Posted by Neil Katz

A car that gets 100 miles per gallon and recharges its trunk full of batteries via a standard electric outlet sounds pretty good to most eco-beaters. One would think the electric companies would be even more excited, just drooling at the chance to power up America’s 270 million cars.

But a Wall Street Journal (registration required) article today says there is an equal amount of fear and lust. In a perfect world, plug-in hybrid owners would recharge their cars at night, helping power companies stabilize the grid and sucking down energy when it’s cheapest. But real world and perfect world might not be friends. They may not even know each other.

If laptop computers are any example, people will charge their cars whenever they can, in fear that they will run out of juice later. That could put enormous strain on the power system, forcing utilities to purchase expensive electricity when demand is highest or even build new power plants, probably coal. Some power companies also fear being hit with new carbon taxes. They might seek tax relief for extra carbon created from powering the plug-ins.

One answer to all this mess… smart meters that charge one price for juicing during the day and a much cheaper rate at night. California utilities expect to have smart meters statewide by 2012. Michigan is also looking into it.

If done right, smart meters could provide efficiency well beyond plug-ins. Homeowners could tell their smart devices to only charge up when the price was right, meanly mostly at night. And air conditioners now running 24/7 might not run at all.

Of course there could be political backlash as well. Poor people might not be able to afford higher prices for air conditioning during the day. The elderly and disabled, who often stay home, could be hit hardest.

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: Genetically modified future? A New Zealand billboard against GM food.

After global food riots and two new studies predicting that more carbon will be released from growing corn-based ethanol than is saved from burning it, it’s clear that turning food into fuel is a bad idea. That’s why so much attention has turned to cellulosic ethanol - in essence using plants no one wants or parts of plants that will be thrown away. A new wave of companies is investing millions in the core science, hoping to cash in on a cleaner ethanol 2.0.

But Eco-Beat was conflicted to learn that one of those companies is every environmentalist’s best friend… Monsanto. For those unfamiliar, Monsanto has made a fortune on genetically engineered crops. 91 percent of American soy is now grown with their genetically modified seeds. Last year that put $8.5 billion into the company’s piggy bank, five times what they were making just five years ago.

For many, Monsanto’s role as the preeminent GM seed broker is enough to cast the company as Dr. Evil. Eco-beat doesn’t take issue with genetically modified food in principle, but has deep distaste for Monsanto’s aggressive practices: manipulating the FDA to pass their products without proper review, suing farmers whose crops become infected with the company’s seeds, pushing GM products onto developing world farmers who may not be able to afford them and advertising their crops which use less pesticide, while primarily selling crops engineered to handle a five time increase in pesticide load.

So it’s with great trepidation we learn that Monsanto has teamed up with Mendel Biotechnology to develop genetically engineered plants that will be easy to break down into high energy ethanol. We hope it works, but the hairs on the back our necks went up.

It’s years away, but if their ethanol takes off, will we be pushing out big oil to make room for big biofuel?

Posted by Neil Katz

Graphic: Christian Science Monitor / Data: National Park Conversation Association

The EPA wants to change the rules for measuring clean air, opening the door for coal fired power plants to spring up next to some of the nation’s most pristine national parks, including Utah’s Zion Park.

At least 10 national parks are under immediate peril, with plans to build two dozen coal-fired power plants upwind. Under the previous rules, those plants would not make it off the drawing board. Overall, 156 national parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas could be affected by what the EPA calls “refinements” to air quality rules.

What exactly are those refinements?
Here’s a hit list from the Christian Science Monitor.

•Substitute an annual average of emissions for the current “maximum” emissions that is measured over a few hours, up to a single day.

•Exclude from pollution estimates output from existing industrial emitters that have been granted variances.

•Switch from calculating emissions using the two most recent years of data to any time period “more representative” of normal operations.

•Grant discretion to state regulators to use whatever data and information in their judgment would be most reliable in calculating emissions.

Regional EPA staffers were mortified by these wonderful improvements. An internal memo argues the proposal provides “the lowest possible degree of protection” against spikes in pollution.

The changes could take effect by year’s end.

Sources:

Mark Clayton at the Christian Science Monitor

Grist

National Parks Association: More Detailed List of Changes

For Policy Wonks: The EPA’s original proposed changes

Posted by Neil Katz

Putting solar panels on your house may seem like a high tech enterprise but much of the cost and hassle has to do with old world problems: surveying your roof for sunlight, trucking panels to your location and physically installing them.

One new company, Sungevity, is trying to tackle the first part of the problem. Their software uses satellite images from Microsoft Earth to help consumers calculate how much sun their home will get and how much electricity they can save by installing panels.

It’s a simple idea but can make it much easier for consumers to get into the solar game. For now, it’s only available in California.

Links:

Sungevity

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: Baby harp seal in Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. (Reuters / Paul Darrow)

According to Reuters the EU’s environment chief is set to propose an import ban on sealing products produced through animal suffering. The definition of suffering will be a hot spot. Activists show videos of baby seals being skinned alive. Sealing advocates will march out veterinarian-backed studies claiming the current cull is humane.

The bad would be a heavy blow to Canada, where the annual seal hunt, expected to cull nearly 300,000 seals, is under way.

Currently, Canadian seals are killed either by a gunshot to the head or by repeated blows with a long wooden bat with a hook on one end called a hakipak. Yesterday, two Canadian premiers, including one who was part of the delegation sent to deter the EU ban, called for banning the hakipak in order to improve the image of the hunt.

But banning the hakipak brings its own dangers. Sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence work in close quarters and run quickly across shifting ice packs, an unstable environment for gunfire.

And it’s hard to see how Canada could make images like this look any better.

