Al Gore’s Call for 100% Renewable Energy Within 10 Years
Editor’s Note: This is Anthony’s first post as a contributor to Gas 2.0. Anthony works on sugar-based biofuels at the Raines Lab of Petroleum Alternatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I have a lot of admiration for Al Gore. I was in the 7th grade when he lost his bid for the presidency, and even then I could feel that something awful was upon us. Fast forward eight years and we find ourselves in a world where Al Gore is running a campaign to help mankind in a much more focused manner. Instead of defecting to the private sector, Gore remains a public servant dedicated to the environment. Recently, he called for the United States to lead the way to stop global warming, and now he is calling for the United States to be off of carbon based fuels by the year 2018.
Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) has introduced legislation to establish a feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy. Feed-in tariffs have made Germany a solar powerhouse that employs 40,000 people in the solar industry alone, and an estimated 140,000 jobs in renewable energy. FITs have not been a topic of discussion in this country, but now that is sure to change, as the conversation shifts to ways to finance the growth of renewable energy. Renewable Energy World reports that:
“Inslee’s legislation would require utilities — at the request of any new renewable energy facility owner — to enter into a 20-year fixed-rate power purchase agreement. Uniform national “renewable energy payment” rates would be set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at levels that would provide a 10% internal rate of return on investment for available commercialized technologies in regions constituting the top 30th percentile of renewable energy resource potential in the U.S..”
In plain English, this means that if you install solar PV panels on your home, the utility has to buy the electricity you generate at a higher rate than retail, guaranteeing you a return on your investment. Extending this power purchase agreement for 20 years gives everyone — especially those who want to invest in renewables or start a small business installing solar panels — assurance of return on their investment.
A few weeks ago I posted over at Non-Toxic Kids about the new Kid-Safe Chemical Act. This promising legislation would update a 30 year old law that has allowed thousands of chemicals to be used in countless everyday products from baby lotions, shampoos, cosmetics and toothpastes with no research or testing of their safety.
The Environmental Working Group listed these important provisions for the bill, all aimed at making products safer for our kids.
The Kid-Safe Chemicals Act:
Editor’s note: This post is a lead-in story to the Gas 2.0 interview with Mil Ovan, Senior Vice President and Co-founder of Firefly Energy.
Last week John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee for the 2008 Republican ticket, suggested that a $300 million government-sponsored competition would be a good way to spur development of next generation battery technologies.
His comments generated debate in the blogosphere and around the United States. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic ticket, called McCain’s proposal a gimmick suggesting that $300 million was not enough.
Regardless of my feelings about the proposed competition or the candidates themselves, it got me thinking about just who might win it if it were to become a reality. All that thinking led to this post, and, hopefully, to several others that will look at the most promising next generation battery technologies on the horizon.
This week I’ll start with Firefly Energy.
Editor’s note: This interview is a companion piece to Part I of the Gas 2.0 series about who might win John McCain’s proposed $300 million dollar battery competition if it were to become reality.
Last week John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee for the 2008 Republican ticket, generated debate by suggesting that a $300 million government- sponsored competition would be a good way to spur development of next generation battery technologies.
His comments got me thinking about just who might win such a competition it if it were to become reality.
Firefly Energy is one of the companies that made it to my short list. Founded in 2003, they have been working on reinvigorating old-hat lead-acid battery technology in such a way that it would become brand new and cutting edge once again.
Firefly’s innovation is that they’ve taken the heavy lead plates you’d find in a classic lead-acid battery and replaced them with a light carbon-graphite microcell foam that’s been impregnated with lead.
I recently had a chance chat with Mil Ovan, Senior Vice President and Co-founder of Firefly, about the company, their take on McCain’s competition, Firefly’s battery technology, environmental worries about lead, the Oasis battery, electric vehicles and the company’s plans for the future.
The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco will ask voters to change the name of a sewage treatment plant on the coast to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. The New York Times explains:
Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital (and a state, too). But President Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial
[...]
Editor’s Note: Today we are happy to bring to you a guest post from Sean Casten, CEO and President of Recycled Energy Development.
Americans have a habit of framing our scientific history as a series of Great Inventors, from Eli Whitney to Thomas Edison to Afrika Bambaataa. The history books say each was prodded by Adam Smith’s invisible hand to come up with the great technological advances that have made our country a home of innovation.
There’s a problem with this mythology: sometimes there’s no invisible hand. Sometimes short-sighted government regulations give preference to bad technologies over good ones — stifling innovation and blinding us to our own ability to make progress.
Nowhere is this mythology more evident than in our energy system, the most heavily regulated and subsidized industry in the country. A host of bad regulations have made this system grossly inefficient, contributing both to global warming and to high power costs.
For the 5th time in history, the House Natural Resources committee invoked its authority and ordered the Bush administration to stop mining claims in the Grand Canyon. The measure was urged by Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva of Tucson, chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands.
The withdrawal halts thousands of mining claims in national forest areas surrounding the Grand Canyon amid fears that resumption of uranium mining presents [...]
On Friday, 27 June 2008, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, also known as Comrade by his camaraderie of marauding thugs roaming about the breadth of Zimbabwe, will preside over his own election, uh again, as president of Zimbabwe.
Declared a sham, even a mock of an election, by the common voice of the international community and his neighbors in southern Africa alike, that has not stopped Mugabe’s men, or freedom fighters as he calls them, from baying for the blood of whomever Zimbabwean cannot correctly pronounce “Zanu-PF”, his machine to run roughshod over his hapless countrymen.
His perennial rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, having backed out of the presidential run-off, the 84 year old despot kicked a soccer ball high up into the air at a sports stadium this week as a show of virility to those who still doubt his undying resolve to cling on to power no matter what - and “only God can remove me from the presidency of Zimbabwe”.
Now that formally leaves Mugabe only at the mercy of zealous cartoonists who love to caricature him as a gorilla. And for good reasons. If looks alone was the reason for this, one could say they have been overdoing themselves but the man’s intimidating appearance, extreme strength, and chest-beating displays mimic the hairy animal to a great detail, and he loves it that way.
Captain John Smith has returned from a 400 year slumber and decided to run for President of the United States. His platform is based on a drive to restore water quality in the nation’s streams, rivers and bays. He does not believe that his issue is getting enough attention in this election season; that is why he has made the trip to his future, our present.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of spending nearly all of my waking hours at his campaign headquarters, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Merrill Center. It is one of only about 50 Leed Platinum Certified buildings in the world. Unlike certain former presidential candidates who talk green and act a bit differently, Captain Smith apparently practices as well as he preaches.
The Merrill Center’s entrance road is lined with “Vote John Smith for President” signs, there are banners hanging in the soaring lobby, and one of the campaign volunteers offered me brochures, buttons, and a tee shirt. I am wearing the tee shirt as I write, but it is really early in the morning so I am sure I do not want to share that visual with the world.
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