New Energy Watch tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-534373 2010-03-01T19:16:24-05:00 Energy independence, national security, climate support, and economic recovery are all parts of the same challenge. Let's pull together on this. TypePad Maersk Line and the World Shipping Council's Vessel Efficiency System tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c394953ef0120a8e8abbd970b 2010-03-01T19:16:24-05:00 2010-03-01T19:11:58-05:00 Slowing the transport speed of an 800-foot container ship from, say, 16 knots to 12 knots, serves two purposes. It saves money for the shipping company and the client, and it reduces carbon pollution by a significant amount. Here are two sources of information on the topic: World Shipping Council... Doug Logan

Slowing the transport speed of an 800-foot container ship from, say, 16 knots to 12 knots, serves two purposes. It saves money for the shipping company and the client, and it reduces carbon pollution by a significant amount. Here are two sources of information on the topic: 

World Shipping Council Proposes global Vessel Efficiency System to reduce carbon emissions. (Maersk Line) 

and

Slow Trip Across Sea Aids Profit and Environment  (New York Times) 

The same is true for vehicles on the highway. If we want to get serious about reducing demand for OPEC oil, the impact on the environment, and the impact on our wallets, we should consider slowing down a bit. It won't hurt anyone, and the benefits are immediate, tangible, and uncomplicated.

 Cap and Trade or Carbon Tax? How About Both? tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c394953ef01287623f452970c 2010-03-01T18:30:45-05:00 2010-03-01T18:30:45-05:00 If enacted, cap and trade proposals to reduce carbon emissions will be, at best, difficult to regulate and enforce, and slow to take effect. At worst they are decent ideas that have been cynically co-opted and cleverly filled with loopholes and boondoggles by lobbyists to benefit their high-polluting clients and... Doug Logan

If enacted, cap and trade proposals to reduce carbon emissions will be, at best, difficult to regulate and enforce, and slow to take effect. At worst they are decent ideas that have been cynically co-opted and cleverly filled with loopholes and boondoggles by lobbyists to benefit their high-polluting clients and the financial giants behind them.

Even if cap and trade were legislated perfectly and followed honestly, it's a complicated a way to reduce demand for fossil fuels quickly. A simpler, better way would be the "fee and dividend" alternative explained by James Hansen in the New York Times. Hansen is head of the NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a controversial figure. As a climate scientist he first raised the alarm about global warming more than 20 years ago; as an activist he has been outspoken in his opposition to the vested industrial, financial, and political interests resisting calls for climate-change mitigation. He has been arrested for his efforts to disrupt coal mining, and has to some extent alienated himself from entrenched interests across the board -- both political parties, some environmental organizations who don't like a bull in their china shops, and of course the fossil-fuel industries and their backers.

But if we can't decide between cap-and-trade and a carbon tax, which even Lindsey Graham thinks is the solution, here's an idea -- let's do both.

 Doctors Without Borders tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c394953ef0120a7d36587970b 2010-01-14T13:11:40-05:00 2010-01-14T13:11:40-05:00 Doug Logan <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=197&hbc=1&source=ADQ1001E1D01"><img src="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/images/donate/haiti-earthquake-160.png" width="160" height="200" border="none" alt="Support Doctors Without Borders in Haiti" /></a></div> Megatons to Megawatts tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c394953ef01287570424e970c 2009-11-10T12:47:47-05:00 2009-11-10T12:47:47-05:00 About 10 percent of America's electricity now comes from recycled nuclear warheads, many of them from the former Soviet Union. In fact about 45 percent of the fuel used in American reactors comes from Soviet warheads, as opposed to about 6 percent from American weapons. The New York Times says... Doug Logan

Megatonstomegawatts About 10 percent of America's electricity now comes from recycled nuclear warheads, many of them from the former Soviet Union. In fact about 45 percent of the fuel used in American reactors comes from Soviet warheads, as opposed to about 6 percent from American weapons. The New York Times says that utility companies haven't said much about this Megatons to Megawatts program, which has been in existence for years, because they fear upsetting their customers.

Why would this upset people at even a fraction of the level they were, or should have been, when the warheads were warheads, pointed at them in earnest? This is a brilliant use of dangerous materials, a true swords-to-plowshares operation.

According to USEC, the company that does the processing, "The Megatons to Megawatts™ Program is a unique, commercially financed government-industry partnership in which bomb-grade uranium from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads is being recycled into low enriched uranium (LEU) used to produce fuel for American nuclear power plants.  USEC, as executive agent for the U.S. government, and Techsnabexport (TENEX), acting for the Russian government, implement this 20-year, $8 billion program at no cost to taxpayers."

So far, the program has processed and recycled fuel from the equivalent of 15,000 nuclear warheads.

The current US effort to dilute and recycle weapons-grade uranium into reactor fuel is small compared to Megatons to Megawatts, but there will soon be a plutonium recycling plant in South Carolina that, according to the Times, will produce enough reactor fuel to power a million homes for 50 years.

~~~~~~~~~~

Doug Logan

 Saltworks Technologies' Low-Power Desalination tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c394953ef0120a64f412e970b 2009-11-03T11:41:47-05:00 2010-03-02T09:21:58-05:00 The World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse met in Dubai last November. One of the most promising innovations showcased there is called Thermo-Ionic™ desalination, invented by the principals at Saltworks Technologies in Vancouver. The advantage of the system is that it requires far less energy to remove salt from... Doug Logan

Saltworkslogo The World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse met in Dubai last November. One of the most promising innovations showcased there is called Thermo-Ionic™ desalination, invented by the principals at Saltworks Technologies in Vancouver.

The advantage of the system is that it requires far less energy to remove salt from water than other desalinating methods like reverse-osmosis or heating-evaporating-condensing.    

The Thermo-ionic process uses energy produced by low-temperature heat and dryness in the ambient atmosphere to separate the positively charged sodium ions from the negatively charged chloride ions in salt to produce a pure-water stream. It actually works best in arid desert areas -- right where water is most needed.

-- Doug Logan