Alternative fuels have already displaced 2.4 billion gallons of petroleum. All signs point to an even wider implementation of clean fueled vehicles in the near future. To ensure First Responders around the country are prepared, the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities Learning Program has produced curricula and training materials on Biofuels and Biofuel Vehicles, Gaseous Fuels and Gaseous Fuel Vehicles, Hydrogen and Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles, and Electric Drive Vehicles. Through this program, First Responders will learn about key fuel properties and characteristics (including fuel tanks and delivery systems, safety considerations, and flammability levels), vehicle components, vehicle identification and first responder standard operating procedures.
Click here for an extensive overview of the Clean Cities Learning Program along with details on the various modules of the First Responder Training curricula.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Jim Ferguson On Rooftop Solar & Feed-In-Tariff
The Public Record article about Jim Ferguson speaking to CVEP in January 2011.
Jim Ferguson, attorney, former mayor and councilman of Palm Desert, explained his passion for roof top solar and a feed-in-tariff (FIT). A key proponent of the popular state AB 811 city program to help fund rooftop solar and energy efficient upgrades, Ferguson is poised to take on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ad anyone else who wants to stand in the way of putting solar on rooftops across the United States.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Response to ProPublica
Key documents referenced in the following message:
Finally, consider this opinion by Andrew Revkin:
- The ProPublica article "Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated"
- A rebuttal from Energyindepth
- A response from ProPublica "Clearing the Air on ProPublica’s Drilling Pollution Story"
From: Kolodziej, Rich
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 5:30 PM
Subject: ProPublica Response
In case you missed it, in an article posted on their website titled "Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated," a writer for ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization, concludes that the greenhouse gas impacts of natural gas production and use are far worse than estimates from any other previous studies. Despite being riddled with flaws, the study has gotten a lot of media attention – including a mention in a New York Times [blog entry] yesterday.
To aid you in responding to inquiries about that study, [there] are three documents. The first is the ProPublica article (which you can also find at www.propublica.org/article/clearing-the-air-on-propublicas-drilling-pollution-story. The second is a statement by EPA [below]. The ProPublica article relied heavily on EPA analyses. EPA basically said that they didn't do an analysis; ProPublica simply did their own analysis based on some preliminary data EPA had gathered. The third document is a rebuttal of the ProPublica article done by Energyindepth – an organization funded primarily by producer associations. It pokes lots of holes in ProPublica's article.
We are working on collecting input from these and other sources and preparing a dispassionate fact sheet. We hope to have that done shortly, and will send that to you. In the meantime, please used the information in the attached documents in responding to inquiries.
Rich
---------------------------------------------------
Richard Kolodziej, President
NGVAmerica
400 N. Capitol St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202/824-7366
Fax: 202/824-9160
Email: rkolodziej@NGVAmerica.org
Website: www.ngvamerica.org
EPA releases statement on ProPublica piece
EPA has not conducted an analysis of coal versus natural gas, and there is no new report. The information referred to in the [ProPublica] article was developed based on information from a Technical Support Document, however, which was developed as support for the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The reporter used that data and did his own calculations to arrive at the figures used in the article.
The [Technical Support] document [referred to] above does not estimate emissions from the gas industry and the emissions estimates in the [ProPublica] article were not developed by EPA. EPA has not reviewed the analysis described in the article in detail, but we have not seen any indication that the benefits of natural gas have been called into question. Available data demonstrate that switching from another fossil fuel to natural gas reduces emissions of carbon pollution and other harmful pollutants that threaten Americans' health.
Erin Birgfeld
Director of Communications
Climate Change Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Finally, consider this opinion by Andrew Revkin:
The climate issue? Natural gas, when extracted and burned without leakage, produces about half the carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced compared to coal. But when the gas escapes to the atmosphere, it exerts a potent heat-trapping influence because the main constituent in natural gas is methane, which is the second most important human-generated greenhouse gas, not far behind carbon dioxide.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Pickens: Middle East Unrest
Pickens Plan - Note to the Army
Army:
T. Boone Pickens' long-standing warnings that our addiction to OPEC oil is a national security issue has attracted new attention as the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt threaten to spread to the oil producing nations of Nigeria, Angola and Algeria.
In the National Journal, reporter Amy Harder quoted Boone as saying:
"Nothing has happened that I've seen that has cut down on the availability of oil," oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told National Journal Daily on Monday. "But the uncertainty has obviously crept into the market."
So, Harder asks, "what's got the oil traders all worked up?"
"They think it could go to the ultimate conclusion and that is that Saudi Arabia could be overthrown," Pickens said. "And that's the largest supply of oil in the world." Saudi Arabia shipped 367 million barrels of oil to the United States in 2009.
Harder points out that to reduce America's exposure to unrest in unstable countries and regions, "the transportation sector needs to be weaned off oil, increasing public transportation, shifting to electric vehicles, and, if Pickens had his way, natural gas engines for large trucks."
Also on Tuesday morning, reporter Darren Goode from the "Morning Energy Report" of Politico.com talked to Boone:
WHAT EGYPT MEANS TO T. BOONE - Pickens thinks the situation in Egypt could get worse - a lot worse - for crude oil and gas prices and that reinforces his message to wean ourselves off of foreign oil imports. "We've already said that something like this was likely to happen and it has," Pickens told POLITICO's Darren Goode yesterday. "If it's not now, that civil unrest will happen again."
