme Court case: The states' angle

When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments tomorrow in the landmark global warming case, Massachusetts v. EPA, the case will decide more than just whether the Clean Air Act authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the pollution that causes global warming.

It will also have a direct bearing on the eleven states that have adopted global warming tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks.

Under the Clean Air Act, states may decide to adopt the California tailpipe emissions standards in lieu of the federal standards. California has adopted regulations that would reduce fleet-wide global warming emissions from new vehicles by 25 percent in model year 2009, rising to a 30 percent reduction in model year 2016.

The 11 states that followed California's lead are: Oregon, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois, New Mexico, Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The Bush administration is arguing that EPA does not have authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate global warming pollution, even though the act says that effects on "weather...and climate" are two of the criteria used to define a pollutant's negative impact on the public welfare. Among those backing the EPA's position are the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the National Automobile Dealer’s Association and a coalition of electric utilities.

Stay tuned. --Craig Pittman

Europe's energy security dilemma - dependent on Russia.

President Bush is attending a NATO summit in Latvia today where the agenda is being dominated by  the situation in Afghanistan. But another mounting concern is also getting some attention: Europe's dependency on Russian natural gas.

In February this year it was Bush who decried the U.S.'s own addiction to foreign oil. So he may find some comfort when he hears the U.S. is far from being the only one in this lamentable condition. Since then the issue of 'energy security' has become all the rage in U.S. political debate.

Listen to some experts and it almost sounds as though Russia's growing energy clout is the beginning of a new Cold War.

NATO members are increasingly voicing their concern about the way in which the Kremlin appears to be using the leverage of oil and gas to regain geopolitical influence.

The main issue for Europe is natural gas, with key being Moscow's control over the pipelines that distribute it. Russia is the world's largest gas exporter and Europe now counts on Moscow for nearly half of its gas needs. (Russia has huge amounts of oil as well. Europe depends on it for a quarter of the crude it consumes. But oil is more fungible since it can be shipped around the world, unlike gas which mostly is delivered by pipeline.)

Just like the United States, Europe's energy vulnerability is only going to get worse.
Experts say it will depend on outside suppliers for 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of its gas within 20 years.

In order to maintain its influence, Russia is seeking to maintain a monopoly over its control of European gas supplies, keeping western oil companies out of any new exploration and drilling contracts.
At the same time, it is hitting western companies like BP and Total with huge back-tax bills or threatened license annulments. (Similar tactics are being used in Venezuela to pin back the big oil companies, known as the 'super majors.')

At an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki last week Russian President Vladimir Putin restated his opposition to giving foreign companies easy access to his country's energy sources or breaking up oil and gas state monopolies.

Click here to read more from the Associated Press coverage of the Latvia summit.

- David Adams

Supreme Court to hear global warming case.

The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments this week in a case that could force the Bush administration to toughen its approach to global warming.

The oral arguments could require the U.S. auto industry to clean up its act by manufacturing less polluting cars because of concerns about the effect of gtreenhouse gases.

A coalition of a dozen states, environmental groups and three large cities are trying to persuade the court to oblige the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from vehicles.

The EPA rejected a similar argument in 2003, saying the Clean Air Act was never meant to address global warming. The agency contends that even if it did have the authority to regulate CO2 emissions, it would have broad discretion under the law on how to address the problem without imposing emissions controls.

The states, led by Massachusetts, insist the 1970 law makes clear that carbon dioxide is a pollutant - much like lead and smog-causing chemicals - that is subject to regulation because it poses a threat to public health.

The ruling next year is expected to be one of the court's most important involving the environment.

"Global warming is the most pressing environmental issue of our time, and the decision by the court on this case will make a deep and lasting impact for generations to come," Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly said.

President Bush has rejected calls to regulate carbon dioxide. He favors voluntary steps by industry and development of new technologies to reduce greenhouse gases

As if to bang home the point, a new report published this week has found that the rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide has accelerated sharply.

The report by the Global Carbon Project says that emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, but are now rising at 2.5% per year.

It says the acceleration comes mainly from a rise in charcoal consumption and a lack of new energy efficiency gains.

The finding parallels figures released earlier this month by the World Meterorological Organisation showing that the rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 had accelerated in the last few years.