Photo: Hunters drag seals across ice flows in Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada (Reuters) 

Links:

Reuters: EU to Propose Ban on Import of Seal Products 

Humane Society 

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: Purdue University’s solar car gets 2,861.8 mpg. (Courtesy Purdue University)

We realize eco-beat coverage lately has been a bit dour.  Food riots and seal hunting don’t exactly inspire, but the winners and even the losers of this years eco-marathon definitely do.  The contest prods college and high school science teams to design and build an eco-car that uses the least fuel to achieve the farthest distance.

Purdue University took this year’s mile per gallon prize with a solar entry that reaches 2,861.8 MPG.  Amazingly the competition’s grand prize winner was a  high school science team from Evansville, Indiana.  Their clear, combustion engine, one-seater reached 2,843.4 MPG.

The Shell sponsored contest awarded $10,000 to the boys from Mater Dei High School.  That’s good pocket change for the prom.

Links:

CNET:  Teen Driving Team Races to 2,843 MPG

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: Aftermath of Haitian food riots in Port-au-Prince. (Reuters)

Despite food riots in Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan and elsewhere, farmers are producing more food than ever. But according to a new World Bank report almost all of the increase in at least one vital crop, corn, isn’t going into hungry bellies. It’s going into American cars, in the form of ethanol.

And the consequences are dire. The report warns that a further surge in global food prices could push 100 million people into deeper poverty. Last week’s Time.com asks whether mass hunger could topple some of the world’s more rickety governments. Yesterday, the Haitian prime minster stepped down in response to food riots there.

In 2007, one quarter of America’s corn production was turned into biofuel. And last year’s energy bill calls for doubling production by 2015. To understand scale here, America provices 11 percent of the world’s corn, but more than 60 percent of corn exports. That means many countries rely on American corn to make up for what they cannot grow at home.

To be clear, there are other issues pushing food prices through the roof, namely bad weather, expensive fertilizer, and a swelling Chinese middle class. But honest environmentalists must admit the law of unintended consequences has turned a seemingly good idea, bad.

Links:

Cleantech: World Food Prices Hit by Biofuels

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: Canadian Mounties Storm the Farley Mowat (Reuters)

The Canadian mounties were busy this weekend.

On Friday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, armed mounties stormed an anti-sealing vessel run by radical environmental group, Sea Shepherd. After arresting the six of the seventeen crew, including the captain and co-pilot, the mounties towed the Farley Mowat to port.

Sea Shepherd’s leader, Paul Watson, called it an “act of war” since the ship was in international waters. Canadian Fishing Minister, Loyola Hearn, called the group “money sucking manipulators.” (video)

As of this morning, five of the six arrested crew members have been released on bail. American crew member, Greg Hagger, remains in custody without charges.

Charges have been brought however against the the Farley Mowat’s captain, Alexander Cornelissen, and first officer Peter Hammarstedt for failing to comply with warnings to leave the area.

If convicted, the maximum penalty is six months in jail and a $100,000 fine.

But the legality of the arrests are in question. Sea Shepherd maintains that they were in international waters and were dragged into Canada by gunpoint.

“By arresting us - a European-registered vessel, a European crew - in this way, that pretty much ensures the bill banning seal products in Europe will be passed,” said Watson, who was listening to the raid over ship radio from New York. “They did exactly what we thought they might do, but I didn’t think would be stupid enough to do.”

The Farley Mowat has been mixing it up with Canadian authorities and sealers since they moved into the area two weeks ago to protest the annual seal hunt, which will claim the lives of over 250,000 baby seals. On March 30, sealers claimed their lives were endangered when the Farley Mowat drew close to them, cracking the ice beneath their feet. A day later the Mowat and a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker collided. The anti-sealers say they were rammed twice by the much larger Coast Guard vessel. The Coast Guard called the incident a ‘grazing.’

Links:

Sea Shepherd 

Canadian Coast Guard 

Posted by Neil Katz

Photo: The gift of biofuels? Haitians riot over food prices in Port-au-Prince. (Ariana Cubillos, AP)

Food protests, sometimes violent, have broken out in Haiti, Pakistan, Mexico, Indonesia and Egypt. Are we greenies to blame?

In Haiti’s capital rioters torched cars and tried to storm the presidential palace yesterday. Last week a similar riot left five dead. Over the last year angry protests, sometimes violent, have sparked up in Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Camaroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique, and Senegal. The topic on everyone’s mind…the high price of food, up 40% globally since 2007.

Bad weather and rising demand from increasingly affluent bellies in India and China are part of the problem. But our mad dash for biofuels is proving to be just as serious.

It hurts to admit, but biofuels, especially the American favorite made form corn, might be a cure for global warming that is worse than the disease.

Producing corn-based ethanol takes as much energy as it produces and harvesting almost any kind of ethanol sets of a chain reaction that can end with burning down carbon rich rain forest, releasing carbon that would take decades to recover from biofuels. In the end we might be taking food from starving bellies while making global warming worse.

Last summer, a UN-backed report warned of increasing unrest from surging food prices caused, in part, by biofuels.

We wrote about America’s $36 billion biofuel boondoggle in February. This week Newsweek (Let’s Ditch Ethanol) and Time (The Clean Energy Scam) both vote for giving ethanol the boot.

But what to replace it with?
Links:

Newsweek: Let’s Ditch Ethanol

Time: The Clean Energy Scam

USA Today: Haitian Riot over Food Prices

Reuters Video: Rising Food Prices Hit W. Africa

UN-Backed Report on Surging Food Prices

Posted by Neil Katz

Roughneck environmentalists aboard the anti-sealing vessel, Farley Mowat, say a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker rammed them twice.

The Canadian Coast Guard claims the two ships grazed each other and the Mowat was the instigator.

Well here’s the video. You be the judge.

Courtesy: Sea Shepherd