Hello Dawie >Why am I getting the impression that Industry is bending over >backwards to discredit the whole biofuel idea by applying it in the >worst possible way? Are they preparing the ground for getting it >banned?
Hm. It's probably instinctive for big-time suits to favour the stamping out of small, local, independent outfits, then they can consolidate the market too, as they put it. Especially when they can't out-compete the small guys (if they even try). They misquote Adam Smith and emit noble flatulences about the magic of the marketplace but what they like is total control, not healthy competition. Prohibition sure had a lot to do with that. Your seeds example is a good one and it's already QED, even without terminator. CP, the Charoen Pokphand Group, East Asia's Tysons, having themselves virtually caused the bird flu epidemic and spread it far and wide, then used it as an opportunity to wipe out the remaining small-scale poultry operators in countries like Thailand and Vietnam by claiming against all the evidence that the small outdoor flocks were the cause of the disease and were spreading it. The governments kow-towed, as usual, and CP's market share went up from 60% to 80% or whatever. Well, hey, that's progress. Never mind a few million more destroyed livelihoods and about a billion murdered chickens, as long as it makes a nice omelette for CP. There's not exactly a shortage of such examples. I'm sure Big Biofuels would like to ban homebrewers and the local operators, Graham Noyes or not, but I doubt they're out to get biodiesel itself banned, they'd rather take it over. People have been saying that here for a long time, that there's not much difference between Big Biofuels and Big Oil, they'll shove us out of the picture and take it over. World Energy is backed by Gulf Oil, they've got a deal with Dow over big-time biodiesel production and so on, almost all the big guys are involved now. But I don't think they're about to shove us little guys out of the picture, it's too late for that, we're suitably out of control, IMHO. It's hard for them to see that the big central top-down model they're so accustomed to just won't work with biofuels, or not for long anyway, for instance not once you have to start paying the carbon costs of transporting the stuff all that way, feedstock in, biofuel out. Not sustainable, no more so than the big central industrialised monocrop production that's their oilwell. Not sustainable means it doesn't have a future, no matter how many millions of dollars you chuck at it. By comparison, a US Army report says the US Army won't be able to fight future wars to secure oil supplies without diversifying the military's energy supplies, especially into renewables. "The [U.S.] military needs to take major steps to increase energy efficiency, make a 'massive expansion' in renewable energy purchases, and move toward a vast increase in renewable distributed generation, including photovoltaic, solar thermal, microturbines, and biomass energy sources," the report said. "Renewables tend to be a more local or regional commodity and except for a few instances, not necessarily a global resource that is traded between nations," it said. (Full report <http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA440265>) I'm sure they're right, that's more or less what we've been saying. But it hasn't sunk in a lot down Wall Street way. Probably not at the Pentagon either. Same issue as food, and food miles. http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html#foodmiles Enter Slow Food, exit, eventually, Tysons. I wonder if there's a faster growing market sector than the local food market, worldwide. I wonder why nobody notices (not). Well, not quite nobody. One of the groups we work with here in Japan, basically an organics group, started calling biodiesel "Slow Fuel", and I think it spread. In Japanese it lacks the inference that it makes your car go slow, unfortunate because otherwise it's a good metaphor. But I wouldn't expect the long-lunches brigade at places like World Energy or Imperium Renewables or the NBB to see it that way until they're forced. >It is how they've operated before. Just look at catalytic converters >and platinum interests. Uh-huh? Do tell. Now there's apparently a thin film of platinum over the entire globe, as well as palladium and rhodium, the other metals used in catalytic converters. Anyway the sources of these metals are running out aren't they? Russia's palladium is running out, or did already. >The GMO thing is just about ripe. Industry wants to sell terminator >genes: that's all the whole thing is about. If they simply introduce >terminator seeds they will generate a lot of resentment. Everyone >will be trying any alternative, and that might just kill the whole >commercial seed industry. So, Industry makes it a health and safety >issue, not a small-farming human rights issue. They get people so >scared about their GMOs going invasive - doubtless having gone