Green Options

I have too much time on my hands, so I took a gander at the 2009 BP Statistical Review of World Energy to kill time as well as wait to see if I won the bid for an Iraqi oil field. I didn’t.

BP and China National Petroleum beat me and they now have the right to develop Rumaila - the largest Iraqi oil field. The two organizations beat out a bid from Exxon Mobil Corporation and the Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani estimates that the selling of oil rights will garner them more than $1.7 trillion over the next 20 years.

This win shouldn’t be surprising considering 2008 was the first year that developing countries, led by China, consumed more energy than developed countries. It was also noted in BP’s report that industrialized countries reduced their energy consumption by 1.3 percent led by a 2.8 percent decline in energy consumption from the U.S. –the steepest single-year decline since 1982. However the potential benefits of energy reduction were offset by countries who increased their energy consumption. China accounted for nearly three-quarters of the 1.4 percent global consumption increase.

One of the world’s most critically endangered whales, the western gray whale, is being pushed out of its annual feeding area by loud industrial activity from oil and gas exploration by Exxon, BP, and Rosneft, says a panel of top scientists.

“Western gray whale cows with their calves feed near the shore, but the industrial noise resulting from oil and gas development activities is pushing them out of the area.” - Doug Norlen, Pacific Environment

BP originally planned to celebrate its 100th year as a company on April 1st, but when the news went public and protests were planned, the company backed down and has rescheduled to an undetermined date.

“Whenever and wherever BP attempts to hold a party to celebrate its tarnished centenary, we will be there to say ‘Your party’s over!’” said Art Not Oil’s Sam Chase. “BP’s one hundred years have seen a world plundered
and a climate torn asunder.”

The question for businesses used to be “Can we afford to go green?” Now it is ” Can we afford NOT to go green?” The upcoming Greener by Design 2009 conference, to be held May 19-20 in San Francisco will focus on helping industries learn to cut costs, create efficiency, and move towards sustainability through a series of focused hands-on innovation sessions, small-group consultative sessions, and demonstrations of new materials and tools.

Late in the Bush administration, the president lifted an executive order banning offshore drilling. A few months later, facing skyrocketing gas prices, Congress allowed a congressional moratorium, dating back to 1982, to lapse. Offshore drilling has been blatantly polarizing national politics ever since.

On Wednesday, BP anounced a joint venture with Verenium to build the world’s largest cellulosic ethanol facility.  BP’s total investment—now $112.5 million—will be the largest by an oil company in advanced, non-food-based biofuels.

The Florida-based plant would be 25 times larger than Verenium’s existing (and operational) cellulosic ethanol facility in Louisiana, which began operation earlier this month and is expected to produce 60+ million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year when at full capacity. This new, larger facility is schedule to break ground in 2010 and commece operations in 2012.

We live and breathe design 12 hours a day, and are involved with many top designers…The future of green branding is going back to the earth. Nature and the photo-realistic incorporation of real elements are coming in the next year or so to the mainstream.

After a $90 million shot in the arm from oil giant BP back in August, second generation cellulosic ethanol pioneer Verenium has started production of ethanol from non-food sources such as wood chips, grass straw, and trash at their Jennings Louisiana demonstration plant (PDF). This is the first such plant to begin operation in the US.

As most of the first generation corn ethanol world has started to exit stage left in a loud and raucous way, the pioneers of second generation cellulosic ethanol — what I like to call “celluline” — have been quietly conducting dress rehearsals for their grand entrance.

And now the world of cellulosic ethanol has an honest-to-goodness demonstration plant to prove that it works. The plant will produce 1.4 million gallons of ethanol a year. Although it’s not at the commercial scale yet (60+ MGY), this represents a huge leap forward for second generation ethanol, which to this point has been full of promises but lacking on deliverables.

BP, which has attempted to rebrand itself as “Beyond Petroleum” in recent years, was awarded Greenpeace’s first annual Emerald Paintbrush award for their attempts at greenwashed advertising campaigns in 2008.

To no one’s surprise, when two activists showed up to BP’s UK headquarters with green paintbrush in hand, they were quickly escorted out of the building. But this didn’t stop the formally-dressed protesters from announcing the award outside the building.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that, as a result of its enforcement actions, U.S. companies will spend a record-breaking $11.8 billion on pollution control and projects to clean up the environment this year.

BP and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have agreed to establish the Clean Energy Commercialization Center (CECC), a joint venture in Shanghai investing some $73 million to commercialize Chinese clean energy technologies.