http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/11/25/202912/19#2

Biofuel from the waste stream made with wind and solar power are still a great idea.  I am opposed to agrichem biofuel too, even though I'm in favor of biofuel from waste.

When the waste stream biofuel runs short of demand, then coal can be refined cleanly with the same wind and solar powered technology to produce a blended fuel that will work in regular gasoline and diesel motors.

This would eliminate imported oil.

As plugin electric cars come into wide use, the percentage of transportation energy obtained from fuel combustion can be reduced so that eventually oil and even coal are no longer needed.

And with the mass production of the new lithium ion nano tech quick charge batteries, a fillup of a plugin electric "gas tank" will take only a little longer than filling a regular gas tank.

That means no more fuel will be needed.  The remaining biofuel production can be reserved for specialized uses like air travel.

A distinction needs to be made between agrichem based biofuel and boifuel produced from waste with green energy.   Regional green biofuel and coal extracted fuel would establish freedom from the economic tyranny of monopoly based neo-corporate empire and it's krazy kristian oil krusade.

Region by region progressive areas could get off their oil addiction and leave the regions paying 5 bucks per gallon for fuel and yearly double digit increases in heating and cooling bills in the financial dustbin of history.

Let 'em fund bushco and its saudi/opec cronies.  See how long that lasts in free economic competition with whole regions powered with inexpensive, clean, green energy.

Only when this starts happening will politicos be forced to level the playing field for alternative energy.  Until large numbers of voters actually see the benefits of green energy, the system of subsidizing big oil, nukes, and coal backed by bribery will surely continue.  And no real reform energy policy will be instituted.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/11/3/92411/0383#1

If VW does it, can mass production of lithium ion hybrid batteries be far behind?  Maybe even mass production of the fast charge Hitachi lithium ion battery?

That paves the way for affordable plugin electric cars that have the range and performance needed to compete with hybrids.

But the final blow to hybrids that use infernal combustion as the main power source is a plugin biofueled generator that substitutes for half the batteries in a plugin electric vehicle so that long trips without stopping to recharge become possible.

A battery pack in the trunk, for instance, that slides out and the biofuel generator slides in.  No more main oil burning power source needed.

You visit your dealership and do the swap out for your vacation trip then swap back when the trip is over.  That would leave maybe 1 in 10 cars actually needing the generator pack at any one time.

People who drive more miles than the plugin system would accomadate without recharge could just leave the generator in place permanently.

Well well, we were right all along.  Somehow this disaster disguised as an administration has taken the joy out of being right.

Mass death over lies tends to do that.

Yes it's true. 

He believes in choice...between semi-auto and full automatic fire for all americans.

He ruled that the federal government has no authority to outlaw the ownership of machine guns.  Back to the roaring 20's you all, neeehaaaawww.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/10/5/15453/7223#2

This sort of system lends itself to local power producers, those with wind, solar, and biofuel resources, teaming up with consumers in electrical cooperatives.

Producers and consumers, many members both producing and consuming owning and controlling local area power grids.

Think of farmers with manure digestors that produce natural gas, running generators to sell power to their neighbors with wind or solar power systems when the wind isn't blowing or the sun is not shining.

This could all fit together, even to the point of members producing ethanol or biodiesel from the waste stream to sell to other coop members.

And lots of small businesses would build and install the systems.

Starting out with small solar or wind systems that only replace a fraction of grid power in the home, reducing energy bills while paying their way in a few years from savings.  As people become more comfortable with small inexpensive systems, they could then add on capacity, until gradually a local area grid supports itself with no outside input.

Given the complete and utter incompetence and corruption of government and big monopoly business, especially when they work fist in glove as this neoconman regime does, locally is the only way this energy revolution will ever get started.

Eventually local coops could pool resources to invest in larger wind, biofuel, and solar projects, replacing the old monopoly companies completely.

Practical problem solving political action on the local level sells itself.  There is where the poltical base lives.

If  local green energy groups helps people convert to solar, wind, and biofuel energy and cut energy bills at the same time, that trumps lofty political principles.

If a political party supports government policy to make a more friendly financial environment for this to happen, votes will surely follow.

