Gas 2.0

It’s been known for a long time that the emissions from coal are harmful, both to the environment and human health. Yet, because it’s so plentiful, the U.S. still gets the majority of its electricity from coal-fired power. With the world focused on increasing the use of plug-in cars, where we get our future electricity becomes a key question.

Yesterday, a medical report was released, “Coal’s Assault on Human Health,” highlighting the dangers of coal, by the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Other study participants included the American Lung Association and the American Nurses Association.

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Move over CO2—you’ve been ousted, along with methane, as the biggest offenders of global climate change. According to a new a study by Purdue University and NASA, the major chemicals most frequently cited as leading to climate change, namely carbon dioxide and methane, are actually outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving less attention. The majority of “greenhouse gases” are created by humans.

The results were discovered when researchers studied more than a dozen chemicals, or greenhouse gases as classified by their warming properties defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From there, the team developed a blueprint for the underlying molecular machinery of global warming. The results appeared in the November 12, 2009 issue of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry, just in time for the convergence of world leaders in Copenhagen. Read the rest of this entry »

Smith Electric Vehicles made its much heralded first U.S. Smith Newton electric vehicle deliveries to lucky Coca Cola and PG&E today.

But it delivered them on The Mall in hopes of snagging some attention from lawmakers on the Hill. In this debut it was following the example of Plug-In America that got some great EV legislation passed by publicizing to the Senate just what electric vehicles can do for America. Read the rest of this entry »

“Recent analyses of the energy and greenhouse-gas performance of alternative biofuels have ignited a controversy that may be best resolved by applying two simple principles,” begins the summary from a new joint research paper entitled, “Beneficial Biofuels - The Food, Energy and Environment Trilemma“. The paper was published in the July 17, 2009 issue of Science.

“In a world seeking solutions to its energy, environmental, and food challenges, society cannot afford to miss out on the global greenhouse-gas emission reductions and the local environmental and societal benefits when biofuels are done right. However, society also cannot accept the undesirable impacts of biofuels done wrong.” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard being an environmental celebrity, especially when you are Royal too. People want to see you, but that can mean racking up a lot of carbon miles.

So Prince Charles had his Aston Martin converted to run on bio-ethanol made from aged English wine, and his Audi, Jaguar, and Range Rover all run on what the English call old cooking fat.

In the US we call this reused cooking oil because that’s much hipper and greener sounding, and marketing is everything.

So now Prince Charles is driven in the royal Jaguar that runs on homemade biodiesel and, for a little variety; in the Land Rover or the Audi, in a carbon conscious fashion.

But what about his airplane travel? Well…
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Don’t laugh.

This started as just another ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, zero emissions, homemade solar powered EV.

But, sensibly, noting the enormous contribution of the wind turbine in the “snout” 400 watts at 28 MPH, night or day! Joe Rush, the inventor plans on adding a second wind turbine! This would bring the total on-board electricity supply  to nearly 1 KW. Well, at least when it’s traveling at 28 mph, it would.

Perhaps following the findings of that Federal study which recently found that wind power is the second most cost-effective investment for Federal renewable energy dollars, right behind geothermal power Joe Rush is simply utilizing the free energy generated by simply being a moving vehicle: wind, from which he creates the first wind powered EV.

Unfettered by the slow-moving decision-making procedures of giant auto companies (some of which will no doubt still be trying to sell us gas guzzlers even while our poor planet enters it’s second Eocene) Joe is able to nimbly head back to the drawing board for this radical revision. A second wind turbine will be added.

But where?
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Today, the first customer to get a Tata Nano will take delivery of the world’s cheapest car, at $2,053 - and right on schedule. Tata had announced the first deliveries would be in July of 2009 when orders were first taken earlier this year. 

For a gasoline car; the Nano has astounding mileage ; 56 mpg while producing emissions of just 101 grams of CO₂ per km, lower than even European requirements, forget about the U.S. (We have none: the sky’s the limit - literally)

Even more surprising, just old fashioned simple tech makes this price and mileage possible:
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Recovery Act Announcement: DOE Announces Recovery Act Funding of up to $85 million for Algal and Advanced Biofuels

For big fans of renewable energy like me, these are just halyon days, indeed. Hardly have I finished reading that wind is to get a huge jolt from the new DOE, but today, even more huge funding is announced for biofuels development.

