The Green Graveyard

- 12 companies that received Taxpayer Money, yet filed for Bankruptcy
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Abound Solar (Loveland, Colorado), manufacturer of thin film photovoltaic
modules.
Beacon Power (Tyngsborough, Massachusetts), designed and developed advanced
products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient electricity
grid operation.
Ener1 (Indianapolis, Indiana), built compact lithium-ion-powered battery
solutions for hybrid and electric cars.
Energy Conversion Devices (Rochester Hills, Michigan/Auburn Hills, Michigan),
manufacturer of flexible thin film photovoltaic (PV) technology and a
producer of batteries and other renewable energy-related products.
Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Marlborough, Massachusetts), manufactured and
installed solar panels.
Mountain Plaza, Inc. (Dandridge, Tennessee), designed and implemented
“truck-stop electrification” technology.
Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsens Mills Acquisition Co. (Berlin, Wisconsin),
a private company producing ethanol.
Range Fuels (Soperton, Georgia), tried to develop a technology that converted
biomass into ethanol without the use of enzymes.
Raser Technologies (Provo, Utah), geothermal power plants and technology
licensing.
Solyndra (Fremont, California), manufacturer of cylindrical panels of
thin-film solar cells.
Spectrawatt (Hopewell, New York), solar cell manufacturer.
Thompson River Power LLC (Wayzata, Minnesota), designed and developed
advanced products and services to support stable, reliable and efficient
electricity grid operation.

BO on Drilling for Available Energy

Technorati Tags: Drill for oil,oil,not drilling,anwr,gulf,bo,environmentalists

Alcohol Fuels

Brazil burns Alcohol for fuel because it has had little oil available to it but has lots and lots of sugar cane which has about 6 times as much sugar available to turn into alcohol than does corn. In the USA we foolishly burn our food product, corn, to produce alcohol (which is a wonderful industrial solvent but poor fuel) to mix into our oil based fuels supposedly to make our oil fuels burn more cleanly and to satisfy a stupid environment movement that has no ability to comprehend the consequences. It doesn't, of course, but it has and does increase the prices of both fuels and foods which the Dem Socialist do like.

Alcohol has about 1/2 the total energy by weight that gasoline does and requires twice as much in an engine to produce the same power as does gasoline. That means adding 10% alcohol to fuel decreases power by at least 5% requiring that much more throttle to be used burning even more fuel than the engine would have without the alcohol additive. The side effects are that the solvent cleans oil from off the cylinders and valves, hardens rubber, plastic, attacks aluminum parts, etc. thereby shortening engine life. Outboard motors all over the country have been utterly destroyed because the users did not comprehend the dangers of putting a solvent in their fuels. Fortunately, some premium brands of gas have no alcohol content and thus can be used in small engines and outboards without harm.

Everything we consume is delivered to every store in every town in every state all thru the nation by vehicles which burn diesel fuels including the tractors that farmers use to grow those foods, etc. It would be much wiser, economical, and more environmentally friendly to grow oil producing plants whose products could expand bio-diesels lowering prices for every commercial carrying truck, train, and aircraft that uses DIESEL for fuel.

Of course, that would be intelligent use of resources so wouldn't require a Government program and would be environmentally useful so wouldn't be to the advantage of the socialist big government environmental movement so don't expect any politicians to get behind the idea. Stupid is as stupid does and nothing is as stupid as& politicians selling votes.

PL Booth, The Blue Eye View of MO, 3/10/12

Climate Change isn't, Energy needed

I have many time written or posted similar articles to Kerby Anderson's below in the Point of View program. The policies of our governemnt are wrong, stupid, poorly constructed, based upon illegitimate information, and ineffective. There is more than adequate energy available to the US right now within our own borders that would allow us to slowly and productively transition into more "green" sources but we are instead spending ourselves into ruin with ineffective and overly expensive "solutions" that are ineeficient, expensive, difficult to build, maintain, and that give us very little return for the investment. It is socialism at work when the free market system would work so much better. If for no other reasons, the Dem Progressive Socialist idiots now infesting congress and the whitehouse must be removed and replaces with actual adults capable of thinking and acting for the good of the nation rather than themselves and their friends.

