Tag Archive | "renewable-fuels"
Biofuels’ bad rap needs do-over
04-20-09 by dugan The biofuel industry was robbed by the California Air Resources Board, says a letter today from scientists at the Sandia National Laboratories. The biofuels industry has been crying foul since the California Air Resources Board put out a study ranking current biofuels as equal to or maybe worse than petroleum in their [...]
Continue reading...Cap and trade. Eek!
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Environmental Protection Agency declaration Friday that greenhouse gases and global warming are a threat requiring action is the enviro equivalent of the teacher announcing a pop quiz on quadratic equations. All of us who have just said Eek! when the phrase "cap and trade" is uttered will have to get serious. The science of [...]
Continue reading...Conoco’s chicken-fat fade-out
Thursday, March 26, 2009
When a major oil company announces a green fuels project, the trumpet is loud. Press releases, media blitz, public officials on site. The death of the project is a slink-away-at-midnight affair. So it is with ConocoPhillips’ deal with Tyson Foods in Arkansas to make biodiesel from waste animal fat—tons of it. Conoco CEO Jim Mulva [...]
Continue reading...Look who’s talking
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
03-25-09 by dugan There’s no doubt that the ethanol industry is in trouble. Credit crunch, ugly recession, and roller-coaster energy prices that spook investors. The Des Moines Register has a good rundown today on cellulosic ethanol startups that can’t get private investors to finance commercial-scale plants. One puzzling thing–a chief problem cited in the story [...]
Continue reading...Loving Exxon and Ben Stein?
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
When I hear that Ben Stein and the chairman of Exxon are both pushing a policy that I like, it scares me to pieces. Last month, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson said in a speech that he favors a carbon tax–a tax levied directly on global warming emissions–over the free-market "cap and trade" system that Europe [...]
Continue reading...Solar power grab in L.A.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
2-18-09 by dugan There’s no organized opposition to a misbegotten and politics-ridden solar power initiative on the March 3 city ballot in Los Angeles–because there’s no money to be made from opposing it, and because potential opponents who might do business with the city are intimidated. But a few well-informed and dedicated citizens trooped up [...]
Continue reading...Bacon-scented tailpipes?
Friday, February 6, 2009
02-06-09 by dugan You know the coffee can full of bacon grease that Grandma used to keep for frying? Or, in parts of the South, to drizzle on bread? Well, yeah, it was tasty but not so good for you, and most people now either put it down the drain (bad) or stick the full [...]
Continue reading...Big solar’s big problems
Thursday, February 5, 2009
02-05-09 Is giant solar as big a boondoggle as Big Oil? One of the best energy reporters I’ve worked with, Craig Rose of San Diego, has a piece in the latest issue of Nation magazine (subscription barrier) that argues in complete and understandable detail why "small solar"–on urban rooftops, near electric substations, along existing power [...]
Continue reading...What’s wrong with carbon credits
Monday, February 2, 2009
Here’s an environmental blog that gets straight to the heart of what’s wrong with existing and planned "cap and trade" schemes to reduce global warming emissions with a free market in so-called "carbon credits." The biggest problem is that governments give away too many free credits, allowing heavy poilluters to buy the credits from other [...]
Continue reading...Exxon & Chevron’s Record Profits
Friday, January 30, 2009
Energy Prices That Deepened Recession Drive Exxon, Chevron to Yearly Profit Records, Says Watchdog Oil Giants Cling to Cash Hoards and Trim Output, Setting Trigger for Next Price Spike Santa Monica, CA — Consumers left deeper in debt by 2008’s record price gyrations for gasoline and heating oil now find that their money landed in [...]
Continue reading...Wheels cut from under transit
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
1-27-09 by dugan Now we know global warming will stick around for 1,000 years, and every extra pound of carbon emitted will make things worse. That report from scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should make it a top priority to cut emissions. So what do we get instead? A report in the [...]
Continue reading...Fusion Soon, Chevy Volt When?
Friday, December 19, 2008
12-19-08 by dugan Dan Neil in the LA Times reports today that he got 52 mpg city/highway in a test drive of the production model of the Ford Fusion hybrid, in comfort. Too bad this improved-battery but still traditional hybrid didn’t come out in the spring, when gasoline prices were heading over $4.00 [...]
Continue reading...Chevron’s relentless greenwash
Friday, November 21, 2008
11-21-08 by dugan We at OilWatchdog have been relentlessly critical of Chevron’s faux-green ad campaigns (here, here, here and here.) I’ve recently heard from reporters who are sniffing around the ubiquitous image ads–the fortune Chevron is spending on the ads is so obviously out of proportion to the size of the piddling green projects the [...]
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Monday, April 20, 2009
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