H09280
Headlines : EnvironmentWarts and Ethanol
So the suits and ties are finding ways to cash in on ethanol. Never mind if they create huge pollution with coal-fired plants to convert the yellow corn into green fuel ~ congress members from corn and coal producing states are making a big push to relax pollution regs on ethanol plants. And of course, factory agriculture uses lots of fossil fuel to grow, harvest and process all that corn. Not to mention the genetic modification and fertilizer and insecticides and “weed” killers that attack most anything that grows. “Give ‘em paradise and they….”
[Posted By gazoobi]Republished from Grist Magazine
As ethanol boosterism spreads far and wide — from Bush’s bully pulpit to the New York Times linktext editorial page to green-group press releases — a quietly emerging trend is threatening to undermine the biofuel’s environmental credibility.
More and more ethanol manufacturers are looking to power their plants with cheap coal instead of its cleaner and increasingly expensive competitor, natural gas, thereby potentially limiting ethanol’s environmental benefits. And the Bush administration is doing its part to accelerate this trend. Under pressure from a group of senators and representatives from corn- and coal-producing states, the U.S. EPA is considering a rule change under the Clean Air Act that would relax pollution regulations on ethanol plants, clearing the way for them to burn coal with fewer restraints.
While only four of roughly 100 ethanol plants currently operating in the U.S. are powered by coal (practically all of the rest are fueled by natural gas), some 190 more are under construction or soon to be built. One energy analyst, Robert McIlvaine, president of the Illinois-based research group McIlvaine Company, predicts that “100 percent” of new ethanol plants built in the U.S. over the next few years will be coal-fired, “largely because of…
Posted by gazoobi
Old native man, formerly SDS, retired teacher, writer, puget sound sailor, sometime musician. Currently considering whether to leave for Latin America or stay and resist, or leap out of the window or go bowling and have a couple beers. Some folks wonder...
Fossil fuel-dependent biofuel production is not renewable energy. Radical consumption changes and urban transformation are unavoidable, we’re just not going to have an energy-production miracle to ease us out of fossil fuel addiction. But I wonder if it’s good sense to run together supply problems and pollution problems when raising awareness of the fossil fuel crisis. Because supply can be stretched, or juggled to make sure the elites continue to get their fix for the short term, so when you talk about pollution and supply you’re conflating two different interest groups in your audience and wealthy liberal americans will get confused about which one they belong to (those who care about pollution impacts for future generations and the world’s poor, or those who care about energy costs’ impacts on their own pocketbooks). The ethanol trojan horse appeals to that sense of confusion.
On a brighter note, Germany is moving forward with the world’s first GHG-free coal fired plant. Doesn’t address extraction pollution, but it’s a slap in the face to American ‘clean coal’ apologists, showing just how clean coal could be if the available technology is put to use. Though it’s much less efficient, so that has to be balanced against the increased extraction needed to provide the same amount of power.
NNN gets this from Xinhua
“Germany broke ground Monday for the world’s first coal-fired power plant which will emit no greenhouse gases.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the Swedish energy giant Vattenfall inaugurated the construction site for the plant, scheduled to go into operation in 2008. Vattenfall has invested 50 million euros (about USD63 million) in the facility, located near the border between the eastern German states of Brandenburg and Saxony, according to the German radio Deutsche Welle.
Vattenfall CEO Lars Joseffson hopes to write “coal history,” the report said. “This investment in a new technology should pave the way and be a model of high-tech power generation on the basis of coal,” he said. The plant will process coal through Oxyfuel to produce electricity, but resulting in clean smoke separated from the carbon dioxide.
However, efficiency suffers during the process, which makes 35 per cent of the coal become electricity, compared to 45 per cent by traditional coal plants.”