Climate and energy

Economic development and renewables: Sunflower Wind company relocates in Reno County (KAKE Channel 10). Smart of them, Reno County is a great location. The Reno County Grow Coalition invited CEP to organize a community forum on wind in Hutchinson last August – it was attended by 200 citizens and sparked an active, 40-member wind working group. One of the group’s goals is to increase the county’s long-term energy security by developing renewables.

(And totally full disclosure - my Dad is from Sterling and I love it there).

Also, on the jobs front, North Dakota State is offering a two year associates’ degree in biofuels technology (EthanolProducer.com) With the energy legislation that passed earlier this week mandating an major increase in biofuels production, there will indeed be more jobs in that field.

St.Louis-based Solar Night Industries gets some play over on Sustainablog - SNI has developed a web-based Modern Energy Plan to help homeowners and businesses figure out what renewable energy system will work best for their needs and location. Haven’t tried it; sounds cool; always remember that CEP does not endorse any .com it might link to; just for a counterpoint remember findsolar.com; also remember Home Power magazine rocks and has ads from many different suppliers and covers solar, wind, and hydro.

This next is of course not interesting to Midwesterners in a practical sense, but I thought it was cool - FERC licenses its first wave power plant in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Washington state (Reuters). I just like wave power. I like the idea of it. It seems soothing. Electricity that can make you go ahhhhhhhhhhh…

Now - what sort of environmental impacts does wave power have on marine wildlife? That, I don’t know. All technologies do have impact… that impact is best judged on the basis of life cycle analysis, and relative to the costs of fossil fuels… in this job, I seem to type that sentence endlessly.

But I also think people get it.

And last, generally for dorks (yay, dorks) a an nice overview of biodegradable plastics (CSMonitor). Why is this article getting play on a blog/website about climate and energy? Because most of our plastics today are made from materials derived from petrochemicals, which in turn come primarly from imported oil. Importing oil is highly risky to the nation’s energy security, not to mention the greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change - and then, plastics have disastrous environmental impacts. For many reasons, researchers are seeking other alternatives.

Of course, bioplastics too have an ecological footprint, and in some ways, they aren’t yet all that sustainable. (Ie, “degradable plastic” can be a relative term). Quotable:

“There is a widespread confusion that all [bioplastics] are made from renewable resources and that all of them are biodegradable,” says BPI’s Mojo. “Not all plastics made from renewable resources are biodegradable, and not all that are biodegradable are based on natural resources.”

Also, add in there the consequences of developing bioplastics from food crops - at the same time we are developing biofuels from food crops - and you have a potentially gigantic yikes.