October 19, 2011

Climate Change
Kerby Anderson


Political and scientific debates have raged over climate change in the last decade. Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute believes it is time to acknowledge five obvious truths about the climate change issue.

First, he says, those promoting political measures such as carbon taxes have lost. This is true even though Al Gore won an Oscar for his documentary and he along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won a Nobel Peace Prize. The most recent climate change conference in Copenhagen had lots of promises but no action. “Carbon-dioxide emissions are growing because people around the world understand the essentiality of electricity to modernity.”

A second truth is that the world is going to need to produce more energy in order to remain productive and comfortable. Third, the carbon-dioxide debate isn’t about the United States anymore. Emissions in this country actually fell, while China’s emissions jumped by 123 percent over the past decade. Increases in emissions can also be found in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East..

Fourth, we must get better at turning energy into useful power. The good news is that we are doing just that. Back in 1882, Thomas Edison’s first central power station on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan converted less than 3 percent of the heat energy of coal being burned into electricity. Today our best natural-gas-fired turbines have thermal efficiencies of 60 percent.

The fifth and final truth is that the science is not settled. Climatologists are still trying to understand the complexities of our atmosphere. Even if we were to accept that carbon dioxide is bad, it isn’t at all clear what to do. One study showed that “switching from coal to natural gas would do little for global climate.” Economists have shown the extreme measures will have little effect on global temperatures but could devastate the world economy.

It’s time for politicians and the public at large to accept these truths about climate change. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.

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Tags: climate change,greenhouse gasses,leftist lies,stupid environmentalists,truth,energy To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the The Blue View From MO Thanks!

More Thoughts ABout Most Everything

 More Thoughts ABout Most Everything
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:33:28 -0500

More Thoughts ABout Most Everything

It's natural for mankind to indulge in illusions of hope. We tend to shut our eyes against painful truth. That is why elected Barack Obama President. The facts that he is actually an ignorant (never had a job besides politics and doesn't really know how to do anything else nor how anything actually works, business or otherwise), arrogant (he treats the entire country like he deserves his position and it was made to keep him comfortable), narcissistic (never seen another politician stick his nose up in the air like BO nor treat other heads of state with such disdain), jackass bent on bankrupting America (he gave numerous speeches in which he told of his plans) were widely ignored, particularly by the MSM.

We are about to enter into a financial crisis that will make the 30's depression look like a cake walk. The American Dollar (which has been the standard of the world for nearly a hundred years) is rapidly decreasing in value. Prices of everything, food, fuel, power, and manufactured goods are rising rapidly but our current Administration continues to lie about inflation and its causes. I can't decide if that is stupidity or arrogance; maybe both.

North America has about 30% of the entire world's petroleum reserves, enough in our country alone to run us for the next 200 years according to a recent report done by our Fed. Dept. of Energy, but we can't drill for it on land or sea. There hasn't been a new refinery built here in more than 20 years. We still burn our corn as fuel instead of food despite the incredible inefficiency of it. (It take 1.5 times as much alcohol as gasoline to power an engine.) We could be refining more diesel fuel through agriculture and recycling oil based products but don't.

A reminder, diesel powers nearly all trucks and trucks deliver everything we use.

Nuclear power is amazingly cheap and incredibly safe despite the media hype about the Japanese "meltdown" (which isn't actually happening.) There has never been anyone killed by radiation from a power plant in the USA. Chernobyl Russia is the single example and they are famous for their lack of safeguards for anything. Life has little value in communist countries.  

BO and his minions want to build a highspeed rail system despite the fact that rail passenger service failed in the USA and no Railroad has made profits since prior to WWII. Since they don't drive cars, they don't realize we have an extensive road system.

