[Biofuel] FW: Important, Congress set to gut renewable energy programs

2005-11-16 Thread David M. Brockes
Title: Re: Important, Congress set to gut renewable energy programs



Follow-up.
David


-Original Message-From: Bob Anderson 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 
3:32 PMSubject: Re: Important, Congress set to gut renewable energy 
programsImportance: HighI’ve just 
returned from a meeting at NREL (where I am a small contractor). The 
lab expects a 40% cut in the Wind Powering America program.Bob 
AndersonOn 11/16/05 1:45 PM, "Van Jamison" 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
FYI- Original Message - From: 
  Patrick Judge mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:50 AMSubject: Fwd: 
  Important, Congress set to gut renewable energy programsCongress 
  to Terminate National Bioenergy CenterCongress is getting ready this 
  week to terminate the National BioenergyResearch Center and gut the 
  Wind Research Program at the National RenewableEnergy Laboratory 
  (NREL). NREL researchers who are CRES members sounded thealarm over 
  the weekend after finding out on Friday that many of them may beout of 
  work next month.Here is what I can piece together about what 
  happened last week. On Tuesdaythe House of Representatives passed the 
  House and Senate ConferenceCommittee markup of the Energy Water and 
  Development Appropriation Bill for2006. The bill keeps federal 
  funding for renewable energy research levelwith last year's 
  spending.Unfortunately, it more than doubled the earmarks that 
  take money out of theWind Energy and Bioenergy Research Programs and 
  direct it elsewhere.Earmarks are when individual representatives 
  direct funding to particularprojects in their districts. With passage 
  of the Energy Bill earlier thisyear, these earmarks have been in the 
  forefront of the news. In fact, theAmerican Solar Energy Society said 
  the Energy Bill was so full of porkbarrel spending that ASES did not 
  endorse it.Congressional leaders usually wait until the 
  conference committee is meetingbehind closed doors to introduce 
  earmarks. They emerge as part of a muchlarger bill that is hundreds of 
  pages long.It appears that in this case, the House of 
  Representatives voted on thisbill without many ofits members 
  having had time to read it.It took NREL staff a couple of days 
  of read through the pile of paper andfigure out what it will mean for 
  the research programs. Some of the earmarkswere listed together to 
  support state initiatives, and others were buried indifferent portions 
  of the massive spending bill. This year these added to$62 million in 
  total, more than two thirds of the entire "research anddevelopment" 
  budget for bioenergy. Then the staff had to calculate DOE'scontractual 
  obligations to its industry partnerships and the 10% cut thatthe 
  agency takes from all programs to pay the salaries of its 
  staff.Staff of the National Bioenergy Center, which number 
  more than 90 people,were told Friday afternoon that all that the 
  funding that would be left wassufficient only to cover their severance 
  checks. The National WindTechnology Center is facing similar, severe 
  cutbacks. It seems incredible,but Congress is getting ready to gut the 
  two research programs in renewableenergy technologies that have 
  enjoyed the most success and commercialdevelopment just at a time when 
  fossil fuel prices are their highest levelin history. In the case of 
  creating transportation fuels from biomass, thesetechnologies 
  represent our greatest near-term hope ofreducing imports or fossil 
  fuels.The Senate is scheduled to take up the appropriations 
  bill today ortomorrow. Please call Senators Allard and Salazar today 
  and ask them to voteno on the appropriations bill from the Energy and 
  Water Committee. Tell themthat renewable energy RD is one of this 
  country's best investments.- Wayne Allard: call the Colorado 
  office at 303-220-7414 or the Washingtonoffice at 202-224-5941, or 
  send an email message at:http://allard.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactHome- 
  Ken Salazar: call the Colorado office at 303-455-7600 or the 
  Washingtonoffice at 202-224-5852, or send an email message 
  at:http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfmRuss 
  Doty, CEONew World WindPower LLCPO Box 1734Billings, 
  MT 59103-1734406-656-2763email: 
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]web site: http://www.newworldwindpower.com
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[Biofuel] Has anyone else heard anything about this???? Alert!!