Click here for an excellent radio report by NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

Click here to read the full AP article.

Click here to read more about the Global Carbon Project report on the BBC.

- David Adams

Analysis of oil prices suggests manipulation.

Well, maybe I was wrong. A while back I ventured that we shouldn't take too seriously the conspiracy theorists who believed that gas prices were being manipulated by the big oil companies.

Now the Associated Press has come up with an analysis which suggests the oil companies do adjust their supplies to meet profit margins.

"The analysis, based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, indicates that the industry slacked off supplying oil and gasoline during the prolonged price boom between early 1999 and last summer, when prices began to fall," writes AP.

The analysis found:

- During the 1999-2006 price boom, the industry drilled an average of 7 percent fewer new wells monthly than the seven preceding years of low, stable prices.

- The national supply of unrefined oil, including imports, grew an average of 6 percent during the high-priced years, down from 14 percent during the previous span.

- The gasoline supply expanded by 10 percent from 1999 to 2006, down from 15 percent in the earlier period.

Click here to read the full AP report.

- David Adams

The future of diesel in America.

A few weeks back I visited biodiesel enthusiast JP Patten at HUGR Systems in Orlando. JP has been pioneering the conversion of gasoline-fueled lawnmowers to biodiesel, with impressive results.

But JP is frustrated by the way the rest of the country fails to see the merits of diesel engines, which have for so long languished in the wake of our addiction to gasoline. As he points out, diesel engines are far more fuel efficient than their spark ignition rivals. For years they have been dismissed in the U.S. as being less environmentally friendly. So why is it then that Europe, which has far more stringent pollution controls than the U.S., is so rapidly transforming its transportation to diesel.

Part of the answer is that the U.S. and Europe measure vehicular pollution is different ways. In Europe the emphasis has always been on CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, while under U.S. clean air regulations all that counts is nitrogen oxides and sooty particulates.
U.S. emissions control systems, which filter out the nitrogen oxides and soot, don't work well with U.S. diesel fuel, because it has a much higher sulfur content than Europe's. The debate is about to get more interesting after the EPA this year mandated diesel fuel to be produced with lower sulfur content. But experts say that still won't make it comparable to Europe's fuel.

JP says he's worried that the scales are still too heavily tipped in favor of diesel. He says still Americans don't understand the value of diesel.

He cites a conversation with a friend, Dan, who told him “JP – we no longer need diesel fuel.  It is an old technology and I don’t want to own a car that cannot be fueled.  Soon there will be no more diesel fuel.”

JP's response was “What would happen if you awoke to an abrupt end of unleaded fuel?”  Dan offered: “JP – the US as we know it would end – total gridlock – total chaos.”

So JP continued -  “And what if diesel fuel were gone and there was plenty of unleaded?”  Dan's answer: “No problem – we really don’t need diesel.”

That's where Dan, and millions of other Americans are wrong, argues JP.

"Diesel fuel is America’s blood," he says. "Unleaded (and by extension ethanol) is a bit like beer (pardon the pun) – life is more fun with it – but if it goes we’ll adjust. Try living without blood."

JP offers the following reality check - what he calls "a few fun facts if diesel were gone:"

1) No unleaded – you need diesel to get it to the pump?

2) No ambulances.

3) No electricity.

4) No back up power.

5) No distribution.

6) No trains.

7) No trucks.

8) No food.

9) No clothes.

10) No planes.

11) No medicine.

12) No military.

JP may be a bit radical in some of these "fun facts," but there's no denying he has a strong point.
He also raises some other concerns about the introduction of low-sulphur diesel. "The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has created near impossible standards for diesel passenger cars. He wonders if America has "sold her soul to the Middle East and poor planning?"

He points out that in just the last decade 40% of passenger cars in the EU have changed to diesel. Germany alone manufactured 313 million gallons of biodiesel in 2004. The U.S. will make 75 million in 2005. The whole E.U. in 2005 looks like 2 billion gallons.

"In summary," he says, "until the American perception of diesel and its capabilities is turned and our legislators wake up, we will fall further behind everyone else. And as the demand for diesel fuel rises outside our borders the effect will be severe."

JP offers readers this synopsis on clean diesel from Edmunds.com

Click here to visit the website for JP's innovative company HUGR Systems.

