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1. Back to the FutureGen: DOE Takes Shine to Controversial Carbon Capture Demo
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2. Biodiesel Takes Another Body Blow
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3. Create A Green Baby Nursery
Back to the FutureGen: DOE Takes Shine to Controversial Carbon...
Josie Garthwaite - Energy
FutureGen, a planned 275 MW cleaner coal demo project, essentially bit the dust last year when the Bush administration pulled funding. But with support from top officials in the new administration, the effort to build a coal-fired power plant equipped with experimental carbon capture technology has gained new life.
A joint effort between the government, coal industry and utilities that faced massive cost overruns, FutureGen was envisioned as a proof-of-concept project for carbon capture and storage technology, which remains untested on a commercial scale. The 2007 proposal to build a federally-backed “cleaner coal” plant put a bee in the bonnets of environmentalists and won big support from lawmakers in Illinois, where the plant was supposed to be built.
Among those Illinois boosters was now-President Barack Obama, whose Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, revealed yesterday that he wants to implement a modified version of the project. “We are taking, certainly, a fresh look at FutureGen, how it would fit into this expanded portfolio,” Chu said after a Senate hearing on Department of Energy research and development programs, according to a New York Times report.
In a nutshell, Chu wants to use FutureGen as a vehicle for the $1 billion allocated in the stimulus package for “fossil energy research and development,” collaborating with foreign energy ministers to create an international surge of research into carbon-management technologies. Rather than having several countries testing out similar technologies, he wants international planning and cooperation to help eliminate redundancy — and thus cut FutureGen costs, as the New York Times reports:
While the FutureGen plant was to have been a test bed for several technologies, if another nation plans to pursue one particular project, it would not have to be part of FutureGen, Chu said. This could help reduce project costs that otherwise could have been more than $2 billion, he said.
Chu’s support doesn’t guarantee stimulus funds for FutureGen — it still has to compete with other projects, as the Washington Post explains — but it certainly won’t hurt.
Artist concept of the FutureGen project courtesy U.S. Department of Energy
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Biodiesel Takes Another Body Blow
Justin Moresco - Biofuels
Talk about getting kicked while you're down. Already, the biodiesel industry has seen its margins squeezed since petroleum prices plummeted last fall. Now, the news coming out of Brussels earlier this week is that the European Union plans to slap punitive tariffs on imports of U.S. biodiesel for six months. The $400-$500 per ton duty will make U.S. biodiesel less attractive in the European market at a time when U.S. manufacturers need all the buyers they can get.
Seattle-based Imperium Renewables has felt the pain of the industry. The biodiesel refiner has canceled its planned initial public offering, laid off employees, and halted plans to build a biodiesel plant in Hawaii.
The so-called crush spread provides insight. It's the difference between the price of soy oil, what manufacturers process into biodiesel, and the going price for the fuel on the market. In November last year, with the industry already under pressure, that spread was at 81 cents per gallon. By late February, it had sunk 30 percent to 56 cents per gallon.
The blender's subsidy is at the heart of the EU's punitive tariff. The subsidy gives a $1 per gallon tax credit to outfits that blend biodiesel into petroleum diesel usually in quantities between 1 percent and 10 percent. The EU governing body argues, rightly, that it gives U.S. biodiesel exporters an unfair advantage. While this subsidy no doubt has helped the U.S. biodiesel industry, it's mainly been a boon for blenders, who market the fuel. They may pass some of that subsidy benefit back to manufacturers, but not all of it.
So U.S. biodiesel manufacturers have done the only thing they could: slow production. Rick Kment, a biofuels analyst with market researcher DTN, said U.S. biodiesel production is down to between 25 percent and 30 percent of capacity. A large portion of the plants aren't standalone biodiesel producers — they also crush the soy beans to produce the oil. Instead of continuing the refining process to biodiesel, they sell the oil off midstream to the food industry, Mr. Kment said. That helps explain why there haven't been as many plants shuttered as some might anticipate, given the industry's pain.
The industry will continue to struggle as long as petroleum prices remain low and feedstock prices high. But that hasn't stopped die-hard biodiesel supporters from believing in the industry. "Biodiesel is a movement now," said Steve Bash, the founder of California-based Sacramento Biofuels Network, which buys biodiesel in bulk for its 250 members. "It's about a perception of choices. And in the long run, it's inevitable that we'll need choices beyond petroleum." In the near-term, biodiesel producers will benefit from the renewable fuel standard that requires 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel be sold annually in the U.S. by 2012, from 500 million gallons this year. So producers might not be as bad off as Wall Street financial firms, but they're still not a pretty sight to behold.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Create A Green Baby Nursery
jchait - Home & Garden
If your home includes a baby, or your home soon will have a baby, then it’s best to plan a green and healthy baby nursery. With just a few simple choices you can turn a typical baby nursery into a green oasis.
- Choose eco-friendly wall covering and paints. You can buy eco-friendly wallpaper or paint the whole nursery (furniture too) with low-voc / no-voc paints.
- Pick sustainable furniture, refurbished furniture, or thrift store finds for your nursery.
- Keep the room VOC-free.
- Look for natural, sustainable, or organic floor coverings. Bamboo is a good sustainable wood flooring option as are non-toxic carpets. Try to find untreated, partially recycled fabrics for flooring when possible.Don't forget the non-toxic crib mattress.
- Choose a non-toxic and organic mattress if you buy a crib (i.e. if you’re not co-sleeping).
- Go minimal - babies don’t need as much gear and toys as you think. Cut down on excess waste by choosing only items you really love and or need. You’ll get plenty of excess in gifts anyhow. For the stuff you do buy pick items like, cloth diapers, organic clothing, and natural non-toxic toys.
- Be sure to install energy saving lights and light bulbs - you can even get nightlights with energy saving bulbs now.
Are you having a baby soon? What green steps are you taking at home to get ready?
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