Free Dating Site    

The exercise is great! I WALKED to get milk yesterday instead of driving

The larger issue is that using corn as the feedstock isn't the smartest strategy,

Make fuel out of something less valuable ~~ you've done something. like poop!

That's the way I understand it ~~~ don't make it so ~ it's only how I understand it to be. ~ help me out here.

The latest in thefts - used cooking oil

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 21, 2008


SAN FRANCISCO - Afew years ago, drums of used French fry grease were of interest only to a small network of underground biofuel brewers, who would use the slimy oil to power their souped-up antique Mercedes.

Now, restaurants from Berkeley, Calif., to Sedgwick, Kan., are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars to rustlers who refine it into barrels of biofuel in backyard stills.

"It's like a war zone going on right now over grease," said David Levenson, who owns a grease hauling business in the Mission District. "We're seeing more and more people stealing grease because it lets them stay away from the pump, but it's hurting our bottom line."

Levenson, who converted his '83 Mercedes to run on canola oil, collects from 400 restaurants. Last week his pump truck arrived at a dive bar known for its chili-cheese fries to find someone had already helped himself to their barrel of yellow oil.

Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerine and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine. Biodiesel can also be blended with petroleum diesel, and blends of the alternative fuel are now sold at 1,400 gas stations across the country.

But as the price of diesel soars, so, too, does the value of grease. In three years, the price of soybean oil, the main feedstock for biodiesel made in the United States, has tripled. Last week, a gallon of crude soybean oil fetched 66 cents on the open market, according to the National Biodiesel Board.

Those numbers have encouraged biofuel enthusiasts to plunder restaurants' greasy waste, and have even spurred the City of San Francisco to get into the grease-trap cleaning business.

"Restaurants and staff are no longer looking at this material as trash," said Karri Ving, who runs the city's waste cooking oil collection program. "Unless you lock down every trash can, thefts are going to happen."

Drivers for Blue Sky Bio-Fuels, which manufactures bio- diesel for San Francisco's municipal program, often find their 300-gallon Dumpster outside the Oakland Coliseum nearly dry, despite the dozens of concession stands that dump there. Losses there alone have cost $3,700 in forgone oil revenues in the last year, the firm said.

In Kansas, Healy Biodiesel reports thousands of dollars in losses from used cooking oil heists from restaurants near Sedgwick, about 20 miles north of Wichita.

Standard Biodiesel in Seattle started working with police to try to catch fly-by-night home-brewers pilfering up to 30,000 gallons of the oil they collect from restaurants every month.

To manufacture the renewable fuel legally, biodiesel producers must register with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Also, biodiesel consumers must pay the government taxes to help with road upkeep.

http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/wednesday/nation/
ny-usoil215695958may21,0,7627256.story

A biorefinery built to produce 1.4 million gallons of ethanol a year from cellulosic biomass will open tomorrow in Jennings, LA. Built by Verenium, based in Cambridge, MA, the plant will make ethanol from agricultural waste left over from processing sugarcane.

The new Verenium plant is the first demonstration-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. It will be used to try out variations on the company's technology and is designed to run continuously. Verenium wants to demonstrate that it can create ethanol for $2 a gallon, which it hopes will make the fuel competitive with other types of ethanol and gasoline. Next year, the company plans to begin construction on commercial plants that will each produce about 20 to 30 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Until now, technology for converting nonfood feedstocks into ethanol has been limited to the lab and to small-scale pilot plants that can produce thousands of gallons of ethanol a year. Since these don't operate continuously, they don't give an accurate idea of how much it will ultimately cost to produce cellulosic ethanol in a commercial-scale facility.

Almost all ethanol biofuel in the United States is currently made from corn kernels. But the need for cellulosic feedstocks of ethanol has been underscored recently as food prices worldwide have risen sharply, in part because of the use of corn as a source of biofuels. At the same time, the rising cost of corn and gas have begun to make cellulosic ethanol more commercially attractive, says Wallace Tyner, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. A new Renewable Fuels Standard, part of an energy bill that became law late last year, mandates the use of 100 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels by 2010, and 16 billion by 2022.

The solution to high gas prices no one wants — driving 55


By Paul Wenske | Kansas City Star

Jon Zehnder, 54, knows he's a curiosity because, as his bumper sticker says, "I drive 55."

"I like to drive fast, but I'm old enough to remember the energy crisis in the 1970s," said Zehnder, a social worker who lives in Lindsborg, Kan. "And," he added with a laugh, "I’m saving a butt load on gas."

But even in a time of $4-a-gallon gas, the slow lane is lonely these days.

For all the griping about spiking gas prices, there's no clamor for the return of the little-lamented 55 mph speed limit of the '70s and '80s — though most agree it reduces consumption and saves money.