PL Booth, The BLue EYe View of MO, 3/18/11

Solar energy isn't the only renewable resource: there's also garbage.

A company called AgriPower will begin production next year of a movable power generator fueled by a wide range of waste products, from walnut shells to discarded tires.

Although solar and wind energy are the best-known renewable energies, generatingpower from biomass is getting a closer look, as societies try to diversify their fuel sources.

AgriPower's combined heat and power system was originally envisioned for developing countries that could burn agricultural wastes to make electricity and heat.

The multi-piece unit includes a large feed hopper that holds 5 tons of material, and a high-temperature incinerator that vaporizes biomass as it comes in. The resulting heat can be used to turn a turbine to make 300 kilowatts of electricity. The heat can also be used to power other processes like heating.

As the company gets closer to manufacturing--with first commercial products anticipated next April--it is finding a much wider set of potential applications, said CEO Barry Berman.

The company is seeing interest from landfill operators who, short on space for burying trash, would rather incinerate their waste to produce power and sell it to utilities.

The company is also talking to supermarket chains in the U.K. and France that have to pay more than $150 per ton in "tipping fees" to get rid of organic trash such as discarded produce, cardboard and paper.

"If you are producing any waste stream and you are paying someone to bring it to a landfill, you gotta be nuts," said Berman.

For industrial processes that use diesel engines, AgriPower's system pays for itself within a year, he said. A wood mill, for example, could incinerate sawdust and other waste to make power to run its machines, rather than run off diesel power.

Remote applications
There are already large-scale combined heat and power systems that use biomass as fuel to make on-site electricity. Incinerating municipal waste to make power is also done in almost 90 locations in the United States, according to the Solid Waste Association of North America.

Municipal waste is increasingly segregated, which means on-site power production using a specific material is now a more viable option, said Berman. Another company, Ze-Gen, is testing a process called gasification with construction and demolition debris as fuel.

Berman said that its generator has been tested with a range of materials, including corn husks, corn cobs and sugar cane residue, called bagasse, as well as tires and non-recyclable plastics. Because it generates heat, the unit can dry material like chicken waste before incinerating it, he said.

The polluting emissions from the unit, which is 75 percent efficient, has been tested in several U.S. states and European countries. It met emissions requirements in Switzerland and California, which are stringent measures, said AgriPower vice president Anthony Kahn.

The incinerator uses a construction called a bubbling fluidized bed--essentially a layer of sand heated to high temperatures--and vaporizes waste within seconds of entering the furnace.

Although the output of the initial unit is a fraction of an industrial power plant's capacity, AgriPower's 80,000-pound generator can easily be transported and usually installed within two days. That mobility is important to using biomass for power production, said Berman.

"It can be brought to remote areas and be brought to where the fuel is located," he said. "A rather significant problem in biomass is gathering it and bringing it to a furnace to burn it."

from Cnet News

Link to Online Library of Liberty

Here is a very useful site dedicated to the education neccessary to Liberty.
http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php

Nancy Pelogrosi

Subject: The pot did call the kettle black...didn't I know we are all sick of it, but also, we all need to be aware. I believe this kind of information from ANY public official, Democrat or Republican should be made public. Isn't there a law to that effect? ================================= This stuff just goes on and on. I'm sick of it. Does everyone in the government think only of themselves? I know that is a silly question, but I remember working with people who had integrity and took their jobs seriously. Maybe we were too far down the ladder. ~Dennis ~ "AND THE BEAT GOES ON & ON!" , February 5, 2009, 10:41 PM Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's home district includes San Francisco . Star-Kist Tuna's headquarters are in San Francisco, Pelosi's home district. Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi. Star-Kist is the major employer in American Samoa employing 75% of the Samoan work force. Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock. In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage. This would make Del Monte products less expensive than their competition's. Last week when the huge bailout bill was passed, Pelosi added an earmark to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an 'economic development credit in 'American Samoa '. Pelosi has called the Bush administration "CORRUPT" ? ? How do you spell "HYPOCRISY" ? EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD GET A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL. Why do we not get media coverage of stories like this? (BTW: "SNOPES" VALIDATES)