Please let us know your opinion on the future of diesel. Is JP overly concerned, or too wedded to diesel?

- David Adams

This Thanksgiving, Ski with the wind!

Sustainable energy just makes perfect sense when you think about it for half a second. Here's a splendid example from the travel section of the New York Times: environmentally-friendly ski resorts.

Apart from beach resorts, what places are perhaps most at risk from global warming? Ski resorts need their snow, right?

Well, the NYT reports that the Jiminy Peak resort in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts is building a $3.9 million wind turbine to generate one thirds of its electricity. The resort hopes to save $500,000 annually while reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

The newspaper says Jiminy Peak is the first ski resort to install its own wind turbine. But others are alraesy using sustainable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. Other resorts, including Vail, buy wind credits to offset their energy consumption which allows its electricity use to be replaced on the power grid with wind energy produced elsewhere. Vail calls its program 'Ski with the Wind.

So far, 47 resorts in 14 states are using some kind of renewable energy, according to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA)

NSAA launched a Green Power Program in September as part of the industry’s Keep Winter Cool program to combat global warming.

For more information visit The Green Room in the Environment section of nsaa.org.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Click here to visit the NSAA

- David Adams

Taking biofuels to a new level. Brazil integrates ethanol and biodiesel.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inaugurated the country's first integrated biofuels plant this week, Reuters reported.

The Barralcool plant in Mato Grosso state will produce cane-based ethanol and biodiesel from oilseeds.

Along with the United States, Brazil is the world's largest ethanol producer, with 300 sugar-ethanol plants in production and 60 more under construction. Brazil has the world's most advanced ethanol fuel infrastructure in the world with tens of thousands of outlets across the country. Ethanol already accounts for 40 percent of all non-diesel fuel consumption. Despite largescale production of ethanol in the U.S., the infrastructure for sales at the pump is limited.

Brazil has recently begun to step up its biodiesel production as well, with about 10 biodiesel plants in operation and another 40 or so in construction. Brazil hopes this will boost its struggling soy industry.

"The soybean crushing industry, which processes beans into meal for animal feed and oil, has been in serious decline," writes Reuters correspondent, Reese Ewing.

As a result several large soy plants have been forced to close.

The new ethanol-biodiesel plant is located in the heart of Brazil's soybean country in the western central region. The owners, Dedini, are one of the largest biofuels companies in Brazil.

Integrating the two plants is expected to result in major savings, experts say.

The Brazilian government recently passed legislation that will mandate a 2% blend of biodiesel in all commercial sales of petroleum diesel by 2008, rising to 5 percent by 2013.

Click here to read the Reuters report.

Click here for a power point presentation by Jose Francisco Davos, senior VP of Dedini, given at Farm to Fuel, hosted by Florida's Department of Agriculture.

Click here to view a power point presentation by Brazil's Minister of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Renewable Fuels, Joao Jose de Nora Souto.

- David Adams

The future of energy. Can we emulate the sun?

One of the biggest but most far-off alternative energy projects in the world today got a $12.8 billion boost this week.

Most people, especially in the United States, haven't heard about the ITER project in Europe which hopes to use nuclear fusion to produce an alternative to fossil fuels. If it works experts say fusion reactors could go a long way to helping reduce global warming by producing as much as 20% of the world's future clean energy needs.

But it's a big IF at this stage. Even so, the European Union, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States, are giving it a shot. The EU is paying half the cost to build the reactor, with the six other parties chipping in 10% each.

The ITER project seeks to emulate the fusion process that creates the sun's energy. Fusion produces no greenhouse gas emissions and only low levels of radioactive waste.

The project is still only experimental and it will be decades before the results are known. Critics say it may never work.
"This energy represents the hope of the world,'' according to Raymond Orbach of the U.S. Department of Energy.

On Tuesday French President Jacques Chirac hosted the signing of the international pact launching the project in Paris. He praised the attempt to "tame solar fire to meet the challenge of ecological energy.''

''The growing shortage of resources and the battle against global warming demand a revolution in our ways of production and consumption,'' Chirac said. "We have the duty to start research that will prepare energy solutions for our descendants.''

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor will be built in Cadarache in the southern French region of Provence. It is expected to create about 10,000 jobs and take about eight years to build. But offficials say it won't be until 2040 before any potential commercial energy production.