And small businesses building and installing the systems with equipment supplied by a revived american manufacturing base will result.  Remember the 90s?  The internet boom funded a pay down of the national debt.

But that boom went bust, only so many people needed the latest greatest internet technology.

This green energy boom is huge, replacing all that ever more expensive oil and natural gas.  It is more than a bubble.  It's a huge wave of prosperity, earth friendly prosperity.

Economic growth from biulding quality rather than consumption and quantity.  Energy conservation and human productivity driving this wave.  Let it roll.

Traffic needs to be routed so that people are not left stranded as freeways become 100 mile long parking lots.

And no more bushco inc. contractors to study the problem, at huge cost to taxpayers and with zero results.  Universities already funded by tax dollars can do the necessary computer modeling based directly on the traffic situation encountered in these recent botched evacuations.

We the people need to demand that our government solves problems, instead of throwing money at crony corporations like bushco inc. has.

By adjusting traffic patterns out onto side roads around stalled vehicles the millions that would need to evacuate our biggest metro areas like NYC would at least have some chance of survival.

In a nuclear fuel rod storage pool disaster, for instance, an area hundreds of miles in diameter downwind from the accident would need to be evacuated very quickly.

There are 68 of these facilities located all around the US, each of which could release 8 to 17 times the radiation of Chernobyl.  Any loss of water in these open pools would cause the flammable zirconium metal in the rods to burn and the residual radiation to spread on the wind.

vacation accomplished!
(reality not allowed)

afterwards, the headlines despaired:
"new orleans engulfed by despair & lawlessness"

conveniently forgotten:
the jim crow law of cause & effect
(blacks "loot" but whites "find")

conveniently forgotten: despair
& lawlessness
 dwelt deep within the delta
long before katrina

battered louisiana
long before shattered levees
 sank the big easy

long before the secretary of state's
 shoe-shopping spree
(poverty not permitted)

shoot to kill is a sugarcoated sleeping pill
to help compassionate conservatives
 rest easier at night

& blaming the victims is fortified balloon bread
 that builds character
 & "makes america stronger for it"

© j7

Great job seven!!!!  Thanks!!  Classes up my blog. 

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=11&content=4353

 On February 15, 2005, Judge Michael Chertoff was sworn in as the second Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Chertoff formerly served as United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

 Before joining the Bush Administration, Chertoff was a Partner in the law firm of Latham & Watkins. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Special Counsel for the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee.

The neorat Chertoff's emergency managment experience.

Let's see, brownie was a disbarred horse judge.  That criminally negligent appointment by the chimp in chief caused how many deaths?  Thousands?

Meanwhile nursing home operators who allegedly caused 34 deaths are now charged with criminal negligence.

When will bushco (o)inc be charged?

How many deaths will Chertoff the whiterwater prosecutor cause meanwhile? 

Isn't homeland security and emergency management important enough to appoint experts?  Chertoff and brownie, rummi, wolfi...and on and on should be ambassadors or something, not in key life or death positions.

Recall Bush for criminally negligent crony appointments.  The buck stops at duuuhbya.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/9/11/124448/953#4

So if New Orleans is ready for a category 5 next time, what if a category 6 shows up?  

With ever increasing weather volatility due to the greenhouse gas effect, in this case a warmer gulf water temperature than normal, disaster planning is not enough.

Reversal of global climate change won't help for a few decades either, even if a crash program were instituted tomorow.  We have to live (and many will die) with this situation.

Storm resistant homes with decentralized power systems built farther back from coastlines is the only longer term solution.  Give the coasts and wetlands back to mother nature.  Thousands of miles of great coastal wilderness and camping areas will result.

Camp out at the beach on vacation instead of building fancy homes.  It's a wonderful way to get in touch with nature and save energy and development.

Less homes built, less energy used, less global climate change greenhouse gases.

Let's talk peak climate change weather volatility for awhile along with peak oil.  The costs from both are economy shattering!

Sooner or later the rest of US will be unable to pay to rebuild the coastal areas ravaged by ever increasingly intense storms.  Federal zoning needs to be instituted.  No rebuilding in coastal flood plains.

Very interesting estimate of GDP loss from Katrina by FAUX news anchors this morn.