He said the problem is not so much what happens in Egypt but whether civil unrest expands to more prominent Middle Eastern oil nations. "You're seeing a dry run of sorts with unrest in countries like Tunisia and Egypt that are not big on the oil market," he said. "And you better watch close because the next one may be Algeria or Libya or, God forbid, Saudi Arabia." "And if that happens," he said, "you're really going to have a mess on your hands."
- Team Pickens
Army:
T. Boone Pickens' long-standing warnings that our addiction to OPEC oil is a national security issue has attracted new attention as the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt threaten to spread to the oil producing nations of Nigeria, Angola and Algeria.
In the National Journal, reporter Amy Harder quoted Boone as saying:
"Nothing has happened that I've seen that has cut down on the availability of oil," oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told National Journal Daily on Monday. "But the uncertainty has obviously crept into the market."
So, Harder asks, "what's got the oil traders all worked up?"
"They think it could go to the ultimate conclusion and that is that Saudi Arabia could be overthrown," Pickens said. "And that's the largest supply of oil in the world." Saudi Arabia shipped 367 million barrels of oil to the United States in 2009.
Harder points out that to reduce America's exposure to unrest in unstable countries and regions, "the transportation sector needs to be weaned off oil, increasing public transportation, shifting to electric vehicles, and, if Pickens had his way, natural gas engines for large trucks."
Also on Tuesday morning, reporter Darren Goode from the "Morning Energy Report" of Politico.com talked to Boone:
WHAT EGYPT MEANS TO T. BOONE - Pickens thinks the situation in Egypt could get worse - a lot worse - for crude oil and gas prices and that reinforces his message to wean ourselves off of foreign oil imports. "We've already said that something like this was likely to happen and it has," Pickens told POLITICO's Darren Goode yesterday. "If it's not now, that civil unrest will happen again."
He said the problem is not so much what happens in Egypt but whether civil unrest expands to more prominent Middle Eastern oil nations. "You're seeing a dry run of sorts with unrest in countries like Tunisia and Egypt that are not big on the oil market," he said. "And you better watch close because the next one may be Algeria or Libya or, God forbid, Saudi Arabia." "And if that happens," he said, "you're really going to have a mess on your hands."
- Team Pickens
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Getting off of Foreign oil isn't easy
- Time magazine article: "Energy: Should the Military Be Going Green? RAND Isn't So Sure."
· Here's the PDF of the RAND Corporation report.
- "Alternative fuels for transport" in a press release from the European Commission.
Transport has been the sector most resilient to efforts to reduce CO2 emissions due to its strong dependence on fossil energy sources and its steady growth despite the considerable efficiency gains that have already been made. Emissions can be reduced by improving energy efficiency, transport efficiency, and effective transport demand management. But the ultimate solution to decarbonising transport is the substitution of fossil fuels by CO2-lean energy supply to transport.
Further information: Report of the European Expert Group on Future Transport Fuels
Anything American—as long as it's American
Folks Mr. Pickens talks diversity - as long as it's American - this "win-win" talk underscores our focus on getting off of foreign oil by all working together....with all the tools we're getting through the Department of Energy we should really make a difference in 2011! rc3
From the desk of T. Boone Pickens
Army:
I hope you watched President Obama give the State of the Union Address last night. I went on CNBC's Squawk Box and then MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning to give some of my thoughts on the energy section of the speech, and I'd like to share them with you now. I hope the attention he gave to America's energy crisis will help kick-start bipartisan action.
I agree with the President's goal of moving toward battery-powered vehicles and other technologies but we need to get more options into the mix. The reality is that today a battery has limitations-it won't move an 18-wheeler, for example. So on a barrel-for-barrel replacement for foreign oil and diesel, only natural gas can can step in now and have an immediate impact starting today, not years down the road. The value of using our abundant natural gas as an alternative to foreign oil is simple-if we had all 8 million 18-wheelers on natural gas, we would cut OPEC imports in half. These natural gas trucks would be 30 percent cleaner, and fuel would be a dollar per gallon cheaper-it's that simple.
I noted that Abu Dhabi recently announced that they are moving toward natural gas as a transportation fuel. Why are they doing that? It's a smart business decision for them: natural gas is cheaper. They can use cheaper natural gas in their vehicles and sell the expensive oil to the United States.
We need immediate action. One way President Obama can get things moving is to issue an executive order requiring all federal vehicles purchased in the future to run on American resources-natural gas, ethanol, electricity, or other domestic options. Anything American-as long as it's American.
I'm excited about what I heard and optimistic about the future. I think we're headed down the right track by recognizing that we need to get on our resources to solve our energy crisis-that means using everything, including renewables like solar and wind, along with nuclear, natural gas and other American resources.
But we need to quit buying oil from the enemy starting today. I appreciate what Joe Scarborough said to me this morning: "I will tell you this right now though. I would like that $2 billion a week to invest in what you're talking about, Boone, and that is transforming our economy and breaking our dependence on foreign oil from OPEC."
I know we get get this done by working together.
Boone
PS I hope you'll watch me on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tomorrow [Thursday, January 27, 2011] night-as you know, I've been on before and it's always a great experience.
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