February 19, 2007

Go Ahead, Buy That SUV

Annual oil revenues to the Islamist Republic of Sudan at current oil prices : ~$ 5 billion.

Annual oil revenues to Hugo Chavez' Venezuela at current oil prices : ~$30 billion.

Annual oil revenues to the Islamist Republic of Iran at current oil prices : ~$45 billion.

Annual oil revenues to the Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at current oil prices : ~$163 Billion.

February 14, 2007

The Top 25 "Best of Green Design"

According to Popular Mechanics. (h/t : Glenn)

The 2008 Highlander Hybrid

Details at MSN.COM:

2008 Highlander Hybrid

The 2008 Highlander will go on sale in July 2007 and will be followed two months later by the 2008 Highlander Hybrid, which will be offered in Base and Limited trim levels. All Highlander Hybrids will feature Toyota's VDIM stability system that combines full-time four-wheel drive with intelligence, electronic brake and throttle control and electronically controlled active steering.

The Highlander Hybrid's Hybrid Synergy Drive system has been extensively upgraded for both power and economy with output increased to 270 net horsepower while maintaining fuel economy ratings of 31 city and 27 highway. The driver will be able to select an EV electric-only mode for the Highlander Hybrid to operate until the battery storage is depleted or 25 mph is exceeded.

January 29, 2007

Energy Independence : 'Printable' Solar Panels?

This looks interesting:

January 28, 2007

Conservative Summit : The Federal Government's Proper Role in Energy Policy

Based on Saturday morning's debate between former CIA Director James Woolsey and the Cato Institute's Jerry Taylor, American energy policy is the source of some major points of contention within the conservative movement, particularly between the "national security" and "laissez faire" wings of the movement.

Woolsey opened the debate. He began by noting the strong correlation between the list of countries blessed with petroleum resources and the list of countries plagued by totalitarianism. He noted that only one country (Canada) out of the top ten oil-producing countries in the world is a free democracy. This, he said, is not a coincidence. He noted the power-concentrating effects of petroleum resources and argued that the money spent on gas at the pump is funding America's enemies. For those who want to see who is funding terrorism, Woolsey recommended that they look in the mirror. Woolsey summed up by stating that "only an ostrich" could think that the lack of a stable energy supply is not a serious national security issue.

Woolsey's opponent, Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, noted that interfereing in the market to reduce the usage of foreign oil will invariably drive up domestic energy prices. While conceding the current political volatility of the Middle East, Taylor argued that the risk of interruption of oil supplies is already reflected in the current price of oil. He also argued that eliminating foreign petroleum imports would not protect us from the effects of supply disruptions abroad, given that there is a world market for petroleum. Taylor depicted the two options as a commodity which is volatile but inexpensive versus a commodity that is stable but considerably more expensive. He argued that market accommodations for risk are available to oil buyers, but that few take advantage of them. It'd be wonderful, he said, to find a new and inexpensive source of energy, but there simply isn't one at present. If there was such an energy source, the market would reward it all by itself without government action. Taylor argued that there is no historical correlation between the level of terrorism on the one hand and the level of oil profits on the other. He noted, for example, that the 1990s featured some of the lowest oil prices in recent times, but a substantial degree of Islamic terrorism. As a result of all this, he argued that reducing oil profits would have no effect on terrorism.

Woolsey responded that he generally opposes subsidies, but that the petroleum industry already receives big subsidies, thereby throwing the market out of balance. He cited an article by C. Boyden Gray in the Texas Review of Law and Politics for the proposition that the petroleum industry receives the equivalent of $200 billion per year in subsidies from the federal government. Woolsey argued for removing government subsidies on petroleum and leveling the playing field. The idea that terrorism has no correlation to oil profits, said Woolsey, is ludicrous.

In Taylor's response, he took issue with Woolsey's definition of "subsidies," and disagreed with the amount of those subsidies. Taylor noted that Greenpeace estimates that the oil industry receives 40 billion in government subsidies--20% of the subsidies identified by C. Boyden Gray.

Moderator Quin Hillyer later followed up with a question about the feasibility of exploiting untapped oil and gas fields off American shores as a means of reducing our consumption of foreign oil.

