« 300 Miles Per Gallon!… | Home | Bioplastic may become… »

As Bush signs energy bill, new issues come to the fore

21 12 07 - 06:29

Send this article to a friend

As Bush signs energy bill, new issues come to the fore




By Mark Clayton






America is getting a green-energy law just in time for Christmas. It's not the great big one with a bow that environmentalists wanted, but, analysts say, it still represents nothing less than a new beginning on national energy policy.

After dodging White House veto threats and Senate filibusters, the slim-but-still-substantial energy bill was signed by President Bush Wednesday. America is getting a green-energy law just in time for Christmas. It's not the great big one with a bow that environmentalists wanted, but, analysts say, it still represents nothing less than a new beginning on national energy policy.

After dodging White House veto threats and Senate filibusters, the slim-but-still-substantial energy bill was signed by President Bush Wednesday.

But the real gift to the nation may be the political breakthrough in Congress that produced the landmark first fuel-economy mandate in 32 years and a sevenfold increase in ethanol production by 2022, observers say.

"There's a fundamentally different dynamic in Congress now," says Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy think tank in Washington. "The fact that an increase in fuel economy standards was able to pass by a 3-to-1 margin would have been unimaginable a year ago."

Despite all the rhetoric, until this month the US had not made much progress on either oil dependency or climate change - the two major structural challenges to the US energy system and economy, says Jason Grumet, executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy. But the new energy bill brought energy hawks, environmental advocates, states, and consumers together into "a new political equation," he says.

That breakthrough sets wheels in motion for a series of shifts and battles in months that will reinvigorate national energy policy, observers say. Issues coming to the fore as a result of the new energy law include:

-Climate cap-and-trade: Because energy use and emissions go hand in hand, the new energy law accelerates debate over regulating carbon-dioxide emissions across the US economy. Key legislation, such as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, would require a cap-and-trade system to cut CO2 emissions 15 percent below current levels by 2020. The bill already has significant support and, despite White House opposition, debate over the measure is expected as soon as January.

-Climate tailpipe regulation: By year end, Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson is expected to respond to an April Supreme Court ruling that the EPA has authority to regulate greenhouse gases. If the EPA grants California a waiver, the Golden State and 16 others could crack down on carbon-dioxide emissions from passenger vehicles - putting more pressure on automakers.

-Renewable electric power: At least 23 states are already demanding greenhouse-gas reductions through renewable portfolio standards that require utilities to get a portion of their energy mix from renewable sources. Although a national renewable standard for utilities was dropped from the energy bill, congressional leaders say it will be raised again next year.

-Wind and solar tax credits: Wind and solar industries are fighting to see vital tax credits, which were dropped from the energy bill, get tucked into other legislation. Without them, US production is likely to sag and big Japanese and German companies will grab a huge lead in renewable energy technology. Congressional leaders have promised action early next year.

-Critical technology acceleration: Given a boost by the energy bill, research funding for battery technology for plug-in hybrids will accelerate along with research into cellulosic ethanol from noncorn sources.

These are among the key issues that will emerge within a new political dynamic on Capitol Hill, observers say. Now that the contentious fuel economy issue has been put to rest, legislators will seek to act on other energy matters, observers say.

"We're now in a transitional period in which biofuels and fuel economy is just a first step," says Reid Detchon, executive director of the Energy Future Coalition, a nonprofit bipartisan public policy initiative. "The stage is set now for plug-in hybrid vehicles with biofuels as a primary fuel. In that scenario, petroleum plays only a very small part."

Instead of considering energy once every seven years, Congress can also be expected to more regularly, if not continually, pass energy bills that "tweak" America's push toward energy self-sufficiency and away from global-warming emissions. "The US has shifted into a chronic state of action on energy," Mr. Grumet says.

Even if the Bush administration remains opposed, the new political alliance that broke the deadlock on auto mileage will be a new political fulcrum on a range of energy-related issues, including climate-change regulation, observers predict.

"We've had a breakthrough not just on the substance of the energy issue," Grumet says. "Now there appears to be a political pathway forward."

What's in the new energy law?

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) - Raises average fleet fuel-economy standards for cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Renewable fuels - Expands the renewable fuels standard to 9 billion gallons in 2008 and increases it to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

Requires the US to produce 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol.

Light bulbs - Increases national efficiency standards of light bulbs by 30 percent and phases out most types of incandescent bulbs by 2012-14.

Green buildings - Mandates that federal buildings renovated or newly constructed in 2010 reduce their fossil-fuel-generated consumption by 55 percent in 2010 and 100 percent by 2030.

Source: The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007

Got Sun?

Chitika | Owna

Used tags: alternative_energy, alternative_fuels, energy_bill, energy_law

Liposuction doctor uses human fat to fuel car - loses license as a result

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:27 pm Los Angeles - A California liposuction doctor has lost his license to practice after being busted for using human fat he sucked out of patients bodies to fuel his car. As it turns out, using human medical waste in California is illegal.

Doctor Craig Bittner, who operated a fat clinic in Beverly Hills, California up until November when he was shut down for his morbid use of human body fat, was creating what he called "lipodiesel" out of the human waste collected from his clinic's liposuction practice. more

Defatted soy flour eyed as filler for rubber tires

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:08 pm Washington - In 1941, Henry Ford unveiled a plastic-bodied car whose panels included soybean meal as component. The feat made headlines--and history--but the idea never took off commercially. However, researchers continue to toy with the idea, including (ARS) scientists Lei Jong and Jeffrey Byars, who are testing soy flour as a "green" filler for tires and other natural rubber products.