"Fusion involves huge difficulties," according to The Economist magazine. "A big volume of gas must be heated to a temperature above that found at the centre of the sun. The gas must be prevented from touching the reactor's wall by confining it, using a powerful magnetic field. The energy released in fusion is carried mostly by neutrons, a type of subatomic particle that has no electric charge and hence cannot be confined by the magnetic field."

Click here to read a detailed Associated Press report.

Click here to read article in The Economist titled, 'A White-Hot Elephant.'

Click here to visit the ITER project's website.

New 'clean-tech' feature at The Fueling Station

I am very pleased to introduce a new feature to The Fueling Station. Thanks to some of the feedback we have been getting from readers and other blogs, we are going to be paying more attention to the fast-growing field of what are being called 'cleantech' stocks. As I recently mentioned in a post, Silicon Valley venture capitalists are increasingly putting their money into alternative energy. If you have any spare funds I suggest you do the same. (I would if I had any - I hope my 401K is doing that for me!)

So, we are teaming up with the folks at SustainableBusiness.com. They monitor new companies and stocks and have agreed to feed us with tips. Editor Rona Fried will regularly be sending us her thoughts. SustainableBusiness.com describes itself as an "Internet community for businesses that integrate  economic, and social and environmental concerns into their core strategy. In short, we help green business grow."

Here's Rona's first contribution to The Fueling Station. I strongly recommend you take the time to visit her website and sign up for the various insider investor newsletters offered by Sustainable Business.

Rona writes:

- Until the last few years, using the words green and business in the same breadth were either ignored or laughed at by Wall St., venture capital firms and business in general. Now, "green" is fast becoming the "in thing" - as one leading venture capital firm recently called it, "the mother of all markets." And it is. Every single industry is getting serious about greening its processes. Rather than seeing this as an additional cost as it was in the past, it's finally being viewed as an opportunity to make money and create jobs.

For a 'green' company, there’s never been a better time to raise venture capital, grow or sell a company.

- Rona Fried, Editor, Progressive Investor and CEO, SustainableBusiness.com

To stay on top of what's happening with green businesses visit SustainableBusiness.com

- David Adams

Cuba's sugar-for-ethanol potential.

Cuba has lately expressed interest is reviving its enormously shrunken sugar industry by producing ethanol. It's not clear how far advanced its plans are. But as the island was once the world's largest raw sugar exporter, there is clearly enormous potential. In theory, Cuba could one day be a major supplier of biofuels to the south-eastern United States, Florida in particular.

The key will be how much foreign investment Cuba can raise to meet the capital outlay required to gear up sugar cane production, as well as build new ethanol distilleries. That will likely be in the 100's of millions of dollars.

Under the current United States economic embargo that could be difficult to achieve, although Cuba has excellent relations with Venezuela and Brazil which both have ethanol programs (especially Brazil which is the world's largest producer along with the United States). Ironically, it was only recently that Cuba sold some of its redundant sugar cane mills to Venezuela which was hoping to ramp up its sugar cane production.

Ulises Rosales del Toro, Cuba's sugar minister, said earlier this year that he expects sugar production to increase at least 25 percent this year and has vowed to triple production to 3 million tons in the next few years. Cuban authorities also plan a fivefold increase in the production of ethanol, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), a left-leaning Washington policy watchdog last week put out an analysis of Cuba's ethanol program.

It found:

* Havana is on track for securing energy independence through relationships with foreign investors, including China and Venezuela, as well as increased domestic oil production.
* The Cuban oil and ethanol industries have the potential to transform the island into a major player in global energy, which would guarantee its ability to successfully bypass the U.S. embargo.

COHA wrote:
"Hurdling over the barriers erected by Washington policymakers, Cuba, with increasing gusto, is turning to its oil and ethanol sectors to achieve energy security, despite the U.S. embargo, COHA writes. Cuba has slowly made progress through the operations of both state-owned and foreign enterprises, by means of new oil explorations and a stepped-up search for new energy alternatives, such as ethanol."

"The Castro regime has long been aware of the decreasing role to be played by fossil fuels and the importance of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, Havana has turned its attention to developing alternative energy sources by expanding investment opportunities for foreigners in the island’s nascent ethanol industry."