While acknowledging that tapping these resources would have a positive effect on the oil supply, Woolsey responded that the oil produced would be a "drop in the bucket" of the World oil market. He re-emphasized his confidence in the potential for reduced petroleum demand offered by hybrids and other energy technologies.

January 24, 2007

Bush Issues Executive Order on Hybrids

I'm more than happy to give credit where credit is due. Big kudos to President Bush on this one:

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Pushing the federal government more aggressively into the use of alternative fuels to cut its reliance on gasoline, President Bush ordered the government today to move toward purchasing hybrid-powered vehicles and reducing the federal fleet's petroleum consumption by 2% each year through 2015.

The executive order, consolidating earlier ones while setting new goals, follows his call in the State of the Union address Tuesday night for the nation to reduce its overall use of gasoline by 20% over 10 years.

January 23, 2007

Bush Will Seek Cutbacks in Petroleum Consumption

Depending on how it's implemented, this is probably good news:

WASHINGTON (AP) - In his first State of the Union address to a Democratic-controlled Congress, President Bush is calling for Americans to slash gasoline consumption by up to 20 percent by 2017.

Bush envisions the goal being achieved primarily through a sharp escalation in the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that the federal government mandates must be produced. The rest of the fuel use reduction is to come from raising fuel economy standards for passenger cars, Joel Kaplan, White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters in a briefing before Bush's Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress.

The president is proposing to set the amount of ethanol and other alternative fuels that must be blended into the fuel supply at 35 billion gallons by 2017, up from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. He also wants to expand the standard to include not just ethanol but a wide range of oil alternatives, such as biodiesel, methanol, butanol and hydrogen, Kaplan said.

January 17, 2007

Home's Solar Array Eliminates Utility Bills

It's still damn expensive, but it's a start:

EAST AMWELL, New Jersey (Reuters) - Michael Strizki heats and cools his house year-round and runs a full range of appliances including such power-guzzlers as a hot tub and a wide-screen TV without paying a penny in utility bills.

His conventional-looking family home in the pinewoods of western New Jersey is the first in the United States to show that a combination of solar and hydrogen power can generate all the electricity needed for a home.
...

Caminiti argues that the cost of the hydrogen/solar setup works out at about $4,000 a year when its $100,000 cost is spread over the anticipated 25-year lifespan of the equipment. That's still a lot higher than the $1,500 a year the average U.S. homeowner spends on energy, according to the federal government. Even if gasoline costs averaging about $1,000 per car annually are included in the energy mix, the renewables option is still more expensive than the grid/gasoline combination.

But for Strizki and his colleagues, the house is about a lot more than the bottom line. It's about energy security at a time when the federal government is seeking to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from the Middle East, and it's about sustaining a lifestyle without emitting greenhouse gases.

December 28, 2006

The Tools of Self-Defense

Following on to my earlier post on the Second Amendment (pbui,) there seemed to be a lot of interest in discussing the pros and cons of various tools of self-defense. Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Remington 870 Express 12-ga. Shotgun

Simple, reliable and affordable. The unmistakable sound of this gun chambering a round has been known to handle a home invasion situation all by itself--though you may have to deal with soiled carpet. Hard to go wrong with this one, IMHO. Bonus : in many states, you can carry this one in your vehicle without a concealed carry permit. Downside : shotguns aren't the most convenient tools to lug around, you have limited magazine capacity and ammo is bulky.

Taurus PT-99 Semi-auto Pistol (9mm)

Based on an earlier design for the Beretta 9mm, this one fits in most budgets and comes with a lifetime warranty. I've had good luck with both I've owned. I've found them to be relatively accurate and very reliable. 9mm ammo is pretty cheap, and you can get 15-round clips for this one. Downsides : 1: doesn't have the "cool name," 2: 9mm has been criticized for insufficient takedown power, 3: in most states, you need a permit to carry a handgun outside the home--even in your car.

DPMS Panther Classic .223 Rem. Semi-auto Rifle

Although not as big a name as Colt or Bushmaster, DPMS makes a solid AR15. Now, to be honest, I'm not sure what situation might require a semi-auto rifle for self-defense, but if I'm ever in such a situation, I'll be damn glad to have it. I'd imagine one of these would've been handy in New Orleans last year. I was a "late adopter" of the AR15, but after finally getting one, I love it. I previously owned a Ruger Mini-14, which was fine for playing around, but just didn't shoot that straight. I found that other folks have had the same experience. YMMV.

