Archive for the ‘Future Fuel’ Category
April 17th, 2008
There’s a lot of bad news coming out of the airline industry lately. Companies going bankrupt, mergers on the way, and airlines unable to keep up with basic safety inspections. Rising fuel prices are jacking up the costs for both the airlines and consumers. As I blogged here not too long ago, small regional airlines are going the way of the do-do. I wonder if we’ll even have airplanes in the future, unless someone can come up with a cheap alternative fuel that can carry a large jet through the sky. (I suppose we could go back to dirigibles.) (more…)
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April 9th, 2008
I’m watching Oprah’s webcast with Eckhart Tolle, which is funded in part by commercials from Chevy. These commercials consist of a guy talking to a group of little kids, with a lot of happy whistling music in the background, showing the children how “environmental” they can be riding in a large oversized SUV hybrid.
I don’t care that the Chevy Tahoe hybrid gets 21 mpg, as much as a smaller car, so they say in the commercial. It’s still crappy gas mileage, and the car is still wayyyy too big. (more…)
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March 27th, 2008
I never liked taking commuter planes. These are the planes that sputter along, noisy and loud, turbulent and unstable like a flying rollercoaster. So I’m not too disappointed by this study showing that smaller planes are being left behind as fuel prices rise. I consider this the warning shot across the bow in terms of peak oil, however. Large planes may soon follow, and our days of cheap travel may be coming to an end. Bummer. I have yet to see Europe. Time to get my traveling in before it becomes something only the rich can afford.
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March 1st, 2008
There are quite a few things I like about the Libertarian party, except for one huge glaring problem: environmental policy. They think somehow that the “free market” will fix all environmental woes. Are they nuts? Check out this old post from the Libertarian blog, complaining that government restrictions are stopping oil companies from making new refineries in the United States. (more…)
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February 5th, 2008
Today is Super Tuesday, and I’m watching the results eagerly. (I’m a Clinton supporter.) I’ll be disappointed if we have another Republican president next year, but one thing’s for certain: The next president will be a lot greener than Bush. Every single candidate seems to agree on one thing: We need to achieve energy independence. (more…)
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February 3rd, 2008
Gas-powered lawn mowers are stinky, noisy things, so it’s nice to hear that someone’s come up with a biodiesel lawnmower. I’d like to see someone do one better than this, however: How about a lawn mower that is powered by its own lawn clippings? Now that would be an efficient machine.
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January 23rd, 2008
I was never a huge believer in biofuels – why burn corn for fuel when we have people dying of hunger on this planet? There are plenty of other ways to power cars without resorting to burning crops. Now the UN is weighing in. Not only could biofuels create food shortages, but they may also contribute to global warming. An excerpt from the AP report:
But in recent months, scientists, private agencies and even the British government have said biofuels could do more harm than good. Rather than protecting the environment, they say energy crops destroy natural forests that actually store carbon and thus are a key tool in the fight to reduce global warming.
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January 21st, 2008
With the American housing market absolutely imploding right now, some cynics are suggesting that “green” may be the next bubble. Biodiesel, solar panels, wind power…all are being deemed as possibly the next hot investment in so-called “environmentalist flim-flam”…but in my opinion, we need alternative fuel much more than we need a new row of McMansions. Investment in alternative energy sources is exactly what we need, and I don’t care whether it’s backed up by hype or not.
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January 18th, 2008
I have no idea what a “nanowire” is, but any solar cell that is cheaper and more efficient gets a thumbs up from me:
Scalable LowCost Nanowire Solar Photovoltaic Cell Innovation
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January 17th, 2008
This is the question asked, and pondered quite intelligently, by Richard T. Stuebi on the Cleantech Blog. Among other comments of note:
We aspire to free-market capitalism in the United States, and we come pretty close to achieving it, closer than most countries in the world. And, because we are very capitalistic, it is easy to make the leap that American consumerism is inextricably a co-product of capitalism. It is not. (more…)
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