"With a sugar industry that is more than five centuries old, Cuba can offer investment opportunities in its once highly developed sector, which has fallen upon hard times as a result of mismanagement. Cuba was once the world’s largest raw sugar exporter, but since 2003 it has dismantled 71 out of its 156 sugar factories. A nation that once exported 10 million tons of sugar per year is projecting that only 1.5 million tons will be produced in 2006, of which a meager 1 million tons will be exported. Luis Galvez of the Cuban Research Institute for Sugar Cane Derivatives says Cuba has 17 distilleries with the combined potential of producing up to 180 million liters of ethanol annually."

Click here to visit COHA.

Click here to read an article in the Chicago Tribune about Cuba's ethanol plan.

- David Adams

Venezuela's revolutionary "Energy Mission."

Let it not be said that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez spends his money unwisely.
While some may legitimately object to some of his decisions, here's one I can't disagree with.

The Associated Press reports that Chavez is giving away 52 million energy-efficient light bulbs to save money in his oil-rich nation.

"They'll say Chávez has gone crazy -- that he's going around giving out light bulbs," Chavez said Friday in a televised speech. Don't worry Hugo, I won't be one of them!

Chavez claimed that Venezuela consumes more electricity per person than any other South American nation and that the new bulbs would allow the country to save 2,000 megawatts of electricity, roughly equal to about 12.7 percent of domestic energy demand.

The program is part of his socialist agenda, and is called 'Mission Energy Revolution.'

There's a lot more Venezuela could do as it is probably one of the most wasteful countries in the hemisphere due to its huge revenue from oil. For example, Venezuelans pat almost nothing at the pump for gasoline - I think it's around 20c a gallon.

The program copies a similar effort in Cuba, which began distributing energy-saving light bulbs to relieve stress on its under-powered electricity generation system.

Chavez regularly warns Venezuelans that even though their country sits atop some of the world's biggest crude deposits, oil will one day run out and the country must turn to cleaner, renewable energy sources.

Click here to read full story.

- David Adams

New 'cleantech' feature at The Fueling Station

I am very pleased to introduce a new feature to The Fueling Station. Thanks to some of the feedback we have been getting from readers and other blogs, we are going to be paying more attention to the fast-growing field of what are being called 'cleantech' stocks. As I recently mentioned in a post, Silicon Valley venture capitalists are increasingly putting their money into alternative energy. If you have any spare funds I suggest you do the same. (I would if I had any - I hope my 401K is doing that for me!)

So, we are teaming up with the folks at SustainableBusiness.com. They monitor new companies and stocks and have agreed to feed us with tips. Editor Rona Fried will regularly be sending us her thoughts. SustainableBusiness.com describes itself as an "Internet community for businesses that integrate  economic, and social and environmental concerns into their core strategy. In short, we help green business grow."

Here's Rona's first contribution to The Fueling Station. I strongly recommend you take the time to visit her website and sign up for the various insider investor newsletters offered by Sustainable Business.

Rona writes:

- Until the last few years, using the words green and business in the same breadth were either ignored or laughed at by Wall St., venture capital firms and business in general. Now, "green" is fast becoming the "in thing" - as one leading venture capital firm recently called it, "the mother of all markets." And it is. Every single industry is getting serious about greening its processes. Rather than seeing this as an additional cost as it was in the past, it's finally being viewed as an opportunity to make money and create jobs.

For a 'green' company, there’s never been a better time to raise venture capital, grow or sell a company.

- Rona Fried, Editor, Progressive Investor and CEO, SustainableBusiness.com

To stay on top of what's happening with green businesses visit SustainableBusiness.com

 

Annan on global warming

Out-going U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking at a climate conference in Kenya, has blamed global warming on a “a frightening lack of leadership.”

Annan later denied he was referring to any one country in particular, though he indicated his comments were especially directed at the leaders of the developed world.

The conference is seeking to create a fund for industrialized countries to help poor countries deal with the adverse effects of climate change such as coastal flooding. Each country is to get one vote, thereby giving a larger voice to the majority of poor countries in the developing world.

One idea, proposed by the president of Switzerland, Moritz Leuenberger, is to finance the fund with a carbon dioxide tax. The tax would serve the dual purpose of discouraging rich countries from polluting and helping poor countries deal with the consequences of pollution. “This is not a fight against nature,” Mr. Leuenberger said. “It is a battle against shortsighted egoism.”