2005-11-16 Thread David M. Brockes




Has anyone heard or seen anything about 
this?? Maybe time for some action if it is in fact true.
David


Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 7:50 AM
Subject: Fwd: Important, Congress set to gut renewable energy 
programs
Congress to Terminate National Bioenergy 
CenterCongress is getting ready this week to terminate the National 
BioenergyResearch Center and gut the Wind Research Program at the 
National RenewableEnergy Laboratory (NREL). NREL researchers who are 
CRES members sounded thealarm over the weekend after finding out on 
Friday that many of them may beout of work next 
month.Here is what I can piece together about what happened last 
week. On Tuesdaythe House of Representatives passed the House and Senate 
ConferenceCommittee markup of the Energy Water and Development 
Appropriation Bill for2006. The bill keeps federal funding for 
renewable energy research levelwith last year's 
spending.Unfortunately, it more than doubled the earmarks that 
take money out of theWind Energy and Bioenergy Research Programs and 
direct it elsewhere.Earmarks are when individual representatives direct 
funding to particularprojects in their districts. With passage of the 
Energy Bill earlier thisyear, these earmarks have been in the forefront 
of the news. In fact, theAmerican Solar Energy Society said the Energy 
Bill was so full of porkbarrel spending that ASES did not endorse 
it.Congressional leaders usually wait until the conference 
committee is meetingbehind closed doors to introduce earmarks. They 
emerge as part of a muchlarger bill that is hundreds of pages 
long.It appears that in this case, the House of Representatives 
voted on thisbill without many ofits members having had time to 
read it.It took NREL staff a couple of days of read through the 
pile of paper andfigure out what it will mean for the research programs. 
Some of the earmarkswere listed together to support state initiatives, 
and others were buried indifferent portions of the massive spending 
bill. This year these added to$62 million in total, more than two thirds 
of the entire "research anddevelopment" budget for bioenergy. Then the 
staff had to calculate DOE'scontractual obligations to its industry 
partnerships and the 10% cut thatthe agency takes from all programs to 
pay the salaries of its staff.Staff of the National Bioenergy 
Center, which number more than 90 people,were told Friday afternoon that 
all that the funding that would be left wassufficient only to cover 
their severance checks. The National WindTechnology Center is facing 
similar, severe cutbacks. It seems incredible,but Congress is getting 
ready to gut the two research programs in renewableenergy technologies 
that have enjoyed the most success and commercialdevelopment just at a 
time when fossil fuel prices are their highest levelin history. In the 
case of creating transportation fuels from biomass, thesetechnologies 
represent our greatest near-term hope ofreducing imports or fossil 
fuels.The Senate is scheduled to take up the appropriations bill 
today ortomorrow. Please call Senators Allard and Salazar today and ask 
them to voteno on the appropriations bill from the Energy and Water 
Committee. Tell themthat renewable energy RD is one of this 
country's best investments.- Wayne Allard: call the Colorado 
office at 303-220-7414 or the Washingtonoffice at 202-224-5941, or send 
an email message 
at:http://allard.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactHome- 
Ken Salazar: call the Colorado office at 303-455-7600 or the 
Washingtonoffice at 202-224-5852, or send an email message 
at:http://salazar.senate.gov/contact/email.cfmRuss Doty, 
CEONew World WindPower LLCPO Box 1734Billings, MT 
59103-1734406-656-2763email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]web 
site: http://www.newworldwindpower.com-- 
--Patrick Judge, Energy Program DirectorMontana Environmental 
Information CenterP.O. Box 1184Helena, MT 
59624406/443-2520406/443-2507 fax

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Re: [Biofuel] New question on oil seed crops and ley farming

2005-09-27 Thread David M. Brockes



I keep getting people asking about the 
Energy required to produce Bio-Diesel, (or biofuel, Ethanol or Bio-Diesel); 
mainly thinking that it takes more energy to produce them than what you get in 
return or what it takes to make it. 
I know that with Ethanol the numbers 
indicate about 1.7-1 (or close to 2-1), but not sure what they are for 
Bio-Diesel. Can anyone help provide details or specific links to facts that will 
help set us all straight??
Thank youDave B.


