Bureau of Land Management Lifts Ban on New Solar Power Plants
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If you want to get heard in Washington, all you have to do is get enough people to stand up and make a lot of noise on a major issue, and something is going to happen! Case in point: The BLM, the Bureau of Land Management, placed a moratorium just a few days ago for 2 years on any new solar plant startups.
For some background info see our recent post: Coal and Oil are Making Us Sick.
Well, the moratorium was dropped today by the BLM. A salute to all the bloggers who posted on the moratorium and the public outcry that was made for dropping the 2 year moratorium. Check out these two articles:
Government lifts solar project ban on public lands
From the article: Companies planning to build huge solar power plants in the desert will be able to file new applications to use federal lands after the Bureau of Land Management reversed its position on the issue Tuesday. The BLM had imposed a two-year moratorium on new land claims…
WASHINGTON—The government said Wednesday it is calling off a recently announced moratorium on applications to build solar plants on public lands. The Bureau of Land Management made the announcement after public opposition to its original decision, reached at the end of May.
“Coal and Oil are Making Us Sick”, says Senator Harry Reid
Coal and oil makes us sick? Check out Senator Harry Reid on YouTube.
Senator Reid, we hear the talk, but where is the action? Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader heads the “do nothing Congress.”
Senator Reid, why do you give an interview to talk about the U.S. getting off coal and oil and start using renewable energy (Solar), when Congress puts a halt to solar plants for 2 years?
From the New York Times: Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry. Fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”
Much of the 119 million surface acres of federally administered land in the West is ideal for solar energy, particularly in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, where sunlight drenches vast, flat desert tracts.
Did the oil cartel get to Mr. Reid and the “do nothing Congress”?
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
Foreign Investors Buying Major U.S. Properties Using Our Addiction to Oil
Guess who is negotiating to buying the famous Chrysler Building in New York??
Abu Dhabi is trying to buy the Chrysler Building, the latest Big Apple trophy being coveted by oil-rich sovereign wealth funds is the landmark Chrysler Building. Wake up America, our hard earned money purchases gasoline and oil products. The money goes back to the already rich oil countries and they come back here to buy the Chrysler Building and other American real estate. (Read on …)
Approval Rating for Kudzu Ethanol Soars as Floods Cancel Corn Crops
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
Just recently on the Discovery Channel website, there was an article about using kudzu for making ethanol. This article gave another Approval for Kudzu as a Potential Biofuel and could be part of the biofuel solution to making America less dependent on oil. (Read on …)
A Dirty Secret: U.S. Taxpayers footing bill for “Splash and Dash”, Dumping subsidized Biodiesel in Europe
“Men go mad in herds but only come to their senses one by one.” - Charles Mackay, the 19th-century Scottish journalist
Our elite U.S. Congress has a loophole in a bill that is using American taxpayers’ money to help pay for biodiesel being shipped overseas to Europe. Have your heard of the “Splash and Dash” program? The United States was accused of dumping subsidized biodiesel back in October of 2007. (Read on …)
Biodiesel Being Made From Tree Nuts…What You Say?!?
Jatropha curcas, a tree shrub with biodiesel nuts.
Would you believe a new plant (tree) is being used to produce biodiesel to power engines and motors? Have you heard of the Jatropha tree, Jatropha Curcas? Biodiesel from a nut producing tree that will be a sustainable green fuel product. The nuts contain oil and after processing yields a clean biofuel alternative to diesel fuel. The Jatropha tree, native to Mexico and Latin America, has been grown in other countries, such as India and Africa, for fuel and medicine. It produces fruit with oily seeds that can be crushed to make biodiesel. Researchers say the Jatropha plant can produce four times more fuel per acre than soy, and 10 times more than corn. (Read on …)
Spring Flooding Brings Highest Corn Prices Ever
Corn and oil prices keep rising and are having more drastic effects on our lives and killing us in the pocketbook. All other grain crops are being affected but the USDA says that corn ethanol has only affected food prices by 4.0%? I call this fuzzy math. What does this mean for future food costs? We can bet that food prices will continue to rise and will see little price moderation in the months to come. (Read on …)
Kudzu Ethanol Plant Startup in Tennesee, Cows Will Love It
Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) was introduced to the United States twenty-five years before the turn of the twentieth century, and is currently found naturalized throughout the southeastern states 125 years later. It is said that there is not a county in the southern US that lacks kudzu. The deep tap root of the kudzu vine can help hold the soil in place and allows the plant to prosper during dry spells, as opposed to corn, whose growth is dependent on sufficient rain fall and irrigation water. If the ethanol corn growers end up in a summer drought, this could definitely hurt ethanol production. (Read on …)
Cap and Trade Bill: Just Another Tax With Little Results, but at What Price?
Have you been watching the debate this week on the Lieberman/Warner Cap and Trade Bill? A historical moment or just another round of rhetoric from most U.S. Senators who want to be on TV?
This week, one of the biggest heated legislative and lobbying wars of 2008 comes to a head as the Senate takes up a controversial bill to curb climate change by reducing carbon emissions. (Read on …)
The Inconvient Truth about Ethanol Subsidies
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”- Edmund Burke
“Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” - Robert Louis Stevenson
What did you pay for gasoline today? While I was half filling up my gas tank this morning, I noticed a sign on the side of the pump, “This fuel contains 10% ethanol”. I can remember the good old days when we were paying $1.00 per gallon for gasoline. (1997 outside of Atlanta, Ga.). What a difference 11 years can make. (Read on …)
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