Click here to read more conference coverage in the New York Times.
Click here to read more coverage from the BBC.

- David Adams

How green is China? Not very!

There's lots of reasons to worry about China. Here's one raised by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times yesterday: China is heading for an environmental meltdown.

"Each year that I’ve come here, China’s people seem to speak with greater ease and breathe with greater difficulty," says Friedman, who has been visiting China since 1990. While there's more freedom of expression, the air is getting more polluted, he writes. "If it doesn’t radically change to greener, more sustainable modes of design, transport, production and power generation, the Chinese miracle is going to turn into an eco-nightmare."

China's stunning economic growth is transforming the country. But its environmental practices aren't keeping up.

"The China Daily reported this week that at least 24 million acres of cultivated land in China — one-tenth of the country’s total arable land — is now polluted, posing a “grave threat” to China’s food safety," Friedman writes. "More than half its rivers are also polluted, which is why less than 9 percent of “drinkable water” met government standards for bacteria in 243 rural supply stations recently tested."

The dilemma facing Chinese officials is that if they fear if they clean up their industrial production they may not be able to remain competitive. Friedman offers this reassuring message, which is one that I hear more and more from the leading alternative energy thinkers, and which I find more and more convincing. "Going green is not just a problem, but an opportunity," writes Friedman. "Pollution represents waste and inefficiency. Green companies are always more efficient."

UPDATE (Friday Nov 17) -  In his op-ed today written from Beijing, Friedman cites an estimate that air pollution caused 358,000 premature deaths in China. What China needs he says is a Green Revolution, "the same kind of bruising effort it took for Deng Xiao-ping to move China from communism to capitalism will be required to move China from its polluting model of capitalism to a sustainable one."

Click here to read Friedman's China column: 'Bring in the Green Cat.'
Click here to read his second China column: "The Green Leap Forward.'

- David Adams

Mexico looking to learn from Brazil's ethanol experience.

Mexico's president-elect Felipe Calderon, visited the White House last Thursday for his first meeting with president Bush.

Immigration and trade inevitably dominated the meeting. But one account by McClatchy reporters Pablo Bachelet and Kevin Hall, says Calderon is also interested in pursuing an energy agenda. Calderon had earlier been in Brazil, and the reporters mentioned his talks there with president Lula da Silva.

"During his trip to Brazil, Calderón devoted attention to energy issues in talks with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, telling McClatchy Newspapers that he hoped to learn from Brazil's experience with ethanol production and offshore drilling.

Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro oil giant has opened to foreign investment in a way that could serve as a model for Mexico's own state oil firm, Pemex, and Calderón wants the two firms to explore joint investments in Mexican energy projects."

In interviews with the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) last month I learned that Mexico has expressed interest in several alternative energy projects. Despite being heavily reliant on its large oil sector, a lack of investment in new exploration means Mexico will soon experience a major energy crisis. That, anmd Mexico's large agricultural potential, could prompt greater interest in renewable alternatives such as biofuels.

Click here to read the full report.

- David Adams

Boxer readies to throw punches on global warming

There's more coverage today on the changes in Congress and how they might affect energy and climate change policy. The focus of media attention is U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is big on global warming.

"Automakers and manufacturers, beware," says one report by McClatchy newspapers. "There's a new environmental policy boss in town, she scowls a lot, and two of her favorite phrases are 'global warming' and 'extensive hearings.'"

The Democrats' coming takeover of Congress means key congressional committee will change hands. At the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer will take over from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

Inhofe notoriously rejected scientific warnings that fossil fuels are largely responsible for climate change, calling it "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and he made sure to block legislation aimed at curbing global warming.

Boxer, in contrast, is a fiercely liberal environmental activist. She has railed against Inhofe, crusaded for cleaner drinking water and led wilderness protection efforts in her home state and for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the paper says.

Boxer, who's appointment was announced on Tuesday, says her priority will be to begin "a very long process of extensive hearings" on global warming."I think there ought to be a global-warming bill that looks at all the contributors to carbon-dioxide emissions," she said. She cited California's legislation requiring automakers to reduce emissions as "an excellent role model."