  -Original 
  Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Tom 
  IrwinSent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 10:54 AMTo: 
  Biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSubject: Re: [Biofuel] New question on 
  oil seed crops and ley farming
  Hi Andres,
  
  Castor beans grow wild here in Uruguay as well. I have some deep seated 
  childhood memories of castor oil as an emetic. Just the smell makes me 
  gag. I'll use it with a mask if I can find no other source but it is 
  kind of a last resort material for me. The yields are good though and it's 
  essentially free for the taking. I was looking at jojoba as a natural fence 
  material but I think I'm a bit too wet here. I suspect I'd have lots of fungus 
  problems than in drier climates. I may use raspberry or blackberries instead. 
  The weather is is rather mild. We actually had a light frost day this winter. 
  The summer's reach about 38 C. but you can expect rain in a day or so to bring 
  those temps back down to 28. It's mostly flat grassland here with 38-78 cm of 
  rainfall. This year we'll probably exceed the upper end. I'm hoping global 
  warming will keep it there but I'm not sure. Lot's of people think it could 
  shift to the dry end. I just haven't seen much evidence in that 
  direction.
  
  I keep telling everyone who will listen that oil prices are going to 
  change the nature of agriculture back to small organic farms. Now I'm going to 
  show them. I'm a bit squimish in killing animals, too. I was raised as a city 
  boy. I was giving thought to lethal injection with potassium chloride 
  solution. Pigs and humans havelots of similarities. It's worth a 
  question to the local vet.
  
  Tom Irwin
  
  

From: Andres Yver [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]To: 
Biofuel@sustainablelists.orgSent: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:17:27 
-0300Subject: Re: [Biofuel] New question on oil seed crops and 
ley farmingHello Tom, Hi Keith and 
all, You mentioned in a previous thread that you 
liked castor beans as an oil seed crop.You're in 
Uruguay, right? In Chile, castor bean is a serious weed. It grows 
extremely fast, reaching over two meters height and diameter within 8 
months. If you have moisture, as near an irrigation canal, you can 
collect many hundreds of seeds, even perhaps a thousand or more from 
each plant. It thrives on no management or additional fertilization. 
Roadsides are a good place to find them. I considered them, together 
with jojoba, as an oil seed crop, before selling out and moving to 
Argentina. I crushed one, yes one, plant's worth in a primitive homemade 
press and got about a liter of oil. i haven't gone to purdue's newcrop 
site to see what average yields are. The area i was in was a 
mediterranean climate, 250mm annual rainfall, min temps down near the 
canal were around -2 or 3 C in the dead of winter. Summers got up to 
around 35C max. Bear in mind it was summer dry, winter wet. I think 
Uruguay, as is Argentina, tends to be more continental, ie summer wet 
and winter dry.I composted the seedcake and found you need to 
include lots of woody feedstock as well as cow manure (what was at hand) 
to avoid rancidity. In other words, don't try to compost it as a major 
component of your compost. If you heat your seeds first by spreading in 
the sun on top of shade cloth, you get higher yields.Sorry about 
the unscientific comments, your mileage may vary, etc. Weeds are an 
opportunity waiting to happen, they have lots of unexplored potential, 
on many levels. Right now, we have an area that is overrun with comfrey, 
which is here considered a noxious weed. Following Newman Turner's lead 
(see JTF small farms library for his and other invaluable books on 
farming the easy way), we have wilted it and are feeding it to rabbits. 
They LOVE it!!!Good luck with your future farm. Working for yourself 
can't be beat. Especially if what you are doing is not only pleasurable 
but gets other, local, people interested and heading down the path to 
sustainability. I've found that, here in South America -and probably 
everywhere, the best arguments for sustainability in general, and ley 
farming in particular, are economic ones. It's just way cheaper to farm 
this way. Farmers of other stripes sit up and notice when you get 
successfully through a season without having used any inputs labelled 

Re: [Biofuel] BP loses money?? Yeah, right.

2005-08-29 Thread David M. Brockes
This is why we need a Flat Tax system in this country for both Individual
and Business. 8% to 12% would provide a tax base much more robust than what
we have todayand most of us would probably pay less, but certainly
everyone would pay a fair share.and think of all the savings there
would be from all the extra costs currently related to our Tax system!!
Just IMHO!!
Dave

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 9:51 AM
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] BP loses money?? Yeah, right.


It's all part of the standard multinational corporation planning to move
the profits to the jurisdiction in which they are taxed least
(preferably not at all).

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



On Mon, 29 Aug 2005, Jerry Eyers wrote:

  Funny tidbit.  BP says they loose money on their gas stations, $100mil
 last
  year.  You refine it, you transport it, you store it, you delivery it,
and
 you
  sell it.  How do you loose money when you control all aspects of it.
Just
 by
  vertues of econmies of scale you have to make money.