New Energy Solutions

New Energy Solutions, Large and Small

Recently, I was fortunate enough to be selected for a telephone Townhall meeting with the American Conservative Union Chairman, David Keene, concerning the nation’s energy needs and what should constitute the GOP energy policy. Several callers made similar statements and it appeared to me there was consensus that we should be drilling in the US for our own oil (including ANWR), building nuclear reactors, and making our economy less dependant upon foreign energy by being more efficient in all areas.

All those things are well and good. We can and should be drilling, onshore and off. ANWR, being mostly a desert tundra, should be opened. We also have coal available in both the East and the West which, I have little doubt, can be burning in power plants made considerably more efficient and cleaner. We can also do ourselves great good by burning our own trash; paper, wood products, plastics, non-recyclable oil, etc. in properly modified power plants.

Power plant incinerators can and should be developed to allow us use of much of the trash we now put into landfills (at great cost financially and environmentally) running more efficient Miller Cycle reciprocating engines rather than turbines. Such smaller, more efficient incinerator power plants can supply smaller cities or areas with all the public use power they’d need freeing the municipal taxes paid to power street lamps, public buildings, public utilities of all kinds and selling excess production to electric companies for public consumption.

Nuclear reactors need not be monstrously large in size and breeder reactors will negate the need to house spent fuel rods. We already build small, efficient reactors for ships and submarines. I believe those designs can be modified to supply clean, economical electric power for every major city in the USA.

Ethanol produced with food grains was a foolish (and I pray) short lived idea to assist farmers and agri-companies. Yes, Brazil uses ethanol produced largely with sugar cane, non-edible and much more easily converted than corn. Also, though alcohol has a higher natural octane rating than oil, it produces much less energy per gallon than oil and attacks metals of all kinds shortening the life of any internal combustion engine it’s used in.

Nearly every consumer item used in the USA (food, oil, clothing, furniture, lumber, and most anything else you can think of) is produced, moved, and delivered by truck over our very efficient highway systems. The tractors the farmers use and the trucks that deliver our goods all burn diesel. The few railway system locomotives use diesel. In fact, the cost of diesel affects the costs of nearly everything else in the USA. We very much need to produce diesel more economically and efficiently.

Bio-diesel is one partial solution as it can be blended with oil diesel and burned without significant side effects to those engines. Bio-diesel can be produced using soy beans (which will help many farmers) and several other types of plants. Coal can be converted to diesel. Used oils, both mechanical use and food use, can be converted and blended with refined petroleum diesel. Let’s setup some central collection and refining plants to collect all the old used oils from our crankcases and restaurants.

NPG (propane) is a very good reciprocating engine fuel with a high natural octane rating though it, too, produces less energy per gallon than gasoline. Since it doesn’t exist naturally in the liquid state, it requires heavy, high strength pressure tanks to contain it making it somewhat more efficiently used in medium duty trucks (like pickups and delivery vans). Thousands of gallons are burned off or lost daily at refineries and production rigs all over the country. We can have recapture technology to use that NPG. We already have some distribution centers scattered around the country to deliver gas for home heating purposes. What we don’t have are significant numbers of transportation engines specifically designed for propane, easily changed.

Our problem becomes one of political will. Neither party yet appears to have sufficient incentive to make sound energy policy. That is a cause the public must embrace. Forcing sound energy policy on parties addicted to Environmental Wacko monies is going to be difficult but, if we are to retain our way of life and avoid becoming what the socialist wackos want, a third world economy they can control at will, then we must fight. Call elected representatives and refuse to vote for incumbents who’ll not listen and support sound energy efficient policies right now.

PL Booth, The Blue Eye view, 07/25/08