It’s almost enough to make you think that maybe we are not too stupid to survive, after all! Yay, us!

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $85 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to develop algae-based biofuels and advanced (yet infrastructure-compatible) biofuels.

DOE press release for the details:
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Cargo ships are notorious for their noxious fumes, and California is hinting at finally introducing tough legislation requiring that shipping clean up its act.

So, sooner or later, you would expect to see a solar powered ship come chugging in to the Port of Long Beach in Southern California.

Well, here it is. A test case, at least:
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Late Friday, the House passed the first legislation solely dedicated to reversing global warming. Now the fate of the Climate Change Bill is in the hands of the Senate, and political pundits are predicting the bill won’t pass. This exact bill might not pass but sooner than later one will and until then they will have several things in common. A climate bill will change how we produce and use electricity. It will change how you travel from point A to point B. It will change how every business operates and how every American lives. Our lives will never be the same. Dramatic? Yes. True. Yes.

The passage of this bill will change your life in three ways:

1. It would affect what type of car you can drive - smaller.
2. It would affect how much you pay for energy - more.
3. It would affect what type of job you have - green job.

Energy affects every facet of our lives. When energy prices go up, food prices go up, clothing prices go up..the price for everything we buy gets more expensive. Why? Because our society is intricately intertwined with energy, and energy is intertwined with our economy.

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January is a good month. It’s a month that is the human symbol of starting over. Out with the old, in with the new. This January was particularly exciting for us here in the US, as we ushered in a new era of progressive politics with almost a little too much pomp and circumstance. But underneath the excitement lies a particularly disconcerting truth. We still have a nation to fix.

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To drive or to fly?  That is the question.  Researchers at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo have predicted that pollution from cars will be the chief global warming agent for the next 100 years.  So the green answer is to fly.

The study carried out by CICERO monitored known pollutants in different transport sectors (air, ground, rail, and shipping), and how the global emissions in the year 2000 affects current global temperature.  The good news is that pollution from aviation is rather short lived, and not directly linked to long term global warming.  According to researcher Jan Fuglestvedt, “air transport has several strong, but short lasting, effects on global temperature.” Read the rest of this entry »

In preparation for the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference next month, MIT is rolling out a pilot program in Copenhagen that will allow the city’s biking residents to exchange social information and share their relative positioning with each other via the internet using GPS, cell phones, smart tags and a self-organizing system.

The program, called “SmartBiking,” encourages bikers to interact in novel ways including through a Facebook app called “I crossed your path.”

According to Christine Outram, the principal research assistant on the project, the Facebook app creates a “social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections.”

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Former Vice-President Al Gore says we cannot wait until 2050 to curtail our carbon emissions.  In Washington this week Gore made his case for eliminating petroleum from the United States economy by the year 2018.  Is his goal too ambitious?

Editor’s Note: This is Anthony’s first post as a contributor to Gas 2.0. Anthony works on sugar-based biofuels at the Raines Lab of Petroleum Alternatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I have a lot of admiration for Al Gore.  I was in the 7th grade when he lost his bid for the presidency, and even then I could feel that something awful was upon us.  Fast forward eight years and we find ourselves in a world where Al Gore is running a campaign to help mankind in a much more focused manner.  Instead of defecting to the private sector, Gore remains a public servant dedicated to the environment.  Recently, he called for the United States to lead the way to stop global warming, and now he is calling for the United States to be off of carbon based fuels by the year 2018.

Gore’s battle cry could not have come at a better time. Read the rest of this entry »

British Columbia will be the first in North America to institute a comprehensive carbon tax on nearly all fossil fuels. It’s a groundbreaking move that could prove the feasibility of taxing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Beginning July 1st, 2008, businesses and residents of British Columbia will be taxed $10 per metric ton of carbon emitted by fuels such as gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home heating fuel. The tax will increase yearly by $5 per ton to $30 per ton in 2012, at which point the government will reevaluate the tax rate.

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