Biofuel Boondoggle of the Day: Connecticut Pay-Offs Don't
Biofuels are driving up the price of food. Biofuel production threatens to worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land. That’s the damning conclusion of a United Nations bioenergy forum, as reported by CNN. In its opposition to the biofuels boom, the U.N. is not alone. The Hartford Courant reports that residents of Suffield, Connecticut are none too pleased with CT Biodiesel's plan to build the largest biodiesel plant in the Northeast in their town. "No Biodiesel" signs sprouted up on front lawns. Vexed by health and safety (especially fire) concerns, residents flooded planning meetings, chanting, "Get out of our town." CT [Biofuels] responded in the time-honored American tradition; company officials offered the town 35k gallons of free biodiesel a year, more than $400k a year in projected property taxes, guaranteed first crack at new jobs and aid for the town's fuel bank, student scholarships and charitable organizations. “Resident Laureen Peck had a message for company officials at a recent town meeting: ‘There are safety issues here, and money will not override us.’”
Glenn is a baby-boomer, born in 1954. Along with his wife, he makes his home in Connecticut. Employed in the public sector as an Information Tedchnology Specialist, Glenn has long been a car fan. Past rides have included heavy iron such as a 1967 GTO, to a V8 T-Bird. In between those high-horsepower cars, he's owned a pair of BMW 320i's. Now, with a daily commute of 40 miles, his concession to MPG dictates the ownership of a 2006 Honda Civic coupe which, while fun to drive, is a modest car for a pistonhead. As an avid reader, Glenn enjoys TTAC, along with many other auto-realated sites, and the occasional good book. As an avid electronic junkie, Glenn holds an Advanced Class amateur ("ham") radio license, and is into many things electronic. From a satellite radio and portable GPS unit in the cars, to a modest home theater system and radio-intercom in his home, if it's run by the movement of electrons, he's interested. :-)
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A-rod is definitely lumping environmentalists in ignorance. Here's his list, revised: Wind - separates true environmentalists (who strongly support it under most conditions) from NIMBYs Nuclear - maybe. But it's no panacea, because it's expensive, because of terrorism concerns, because of no solution to waste and because uranium mining is environmentally filthy. But it may need to be included in the mix because of CO2 problems Hydro - should be limited because of damage to river ecology. Ethanol - from corn is a boondoggle--no more energy out than energy in to make the stuff. From sugar cane, net energy is much better. From switchgrass, probably good if they can get the price down. No Biodiesel - depends on source of the biodiesel. Palm oil is a bad source, because the palm farms replace peat that holds tremendous amounts of CO2 in sequestration. In other words, by converting the peat lands to palm production, you release a huge amount of CO2. Other sources may be relatively benign. No Clean Coal - Coal = BAD there is no such thing as clean coal. If they figure out how to use the CO2 to grow algae, and turn that into fuel, if they quit destroying mountains in appalachia to mine the coal, then maybe "clean coal" will live up to its name No Oil or Gas - Only Fidel can drill off our coasts. (this is a joke, right, A-rod?) Ocean Tech (wave and tidal) very benign, even aesthetically. probably will be a major contributor. Large installations already going in in Europe, much investigation in the US, particularly by the CA utility. http://tinyurl.com/yrp88g energy efficiency/conservation measures this is the source of by far the biggest bang for the buck, and the greatest potential in absolute terms. Most of this stuff is a hell of a lot more complicated than A-rod makes it out to be.
Try This Link.
The Fidel thing is no joke. Foreign powers are now drilling in areas that our government will not let our own oil companies develop. How stupid is that?
R. Schwartz, Thanks for the link. I love how the author makes it sound as if these fish started the endangered species movement on their own. Like they reached out of the hole, grabbed some spelunker by the collar, and gave him a long diatribe on the immorality of killing off species. Amazing.