But other new committee chairs are less pro-environment. In the House of Representatives, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., takes over as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Dingell is one of the oldest members of Congress and is entering his 50th year in the House. His Michigan constituency is home to the auto industry. Similarly, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., of the Resources Committee, is sympathetic to the coal industry.

Click here to read the full article.

- David Adams

St Pete Times on energy policy

Following up on my recent blog posts on energy policy and the new Congress, click here to read my article today in the St Petersburg Times.

Here's some excerpts:

.........Energy is likely to be one of the first legislative initiatives pushed by Democrats when the new Congress convenes in January.

..........In fact, energy could be one of the most promising areas for bipartisan cooperation in the new Congress.

........Not since the 1970s oil embargo has energy featured so prominently in an election, activists say. During the campaign, both major parties addressed energy security and the nation's addiction to foreign oil. But Democrats gave it greater prominence, elevating it to one of their top six priorities

.............Nowhere was it more effective than in Florida's congressional District 22, where Ron Klein made energy independence a central theme in his effort to unseat 26-year Republican incumbent Clay Shaw.

................Klein's position won him support from a number of Republican backers. "I supported Ron Klein because he was more in tune with Americans' needs," said Mark Emalfarb, a registered Republican and president of Dyadic, a Jupiter biotech firm on the cutting edge of alternative fuel technology.

..........When activists from Environment Florida, a Tallahassee nonprofit, contacted the Klein campaign in October, they were also pleasantly surprised by his willingness to endorse a "New Energy Future" platform they were touting to candidates.

............"It wasn't much of a battle at all to get Klein to endorse the plan," said Adam Rivera of Environment Florida, who spent a month "bird-dogging" candidates in District 22 with a team of volunteers. Shaw agreed to look at the platform but never endorsed it.

.............."Floridians are coming to terms with the fact that energy lies at the heart of some of our most important problems," Rivera said. "People like Klein were savvy to notice that."

.............Klein says it was a no-brainer. It makes no sense to have a foreign policy based on "where a drop of oil is coming from," he said. "We need to be very proactive in finding alternative sources of energy."

.............He has a drafted a bill that would support increased research and development funding for alternative clean energy, redirect oil industry subsidies to fund challenge grants for new energy businesses, and increase spending on education to change consumer behavior.

Click here to read the full article.

- David Adams

Congress's priorities. The budget, then energy.

In the rush to find bipartisan issues for the Congress and the White House to work on, some are offering words of caution on energy policy.
The New York Times in an editorial today warns against making energy a priority in the lame-duck Congress. It highlights two bills which would open federal land in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska to oil and gas drilling. One Democrat proposal would use royalties to help rebuild Louisiana's battered coastline. The other would open up the entire coastline.
Waiting seems to make sense. A lot of changes are taking place in Congress which seem likely to alter the energy balance in the new Congress.

For example, California Republican, Richard Pombo, was defeated in his bid for re-election. He was the author of the bill that favors opening up the coastline to drilling.

In the Senate, California Democrat Barbara Boxer will be the new chairman of the Environment and Public Works committee. She is already promising action on global warming.

Instead, the New York Times suggests Congress would do better to focus on passing important budget measures. Let the new Congress concentrate on coming up with better legislation less weighted in favor of the oil industry and more geared to consumer demands for better fuel efficiency and alternative sources of renewable fuels.

Congress might do well to look at what Silicon Valley is doing. Newsweek magazine has an interesting article, 'The Color of Money,' looking at the large new amounts of investment capital flooding into green-tech companies. The article looks at one of Silicon Valley's top venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

The article says investors will pour $2.5 billion into green-tech start-ups this year, up from only $1 billion in 2002, according to the Cleantech Venture Network.

Click here to read the NYT editorial.

- David Adams

South Florida students going greener.

The other day I wrote about a Miami high school, MAST Academy and its efforts to go carbon neutral with the help of Dream in Green, a group of enlightened green professionals.

It seems South Florida universities are also on the same track, according to an article in The Miami Herald.

Students are consulting with Native Energy to see if they too can become carbon neutral. (Native Energy has a program that calculates CO2 emissions and lets you purchase offsets by investing in wind farms.)

The University of Miami is building the area's first certified green building, the Clinical Research Institute, and plans three more. UM President Donna Shalala is said to be highly supportive.