Faux talkin' head 1:  " The economic losses from Katrina are estimated to be .05 % of GDP."

Faux talkin' head 2:  "That's a very small amount..."

Faux talkin' head 1:  "...that's more than the loss from 911."

The actual figure quoted in the mass delusional media?  A mere 10 times that figure!?!  Yep.  

The ratings agency (Standard and Poors) predicted Katrina would shave 0.5 per cent off the U.S. real gross domestic product in the third quarter, a significant drop from the 3.3 per cent annual growth recorded in the second quarter.

Whoops, reading are hard.  Poor talkin' heads.

Interview after interview at the scene feature FAUX news reporters cutting off Katrina victims who mention the duuuhbyaist regime in any hegative light with respect to the situation in New Orleans.

5 days with no food or water brought in by relief officialdome, citizens forced to loot to get even water!  In 95+ degree heat!  Armed thugs allowed to rule the city streets and designated shelter areas.  Shooting, raping, beating at will.

Kind of reminds one of the Iraqi invasiion aftermath?

Why weren't police and national guard on site the last few days to provide food and water and restore public safety?

When residents interviewed on FAUX news express any of these frustrations and try to relate them to the buck stopping at the president's locale?  The "reporter" cuts them off! 

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/31/124732/191#1

Good one Umbra!

But seriously, imagine this of you will?

A fossil fuel powerplant emitting all it's air pollution into algae growing solar cogeneration facilities with collectors mounted on the powerplant buildings and smokestacks.

The CO2, mercury, and NOx are removed from the water by the algae.  The algae, with solar energy added, is turned into biofuel, methane for instance, and the mercury is filtered out of the methane digestor.

The methane (poot)is then burned in the powerplant, saving coal combustion, and the CO2 from the methane combustion is sent back through the solar cogeneration facility to make more biofuel.  

The CO2 becomes a part of a closed loop.  And sequestration is acomplished, eureka!  Maybe those green tags could fund some of this activity?

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/31/95831/5608#6

So far no one has pointed this out.  The fact that moving and rebuilding whole cities like New Orleans will cost unimaginable amounts of money, but also the lost business may even surpass that!

How much economic growth is curtailed when whole cities are wiped out?  

No jobs, no money earned, no mortgages payed, no stores shopped at, no factories operating... and so forth.

This is why global climate disaster from fossil fuel combustion will cost 100s of trillions in economic growth over the next century.

Is Manhattan, or any other city, prepared for devestation like New Orleans has experienced?  Of course not!  Even if it were possible to plan for it somehow, would a totally corrupt bottomline, corporatist serving, lobbyist run system like the US has become do that?

Not on your, and millions of your fellow citizens lives.  Just as there is no homeland security, it was a sham to loot the federal treasury,there are not even any  substantial  evacuation plans, much less any recovery plans.

And with completely unregulated insider trading and market manipulation run rampant could gas hit 5 dollars tomorow or next week?  Yep.  

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/25/162752/682#9

I envision renewable energy cooperatives that will also use wind electric towers to supply their customers with wimax wireless broadband.  That can  take care of cable tv, radio, phone, internet...as well as power needs for coop members.

All bundled into one low cost structure.  

Then power consuming coop members will pay power producing coop members who have wind, solar, and biofuel installations..or in the case of internet access, those members paying for landline internet access that take it wireless on their wind towers will be paid by members using the coop's wireless broadband network.

This scheme cuts most of the old line utility monopoly participation right out of the loop.  We still use their powrer lines and internet lines to some extent, but very minimally.  Eventually capital will acumulate in the cooperative utility company and the old utility's lines and powerplants can be bought out lock, stock, and barrel.

Voila!  A local, homegrown  energy re-evolution!

Add in micro-nedia replacement of mass delusional, mass media....and we may even be able to rejuvenate our lost democracy.

Too ambitious?  Hehehey.  It will take plenty of grass roots political power as well, to overcome government regulations favoring old line monopolies.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/25/162752/682#8

Well digging in all those phone (or cable tv) lines does cause a lot of disruption of flora and fauna. And it creates monopolies that control information access.

