4 years have past since our class

Have we passed peak oil?
how do we see the next ten, twenty, thirty years looking....

The US Legislative History of Ethanol Fuel

For my energy and society, I did my presentation on the laws that have been passed to encourage ethanol fuel use. I plan to add to this post if I find any intersting articles. If anyone finds anything cool, feel free to post as well! Here are the graphs I used in my presentation.

Brazil vs. America Ethanol Production
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

US Ethanol Production
http://people.moreheadstate.edu/students/rabloo02/images/Ethanol%20Graph.png

Yucca Mountain

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jun/01/yucca-license-application-next-round-20-year-battl/

This is a really interesting article about the progress (or lack thereof) of storing spent fuel at Yucca Mountain.

As of now, there is an application being presented to the government in order to proceed with the plans for storing nuclear waste in this mountain.

This article deals with what Barack, Clinton and McCain would do about this issue if they were president. Both Barack and Clinton would deny this application, and more specifically, Clinton's spokesperson said that Clinton would cut funding. McCain on the other hand is for this nuclear waste site, but he "still hopes waste could one day be sent overseas." The issue with nuclear waste is that it is radioactive and many people here in the United States are against storing it at Yucca Mountain because they are afraid of the radioactive effects on the population. However, I personally do not think the answer is to send it overseas so it can harm other people.

Here are some questions to consider:

- Is storing the nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain a good or bad idea?
- What do you think about McCain's desire to send our nuclear waste elsewhere?
- If you lived in Nevada, near Yucca Mountain, would you feel differently about this issue or would you have the same opinion no matter where you lived?

Local Foods And CSA's

For local CSA locations in NYC- http://justfood.org/csa/locations/

For the Red Hook Community Farm - www.added-value.org

NYC farmers markets- Greenmarkets- http://www.cenyc.org/greenmarket
map of locations- http://www.cenyc.org/files/gmkt/map.pdf

For organic farms across the Northeast- www.nofa.org

Greensburg

On the Discovery Channel, there is this new show called Greensburg.

Here is the little caption it gives on the Discovery Channel website:
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=1.15366.123163.35449.1

On May 4, 2007, the small town of Greensburg, Kansas, was annihilated by an F5 tornado. With a clean slate the town decides to rebuild the entire community energy efficient and as green as possible. But not everyone is sold on the idea.

The show airs on June 13th at 8:00 pm and again Junie 14th at 12:00 am.

I know it's kind of in a long time, but I think we should all try to watch it somehow, or at least read about what the show is about.

Movie- May 30- Energy Crossroads

Friday, May 30th, 7pm

Movie: “Energy Crossroads,” Future Visions movie and discussion series

Where:6th Street Community Center638 East 6th Street, Manhattan(between Avenues B and C)suggested donation $5

This 54-minute award-winning documentary exposes the problems associated with our energy consumption. It also offers concrete solutions for those who want to educate themselves and be part of the solutions in this decisive era. The film features passionate individuals, entrepreneurs, experts and scientists at the forefront of their field bringing legitimacy and expertise to the core message of the piece. www.energyxroads.com/about.html

[From Sierra Club NYC Group http://www.nyc.sierraclub.org/ ]

This is a great film and I highly recommend seeing it.- m adams

Time Magazine- Corn for people vs corn for SUV fill up

In April Time Magazine ran an article that made the claim that the corn required to feed a person for a year equals the corn needed to fill an SUV.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975,00.html

This dos not seem to be accurate at all.

Figuring output of 150 bushels/ year for corn/ acre and 22,204 calories/ bushel means an acre of corm produces 3,33 million calories, feeding 3.6 people for a year at 2,500 calories a day.

Food- 1 person needs 0.27 acres to get teh necessary calories from corn.

Using the same output of 150 bushels, ethanol output in gallons per acre are abot 354 gallons/ acre/ per year. www.gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/2/7/12145/81957

Figuring a 20 gallon fill up, we get 18 fillups from an acre each year.
Figuring a 30 gallon fill up, we get 12 fillups from an acre each year.

Fuel- 1 fillup needs 0.05 acres (20 gallons) or 0.83 acres(30 gallons)

This seems to be not even close to what time reports. 0.08 does not equal 0.27. That is a factor or 350% error.

Whay would Time Magazine be so inaccurate?

World Oil- National Geographic- June 2008

The media is shifting. National Geographic published this article this month.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/06/world-oil/roberts-text

They do not directly state there is a crisis but indicate that "A peak or plateau in oil production will also mean that, with rising population, the amount of gasoline, kerosene, and diesel available for each person on the planet may be significantly less than it is today. And if that's bad news for energy-intensive economies, such as the United States, it could be disastrous for the developing world, which relies on petroleum fuels not just for transport but also for cooking, lighting, and irrigation."

The Myth of Thanksgiving

Mike Ely wrote an intersting essay regarding what became known as Thanksgiving.

It can be viewed here:
http://rwor.org/a/firstvol/883/thank.htm

Article: "Why Gas in the U.S. Is So Cheap?"

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/104996/Why-Gas-in-the-U.S.-Is-So-Cheap

This article is very interesting, it is worth taking a look at.

This table is especially interesting. Many people in the United States are freaking out about how expensive gas costs. The fact that we are in 111th place and we think $3.45 is a big deal just shows our luxurious standard of living. We are used to buying things so cheap that we aren't really aware of how much the things we buy are actually worth. I heard that McCain and Hillary are thinking of having a"gas tax holiday" from Memorial day to Labor day where they won't tax gas for a short term relief

(http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/05/02/analysis_gasoline_policy_blues/1776/).

I am very opposed to this idea. How can Hillary speak to the citizens of the United States and say that we need to become less dependent on oil by moving towards cleaner, renewable sources, and then make it easier for people to use oil? Rising gas prices is a chance to step in and say, this isn't going to stop, so lets put more money towards other resources. This Summer plan was described to be a short term relief. This is exactly our problem, this whole short term thing. Sometimes it is more beneficial to do what's better for you in the long run than to do what is better for you in the short run.

Table:

Bogged Down
Most expensive places to buy gas
Rank	Country	Price/gal
1.	Bosnia-Herzegovina	$10.86
2.	Eritrea	$9.58
3.	Norway	$8.73
4.	United Kingdom	$8.38
5.	Netherlands	$8.37
6.	Monaco	$8.31
7.	Iceland	$8.28
8.	Belgium	$8.22
9.	France	$8.07
10.	Germany	$7.86
111.	United States	$3.45
Source: AIRINC