"It's not that people haven't thought of it — just no one is even close to discussing implementing it," said Therese Langer, speaking for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. "It’s not high on anyone's list."

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the cost of driving rises faster above 60 mph — adding nearly 20 cents per gallon for each additional 5 mph. The Alliance to Save Energy, in Washington, estimates that restricting speeds to 55 mph could reduce the use of oil imported from the Persian Gulf by up to 20 percent a day.

Even so, "there doesn't appear to be any eagerness on Capitol Hill to revisit the issue," said Ronnie Kweller of the alliance.

No, indeed. Paul Hesse, a spokesman for the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said his agency willingly would analyze the value of a 55 mph speed limit if asked by a congressman. None has asked.

In truth, the situation today is different, said Mike Right, spokesman for AAA. In the 1970s the crisis turned on shortages caused by the oil embargo and turbulence in Iran. Today, there are no shortages. Instead, Asian demand is causing prices to skyrocket.

"Back in the '70s people were fearful they would get to a strange area, there wouldn't be any gas, and they’d be stranded," Right said. In contrast, today, higher prices seem more an irritant to commuters with busy lifestyles who want to arrive at work or play as fast as their wheels can take them.

"I don’t think the public is ready for those kinds of regulations imposed on their daily lives today," Right said.

In the 1970s, life was slower. There were fewer interstates. In metro areas, people lived closer in, and most didn't care if their cars got only 14 miles to the gallon. After all, gas cost less than 40 cents a gallon.

But then the Arab-Israeli conflict triggered the Arab oil embargo. World crude prices quadrupled (to $12 a barrel). Gas at the pump shot up to 55 cents per gallon — horrors.

When the shortages occurred, the government contributed to the long lines at the pump by reallocating supplies.

"That created a lot of problems," said American Petroleum Institute economist Ron Planting. "It’s very hard for someone in Washington to figure out how much fuel every station in the country needs."

Many Americans recall rationing based on whether a license plate ended in an odd or an even number.

But the most unpopular measure: Congress and President Richard Nixon imposed the 55 mph speed limit and made its adoption in every state a condition for highway funding.

TV ads warned: "Don’t Be Fuelish." But many consumers simply ignored the law. Singer Sammy Hagar had a hit single with "I Can’t Drive 55."

In 1987 and 1988, Congress allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 mph on certain highways. And in 1995 the law was repealed. How much was saved has long been a matter of debate. But the episode raised awareness, at least temporarily.

Congress pressed automakers to increase fuel efficiency, and the average mileage nearly doubled, to 27.5 miles a gallon by 1987. Automakers also began to experiment with hybrids.

Even so, Americans fell in love with sport utility vehicles and big trucks — and fuel efficiency took a back seat again.

Howard****nson, a spokesman for Kansas Highway Patrol Troop A in Olathe, Kan., outside Kansas City, said troopers have not seen a whit of change in how fast people drive — nor in the number of tickets handed out.

"There’s no slow up there,"****nson said, laughing.

"When cars started getting better gas mileage, we just built bigger cars," he said, adding, "People are still in a hurry — but the only reason they'd slow down again is if we lowered the speed limit again."

But if that's going to happen, it appears it will happen only voluntarily. Some strides are already being made.

Earlier this month trucking giant Schneider National Inc. capped its drivers at 60 mph, saving an estimated 3.8 million gallons of diesel fuel a year.

The American Trucking Association has called on other members to do the same.

\ Recently a broad mix of business and consumer groups launched the Drive Smarter Challenge campaign, urging Americans to adopt more efficient driving habits. The diverse membership includes the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Exxon Mobil Corp., the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Their Web site, www.drivesmarterchallenge.org, helps estimate the annual savings of using fuel-efficient practices.

"pI'm not sure whether most people make the connection between how fast they drive and how much fuel they use," said Deron Lovaas, the group’s vehicle director.

One person making that connection is Tim Castleman, of Sacramento, Calif., who in 2002 started www.drive55.org, a Web site devoted specifically to the merits of slowing down. At first the site got only a trickle of curious visitors. Since the surge in gas prices, page hits have soared to more than 1,000 a day. Castleman said some visitors send him hateful e-mail. But others post favorable responses or buy a pro-55 bumper sticker.

"I think we all have memories of when the speed limit was 55," said the retired heating and air-conditioning contractor. "Some hated it then, and they hate it now.

"What we’re trying to do," Castleman said, "is avoid mandates and get a voluntary victory garden thing going. We’re all concerned about what’s happening at the pump."

Do you not think they would be able to provide some sort of political pressure on governments to wise up?

Your politicians exploit you all
We here in Canada should NOT have to cow tow to you America because of YOUR gross over consumption of OUR natural resource.