The university has a recylcing program, uses electric transportaiton carts, and offers half-price parking to hybrid vehicles.
UM also houses a Clean Energy Research Institute, a Renewable Energy Lab and the Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy.

The article also mentions green policies at Florida International University (which is hosting an ethanol conference next month), the University of Florida, and the University of Central Florida and St Thomas University.

To learn more about green student activities at UM you can visit Sustainable U.

Click here for the Southern Energy Network.

Click here for Campus Climate Challenge.

Bush administration to continue down-blending.

The Department of Energy last week announced its latest plans to provide access to nuclear fuel for civilian reactors to countries that agree not to pursue their own enrichment and reprocessing. This is done by taking highly enriched uranium and down-blending it into far safer low enriched uranium which can be used in nuclear power reactors to generate electricity. The concept behind this is to limit the spread of fuel cycle capabilities needed for producing nuclear fuel that can also be used for manufacturing nuclear weapons.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is now seeking proposals to down-blend 17.4 metric tons of highly enriched uranium into reactor grade fuel for use in its so-called 'Reliable Fuel Supply' program.
"This will help countries to pursue nuclear power confidently, without the burden of producing their own fuel, while curbing the spread of sensitive technology," said Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman.

The material will be down-blended to about 290 metric tons of low enriched uranium, worth approximately $750 million.  The fuel will be available to qualifying countries that face a disruption in supply that cannot be corrected through normal commercial means, according to the NNSA.

NNSA today published on the website www.fedbizopps.gov a notice of intent to request proposals from companies interested in competing for the contract to down-blend the material. The material is expected to be down-blended and available as a back up reserve in 2010.

Click here for more information from the NNSA.

- David Adams

The eco-friendly bra!

Here's something light to start the weekend!
A lingerie company in Japan has developed a novel line of eco-friendly underwear that encourages recyling. Among the items offered: a plastic bra that turns into a shopping bag. The manufacturers say that this saves oil resources thus reducing global warming. The socially-responsible bra has a padded cup that transforms into a handheld shopping bag when unwrapped. The bra is created out of recycled polyester fibre and comes with a message: 'No more plastic bags!'
This is the same company, Triumph, which last year introduced a heated bra to save on heating fuel!

Click here to see a video report from the BBC.

From corn belt to presidential sash? Ethanol governor, Tom Vilsack, announces White House bid.

He's an underdog from the corn belt. Could he be presidential material?

Iowa's out-going Governor Tom Vilsack has formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic party's 2008 presidential nomination.

He could be a dark horse in the race, especially if gas prices start rising again. Vilsack's reputation is built around alternative home-grown biofuels. As a private attorney before entering politics, Vilsack told me in an interview last year how he worked hard with corn farmers to help them group together in cooperatives to build a highly successful new generation of ethanol plants. Those farm coops are now the backbone of Iowa's ethanol industry, in the process creating thousands of new jobs and saving many farmers from bankruptcy. Iowa now leads the nation in ethanol production.

The Des Moines Register cites his "low-key demeanor, capacity for understanding complex policy and developing talent as a storyteller," among his attributes.

Vilsack on Thursday opened a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission and opened a campaign office in Des Moines. He is Iowa's first presidential candidate since U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin ran for the 1992 Democratic nomination.

Click here to listen to Vilsack's recorded message on his campaign web site.

Click here to read about his presidential announcement in the Des Moines Register.

Click here to learn more about Iowa ethanol at the website of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

- David Adams

New Congress, new energy policy?

Alternative energy advocates are excited about the outcome of Tuesday's midterm elections.
Democrats are talking today about voters calling for "a new direction." They weren't just talking about the Iraq war or corruption in Congress, it appears.
Last night I was covering the victory night hotel party for Ron Klein, the Boca Raton Democrat who ousted 26-year incumbent Clay Shaw. In his short victory speech Klein highlighted one specific issue in his concept of what that new direction means: "a 21st century energy policy that makes us energy independent in ten years," he said.

This morning I also heard Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic National Committee make a similar statement about the Democratic party's legislative priorities for the new Congress, dubbed 'Six for '06'". So, I called Klein's office and the DNC. Turns out both Klein and the House Democratic leadership have plans to introduce new alternative energy legislation as soon as the new Congress meets.