to a >lot of trouble to develop GMOs that are sure to go invasive - that >they can rely on environmentalists who should know better to insist >on terminator genes! That way they can turn around and say, "We >didn't want to sell terminator genes, but those damned >self-righteous environmentalists are forcing us." > >It is the first rule of industrial politics: always make it someone >else's fault. That way the moral high ground is used against the >party that holds it. > >See the pattern. Don't fall for it. Spread the word. Such a pattern certainly exists. On the other hand, as Napoleon said, "Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence." This is what Adam Smith said: >Going back two centuries, economists have worried about what Adam >Smith described as the tendency of chieftains in a market system "to >deceive and even to oppress the public". > >"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment >and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the >public, or in some contrivance to raise prices" ("Wealth of >Nations"). He said businessmen always yearn to escape from price >competition through collusion. > >He didn't like corporations and governments either. He viewed >government primarily as an instrument for extracting taxes to >subsidize elites and intervening in the market to protect corporate >monopolies. "Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the >security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of >the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property >against those who have none at all.'" > >"Adam Smith commented in 1776 that the only trades that justified >incorporation were banking, insurance, canal building and >waterworks. He believed it was contrary to the public interest for >any other businesses or trades to be incorporated and that all >should be run as partnerships." This is what the Wise Old Man of the Homestead list said: "Small-scale capitalism works out fine, but as scale increases the departure from real capitalism becomes more pronounced - profits are privatized, but costs are socialized. The attendant repair and maintenance are left to succeeding generations if possible, if not, to present low and middle income taxpayers." Corporatism is not capitalism, it's feudalism in a suit. It's time for people like Fritz Schumacher and Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen to have their day, Milton Friedman and Leo Strauss are long past their use-by date. Imperium Renewables indeed, what a name. LOL! Best Keith >-Dawie > >----- Original Message ---- >From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >Sent: Thursday, 22 February, 2007 7:35:47 AM >Subject: Biofuel Digest, Vol 22, Issue 75 > >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit >From: Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Precedence: list >MIME-Version: 1.0 >To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:34:14 +0900 >Reply-To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" >Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Meanwhile - Biodiesel start-up hauls in $214 million >Message: 11 >How much of the biodiesel that Imperium Renewables makes with this >scale of operation will be renewable? Industrial monocrops don't >qualify as renewable, it's not renewable if the production system >isn't sustainable, and theirs isn't. Or even "clean-burning" - at the >tailpipe maybe, but the crops are grown with heavy dependence on >fossil fuels, about half as dyno-diesel, which isn't clean-burning, >and the other half in the form of fertiliser. Making and transporting >one kilogram of nitrogen fertilizer releases 3.7 kg of carbon dioxide >into the atmosphere (that's before they use the stuff). Is the >resulting biodiesel even carbon-neutral? The same applies to the >transport costs involved in trucking the crop/oil long distances, as >such a centralised operation will have to do, and trucking the fuel >all the way back again to the market. The only "benefit" I can see is >that it might help free America from it's dependence on terrorist, >er, Arab, sorry, Middle Eastern, I mean foreign oil, which is a >delusion anyway. > >Soy and palm oil indeed. > >I see Graham Noyes, Vice President of Sales at World Energy, has just >become Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Imperium >Renewables instead. > >We had a famous tussle with Graham here a few years ago when he said >homebrewers would destroy the market with the poor-quality fuel they >make, it had already caused widespread problems, and he cited >instances. Industry's famous "Peril of the Homebrew" myth. > >Graham quickly found himself trying to find the back-pedal gear, but >it seemed it wasn't something he used often, and then he went quiet >for awhile. But we kept on hassling him about it, and eventually he >posted a retraction, admitting that he knew of no case of homebrew >biodiesel causing any problems. He'd confidently passed on the >accepted industry wisdom