As far as amount of radiation and bird killing towers, replacing all those extremely powerful analog broadcast towers for radio, tv, cell phones,all the radio dispatch sevices...with extremely low powered wimax systems mounted on existing buildings fed by fiber optics, it's clear which system wins from an environmental standard.

The public air waves are filled to the brim right now with all kinds of powerful junk signals that many of us never bother to receive.  A more selective wireless broadband system would only supply signal on demand.  

For instance,instead of 360 kw of tv signal beamed out over a huge area from each tv station, that signal would be transported digitally on the wireless network, only to those who request it.

I am talking about a new wireless information technology built out on the net and extended using wimax.   It would bring the very latest education, news, entertainment even to the remotest regions.

And reduce the human produced electronmagnetic radiation by magnitudes.  Not to mention, make all those broadcast towers candidates for recycling.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/23/44458/4074#5

There's a commodity futures market for oil that takes bets  'round the world 'round the clock..

Which brings up a conundrum.  What is the REAL price of oil?  Is it measured by the price that consumers pay for fuel?  Where?  In europe, the US, Venezuala, Iraq?

Is it measured in the blood spilled over it's control?

Or in the global climate disaster it's combustion is bringing about? 

Or in the cost of bringing alternative transportation energy economies to life?

How about measuring it in terms of the destruction of the standard of living of families everywhere as energy prices soar?  Homes lost to fuel expenses for heating, electricity, and transportation.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/25/12228/0949#12

I am advocating plugin electric equipment actually, to replace oil powered machinery.

The thing about inexpensive labor from the underdeveloped nations of spaceship earth is that it is being exploited to produce the same old genetically engineered, big agri biz, chem oil toxic,tasteless food.

Because of the long shipment from these countries to the big consumer markets the produce is designed to be picked green and hardly ever really ripens, mainly it rots.

The main advantage of robotic assistance to growers is that real heirloom crops with great taste and nutrition can be grown to peak and harvested and transported quickly, all without the labor costs asociated with selective weeding, watering, feeding, and harvesting.

Crop rotation in strips  and natural pest repellant plants can substitute for chemical toxins.  Hand weeding and mulching, necessary without the use of chemical toxins, can be done quickly and productively with renewable electric powered machines that crawl between the rows.

And organic fertilizer made from waste can substitute for oil based and mined fertilizer

This could create a very interesting partnership, with each fossil plant having corresponding onsite and other grid location solar and wind sites adding energy into a balanced system.

Cleanup and filtration of the liquid effluent from coal power plant smoke scrubbers  could be done with surplus wind and solar power that the electrical grid would normally reject.

A symbiotic system of wind, solar, and fossil generation, with renewable energy used to clean the coal plant pollution.  All CO2 and NO emmissions absorbed by algae.  The algae then turned into biofuel, with mercury and other toxins removed.

It's economically feasible with wind and solar.

And end to most pollution from fossil fuel while still burning it?  Not quite, there's still oil to contend with.  But a step in the right direction!

Children who are disturbed by this warehouse training of cannon fodder and cheap labor for the all hat, no cattle duuuhbyaist regime ranch, are then diagnosed as mentally defective and addicted to speed (ritalin).

Real quality of life, creativity and inspiration amongst and from all to and from each individual human is the cure. Low brain function or simply rebellious boredome?

Even duuuhbya himself is bored by it all. He's just another puppet on a neoconman corporatist string.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/25/12228/0949#9

Basically the difference between organic and chemical farming is in the soil.  Organic has soil with natural micro-organisms producing what the plants need continuously in symbiosis with the whole living system.

This makes for healthier, better tasting, more nutritious vegetables.  It also makes weeds grow very well.  

In chemical farming the crops are designed to be resistant to poisons applied to kill everything (insects and other plants)except the crops themselves.  The soil is dead, nothing but a semi-sterile chemical hydroponic media supplied with nutrients by oil based and mined fertilizers.

These poisons persist in the food,water, and air, atrazine for example lowers  the sperm count of human males living in corn country unable to swim.  The chemical companies response to this?  They are no doubt developing a male birth control pill based on atrazine.