December 27, 2006

Mark Steyn on Energy

The telegram has been replaced by the email, and the victrola has yielded to the CD player, but, aside from losing the rumble seat and adding a few cupholders, the automobile is essentially unchanged from a century ago. If you can't sell the country on the need for new energy sources when your present ones are funding your enemies, when can you?

Yet, five years on from September 11 and after a torrent of information on Saudi funding of the jihad, America had changed its policy to Riyadh only to this degree: we're lavishing even more dough on them than we did before.

The oil revenue collected by the House of Saud not only buys off their subjects but buys up other countries' subjects around the world. Americans are paying for the rope that will hang them.

November 18, 2006

Tigerhawk Calls for Raising Taxes

And I think he may have a good point:

Crude oil has hit a 17-month low. National security conservatives and anti-carbon greens should get together now -- before Americans readjust to inexpensive gasoline -- and push through a reasonable tax on carbon-based fuels in return for an extension of the most economically efficient aspects of the "Bush tax cuts."

I would concur on one condition.

All collection from increased fuel taxes would be put toward research, developement and purchase of more fuel efficient vehicles.

Synthetic Oil for $17 a Barrel?

These guys say they can do it:

It would cost about $17 to produce a barrel of synthetic oil at the Hom Tov facility, meaning giant profit margins in a world of $45 to $60 per barrel crude. Yearly earnings are forecasted to be between $159 million and $350 million, Shahal said.

h/t : Glenn.

November 10, 2006

My Father & Grandfather: Marines

Happy birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Thank you Dad for your service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Once a Marine always a Marine.

Thank you Grandpa for sacrificing your life for your country, for a young wife, for your two children who you would never live to see grow up, for your fellow Marines, on the shores of an island you'd never heard of, far away in the South Pacific. Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

September 22, 2006

A CITGO boycott brewing?

Michelle notes a growing movement for a broad boycott of Hugo Chavez' CITGO.

As Michelle notes, our own See-dubya was on this idea a while back.

I've been personally boycotting CITGO for a while now, and I plan to continue indefinitely, despite the fact that the two closest stations to my house are CITGO stations.

We don't have much of a choice as to whether to buy gas, but most of us have choices as to where.

Vietnamese Pro-Democracy Activist Released

From the AP (San Fran) -

An American pro-democracy activist who was jailed in Vietnam for more than a month on suspicion of plotting against the communist government returned home to a crowd of supporters.

Peace and love, dood.

August 18, 2006

US Wind Generated Electricity Passes 10 Gigawatts

By my math, 10 gigawatts is enough to power approximately 8.26 DeLoreans:

U.S. wind energy installations now exceed 10,000 megawatts (MW) in generating capacity, and produce enough electricity on a typical day to power the equivalent of over 2.5 million homes, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced today. A megawatt of wind power generates enough to serve 250 to 300 average homes. . . .

Saving fuel: Today’s 10,000 MW of wind power saves about 0.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/day), or about 3.5% of the natural gas used nationwide to generate electricity.

August 05, 2006

The Israelis' Secret Weapon

Powerful stuff. Stand with Israel.

stein hoist: Yoni the Blogger

July 22, 2006

Sounds good, but can we drink it?

BP and DuPont are making a play in the butanol market:

Big business is making is making some big plays in the alternative energy arena. Oil giant BP is teaming up with Cal Tech to make cheaper solar cells using nano technology. The company believes the novel process could help relieve the worldwide shortage of silicon. And just when we were getting used to putting ethanol in our tanks now there's a new biofuel coming down the pipe. BP and DuPont have announced plans to start selling butanol. Now if butanol sounds a lot like ethanol, it is. They are chemically related. But butanol delivers more miles to the gallon, it's not corrosive like ethanol and it can be burned in gasoline engines without modifications. Right now butanol costs more than gasoline but there are new processes that could make it much cheaper, and that's what BP and DuPont seem to be counting on.