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RE: [Biofuel] ASTM, was ... Diesel Won't Solve...

2005-08-10 Thread David M. Brockes
Doesn't sound like you have worked in Government either.and should be
fired!! Most FTE's are very dedicated to doing a good job for the people
served (which includes themselves, who are also taxpayers)but of course
there always are those few afraid of their own shadow or who get put into
positions of responsibility when they shouldn't bejust like real
people in real jobs.
Okay, a little over reactivebut then I think we should still have a
Draft for the military in this country (or something that includes it).
DB

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Mike Weaver
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 7:41 AM
To: Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] ASTM, was ... Diesel Won't Solve...


That's what a lot of people don't understand.  If you haven't worked in
the Gov't it doesn't make much sense.  I was just telling someone that
the latest IRS IT fiasco is actually not a failure in the eyes of the
Gov't workers - only one person got fired, the FTE's got paid and the
contractors got paid.  Whether or not it worked was pretty incidental to
the process.  The rules are:

1.  Don't get fired - still pretty hard to fire someone in the US.
2.  Don't make more work for anyone.
3. Don't make your boss look bad.
4.  Don't get bad press.
5.  Inertia is better than doing something.  Inertia won't get you
fired, but doing something might.
6.  That's the way we've always done it.

Appal Energy wrote:

 Tom,

 Government is business. But not necessarily or precisely going about
 the same business of any specific special interest businesses. More to
 the tune of going about the business of all business.

 How many times have you found yourself in the middle of a Freudian
 slip, such as In this company (country)...?

 Think about it. The structure is precisely the same, with labor,
 middle and upper level management and the occassional stock
 holder's meeting (elections). In the interim, seldom does management
 change anything to the liking or needs of labor unless mandatory to
 prevent a serious disruption of production flow. Even then, as in the
 case of oil, they hold out to the last possible moment rather than
 seizing available opportunities.

 Call it poor leadership. Call it an attempt to maximize current
 infrastructure and investment dollar. Call it whatever you wish. But
 government is business, with one of its goals to insure its own
 existance to the best of its capabilities.

 Todd Swearingen

 The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government.




 Tom Irwin wrote:

 Hi Todd,

 You are such a hairsplitter. Big government or big corporate
 agribusinesses they ane now synonyms at least in the G8 world. I know
 your just endeavoring to be accurate.

 Big Smile,

 Tom Irwin


 
 *From:* Appal Energy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 *To:* Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
 *Sent:* Tue, 09 Aug 2005 19:57:35 -0300
 *Subject:* Re: [Biofuel] ASTM, was ... Diesel Won't Solve...

 Not necessarily.

 More like the big hand(s) of soybean interest(s) manipulating a
 set of
 controls to as best as possible guarantee that they get their
 research, testing and investment monies back. Forget that the monies
 they used are from a per bushel tax on beans, designated for use to
 advance the production and consumption of soy, which biodiesel does.

 What they want is the tax money to operate off of and then after
 they
 spend it they want it replenished.

 The government just went along in the processing of incorporating
 biodiesel as an EPA registered fuel.

 Then again, on the other hand, the soybean interests could have
 kept the
 Tier I  II health effects studies for their use only as well as
 applicable only to soybean oil. But that's not how it ended up, as
 fuel
 from all oil and fat feedstocks fall under the rubric of
 biodiesel.

 One could say that the EPA lobbied to keep the gate open a little
 wider
 than strictly soy, which in turn served the public's interest rather
 than specifically the special interest.

 Nobody is talking.

 Todd Swearingen


 Tom Irwin wrote:

  Hi All,
 
  Do I detect the big hand of government squeezing the small
 business
  owner for corporate America here?
 
  Tom
 
 
 

 
  *From:* Ric Cuchetto [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 javascript:kh6k0(new,[EMAIL PROTECTED])]
  *To:* Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
 javascript:kh6k0(new,Biofuel@sustainablelists.org)
  *Sent:* Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:50:42 -0300
  *Subject:* RE: [Biofuel] ASTM, was ... Diesel Won't Solve...
 
  ASTM testing is at the end of the process. We are also
 struggling with
  taxes and licensing and posting bond related to transporting the