Organic farming relies on human labor to physically separate weeds and bugs from the crops, eschewing the use of poisons and crops designed to resist those poisons.  Food is produced from a natural, oraganic living system.

But that human labor makes organic food inherently more expensive.

The way to reduce labor costs asociated with organic farming?  Machines.  Smart machines taught to do the repetitive labor of planting, weeding, mulching, watering, fertilizing, harvesting...by human gardeners.

my mother, who will outlive me, stands fast

my mother, who will outlive me, stands fast,
shrouded in grief’s fine dust. who can console
my courageous mother? dead hand of the past,
smug with indifference; blind faith extols
babylon’s towering plans, now collapsed.
you anesthetize minds with vitriol,
as spurious power slips from your grasp.
heaven’s forgiveness will not save your soul
from a mother’s rage, a rage whose dolor
dwarfs your noble cause: the future you stole
to satiate your cowardly bipolar
bloodlust for omnipotent control.
lurk behind your narcissist’s walls of glass:
my mother, who outlived me, still stands fast.

http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/displaypoem.asp?AuthorID=24826

(A poem inspired by Cindy Sheehan's remarkable efforts, reprinted here with the author's permission)

Combine this , this , and this ,  ...and we could get to THIS? 

Replacement of all oil imported from the middle east and an end to oil wars.

Oil is a commodity, easily replaced.

Lives of those lost in oil wars are NOT COMMODITIES!  Those loved ones are irreplaceable to their families, friends, and citizens who mourn the loss of lives of US soldiers and middle eastern non-combatants, especially the defenseless women and children.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/23/9347/79719

Well an electric plugin motorcycle of course.

With human power assist...

The problem with bicycles and motorcycles is safety. So a combination with a plugin electric drivetrain plus a generator powered by arms and legs of the rider(s) that encloses them in a kevlar epoxy shell with roll cage would be a nice combination.

And for more carrying space?  An expandable wheel base.  The body telescops out to carry an extra passenger, gear, groceries.

For hay bales or building materials?  A community electric hybrid truck borrowed from your local green energy coop.

Green energy coop?  An institution that uses (and lobbys for more) rules compelling power companies to use net metering in order to pool say 5 coop members that do not have solar and wind power installations with each one that does (that has the capacity to power 6 homes, for instance), in order to use net metering amongst all those coop members to provide them all free power.

How would this be funded?   By selling shares in the coop plus selling green energy credits.  The coop can sell them to the public directly, and in some states like New Jersey sell the pollution credits on the open market like this guy sold them.

The coop members would get low interest loans (from the coop) to install solar and wind at wholesale prices by coop affiliated contractors in return for assigning their pollution credits for sale by the coop.

Then the coop would extend into leasing electric hybrid vehicles to members (on a few hours or days basis) and providing the green power, electricity and biofuel needed to power them.

Coop members who did not have wind, solar, or biofuel installations would pay a lower than usual rate for the coop services in return for membership.  Any profits from the venture would be divided amongst the shareholders to defray power costs for non-generating members, or for generating members to pay down their loans for their equipment.

The number of shares bought by each member could correspond to their power needs.  Thus a single family would need fewer shares than a small business or farm.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003339.html

Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru brand vehicles, announced that it will release the R1e electric minicar by 2010, and that the vehicle will begin roadtests in Japan this year.

Based on the R1 minicar, the R1e uses a lithium-ion battery can be recharged to 90% of capacity in five minutes. The current prototype can be driven 120 kilometers (75 miles) without recharging, but the distance is expected to be expanded to 200 kilometers (124 miles). Fuji Heavy plans to start testing the R1e on public roads this year. The company also unveiled a new capacitor with quadruple the energy density of earlier models. (GCC)

Compare this and other electric car news from Asia with the bushco inc. 21 mpg CAFE standard by 2012.  Is big oil running the US or are the representatives of the best interests of we the people?

No doubt about it, Japanese auto makers will soon flood the US with these electric vehicles manufactured in China and all those US auto worker's jobs and pensions will be gone.

Is that aok with bushco inc. voters?  Apparently so?

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2005/8/15/123928/865#4

Best answer ever Rob!
You rock!  I have been hoping that question could be answered that effectively!