without checking it. He also said he'd been >impressed by what he'd learnt here about homebrew quality control and >quality concerns, and promised to inform industry of the error of its >ways when they badmouthed homebrewers. In fact he started a small >producers section at the NBB as a result, though I'm not sure what it >achieved. Anyway good on Graham, his retraction earned him a lot of >respect. > >Not long after that World Energy had to recall a consignment of >bad-quality industry biodiesel that was causing widespread problems >on the US west coast (cars damaged), but it was left to the >homebrewer community there to clean up the mess at the consumer >level. Just the opposite story! This happened a couple of times >there, the other case not involving World Energy. > >Strange thing about that consignment was that Graham said it had been >tested first as usual like all the biodiesel World Energy markets and >the lab okayed it. So then World Energy had it tested at another lab, >which didn't okay it at all, it was crap. We wanted to know more >about that, how did crap biodiesel get an okay from the first lab? >But Graham didn't volunteer any further info. It sure smacked of the >many cases in many industries where tests are okayed by a lab by >prior arrangement, it just gets a rubber stamp. If the sample that's >tested even comes from the production run rather than the company >laboratory. > >At the NBB confab later that year the NBB laid on a guided tour of >the biodiesel factory responsible for the worse of the two recalled >consignments. It wasn't just one bad consignment, they kept on >producing the stuff. But apparently the NBB didn't even know about >it, or didn't care. When small-scalers at the conference asked about >it they were told not to "rock the boat" and risk damaging the >prospects of a promising emerging industry. > >Maybe the NBB doesn't have to bother about it, you can hide a lot of >poor quality in B20, and who cares about the marginal whackoes who >use B100 anyway, you get the best subsidies and breaks package with >B20, that's what matters. > >I wonder whether anything much has changed, other than the scale of >the production plant obesity problem. > >Best > >Keith > > > > Biodiesel start-up hauls in $214 million > > > >By Caroline McCarthy, <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CNET News.com > >Published on ZDNet News: ><<http://news.zdnet.com/2001-1_22.html>http://news.zdnet.com/2001-1_22 >.html> February > >21, 2007, 12:30 PM PT > > > > > >*Seattle-based biodiesel maker Imperium Renewables announced on > >Wednesday that its Series B financing round has roped in a total of $214 > >million, a possible record for the American biodiesel industry.* > > > >The investment comes from two sources: $113 million of private equity > >and $101 million from a senior secured credit facility that will be > >arranged by Societe Generale > ><<>http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2F<http:///>www.sgcib >.com&siteId=22> > >&oId=2100-9595-6161091&ontId=9595&lop=nl.ex>. > >According to a statement from Imperium, the funding is believed to be > >the United States' largest-ever private-equity investment in a biodiesel > >company. > > > >Imperium > ><<http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imperiumrenewabl >es>http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imperiumrenewables >. > >com&siteId=22&oId=2100-9595-6161091&ontId=9595&lop=nl.ex> > >plans to use the money invested for opening new biodiesel plants around > >the world, including in Hawaii and in northeastern states. Meanwhile, > >the company is continuing construction of its Port of Grays Harbor plant > ><<http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imperiumrenewabl >es>http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imperiumrenewables >. > >com%2Fgrays.html&siteId=22&oId=2100-9595-6161091&ontId=9595&lop=nl.ex> > > > >in coastal Washington; it expects to finish building the facility in July. > > > >Cumulatively, the Grays Harbor plant and three other planned Imperium > >facilities are expected to optimally generate up to 400 million gallons > >(10 million barrels) of biodiesel per year by the end of 2008. The > >Washington plant alone will be capable of up to 100 million gallons per > >year, which will make it the largest biodiesel facility in the country. > > > >Biodiesel, which is fuel created from vegetable oils--including, > >potentially, the residual fat and oil from fast-food restaurants--is a > >hot topic these days with all the talk of a need for renewable, > >clean-burning energy sources. > > > >Currently, Imperium and subsidiary Seattle Biodiesel > ><<>http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2F<http:///>www.seatt >lebiodiesel.co> > >m&siteId=22&oId=2100-9595-6161091&ontId=9595&lop=nl.ex> > >already operate refineries that produce biodiesel out of farm-grown > >crops like soy and palm oil. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