Today's fillers are typically petroleum-based particles called "carbon black." Tire manufacturers use them in rubber to improve tensile strength and wear resistance. But petroleum's many competing uses, rising costs and ties to pollution have rekindled interest in biobased alternatives, especially those derived from homegrown crops like soybeans.

Soy flour is primarily used in cooking and baking. But Jong and Byars' studies at the ARS Cereal Products and Food Science Research Unit in Peoria, Ill., indicate the flour also could serve as an inexpensive alternative to today's carbon-black tire fillers.

The researchers use defatted soy flour that's been dispersed in water to form aggregates 10 microns in diameter (about 1/1000th of an inch). Then they add the aggregates to rubber latex and freeze-dry the mixture. This causes the aggregates to form a tight interconnecting network through the rubber.

For lab tests, the researchers mold the soy-based rubber into samples and subject them to shearing and other forces. Of particular interest is the "storage modulus," which measures the elasticity of a material. On average, the storage modulus scores of composites containing 30 percent soy flour are 20 times higher than filler-free rubber, but somewhat lower than those reinforced with carbon black.

In addition to testing other biobased filler materials, the researchers are collaborating with rubber manufacturers to further explore the technology.

A report on the research was recently published online in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. more

Arctic ice melt accelerating, scientists say

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:01 pm Reno - Scientists say the Arctic ice is melting at a faster pace than previously thought and now believe the Arctic Ocean could be completely ice-free by 2015. more

Toward a greener economy

Friday 17 October 2008 at 2:55 pm Toward a greener economy




By Moises Velasquez-Manoff





New York - Market bubbles occur when goods are traded at prices that greatly exceed real value. They burst when they grow so bloated that they become unstable. The current economic turmoil, widely viewed as the worst since 1929, is one example of what can happen when the difference between market value and actual value becomes too great.

Environmentally minded economists have long warned that equally burstable ecological bubbles can occur if humanity lives beyond earth's capacity to regenerate. The problem, they say, is that we're addicted to economic growth. Mainstream economics assumes that the economy, the engine of modern civilization, can grow perpetually. more

Renewable Electricity Surges by 32 percent-Provides 11 percent of U.S. Net Generation

Sunday 12 October 2008 at 06:23 am Renewable Electricity Surges by 32 percent-Provides 11 percent of U.S. Net Generation




Washington - According to the latest "Monthly Electricity Review" issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (October 3, 2008), net U.S. generation of electricity from renewable energy sources surged by 32 percent in June 2008 compared to June 2007.

Renewable energy (biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 41,160,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) in June 2008 up from 31,242,000 MWh in June 2007. Renewables accounted for 11.0 percent of net U.S. electricity generation in June 2008 compared to 8.6 percent in June 2007. more

City Trash Plus Farm Leftovers May Yield Clean Energy

Sunday 12 October 2008 at 06:15 am City Trash Plus Farm Leftovers May Yield Clean Energy




Washington - Tomorrow's household garbage might be blended with after-harvest leftovers from fields, orchards, and vineyards to make ethanol and other kinds of bioenergy. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are investigating this straightforward, eco-friendly strategy in their laboratories at the agency's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. more

Big Help in Biofuels Research

Monday 29 September 2008 at 02:52 am Big Help in Biofuels Research


Washington - A short little grass known as purple false brome may speed discoveries about switchgrass, its famous cousin and energy-crop hopeful.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists like John Vogel and Yong Gu at the agency's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., are probing the genetic makeup of purple false brome, or Brachypodium distachyon, as a faster way to learn more about the genes inside switchgrass. more

Precedent-setting carbon auction Thursday

Monday 29 September 2008 at 02:43 am By Mark Clayton


For almost as long as people have worried about global warming, economists have called for taxing carbon emissions. As long as sending CO2 skyward was cost-free, they argued, the practice would continue.

Starting Sept. 25, for the first time in US history, a price tag will begin to be placed on millions of tons of carbon dioxide spewing from every major power plant from Maine to Maryland.

Just what that price will be won't be known until after Thursday's computerized auction of about 12.5 million tons of "carbon allowances," essentially permission slips to pollute.

Utility companies will bid on the allowances. They may be used, saved, or traded so that any company with a need to send more CO2 up the stack can buy more - at the market price. The amount of CO2 to be cut over the next decade is modest - about 18 million tons annually (US power plants collectively emit about 2.8 billion tons of CO2 yearly). But the auction and process of setting a price for carbon are critical first steps, many say. more

Dispelling The “Twisted Truths” Of Energy-Saving Light Bulbs

Saturday 13 September 2008 at 5:18 pm Dispelling The “Twisted Truths” Of Energy-Saving Light Bulbs







For more than 129 years, people have used the incandescent light bulb as the primary light source for the home. With more consumers searching for products that are good for the environment, a new light bulb is revolutionizing lighting around the world. Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have become the symbol of the “green” movement. They use 75 percent less energy and last as much as 10 times longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs. Plus, they help reduce carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming. more

Campaign Plants Trees At Schools Across The U.S.

Saturday 13 September 2008 at 5:08 pm Campaign Plants Trees At Schools Across The U.S.






Schools are generally seen as the place to plant the seeds of knowledge. Yet thanks to a one-day environmental campaign, schools and parks across the country became places to plant something a little greener.

Sixteen schools across the country, from Long Island to Hawaii, participated in the initial “Trees for Success” campaign, with more than 800 trees planted in schools and neighboring parks in a single day. The schools were selected by the Arbor Day Foundation out of more than 200 applications based on need, civic and local support, student involvement, a plan for upkeep, and location. more