Perpetual Innovation

Category: EPA

  • CO2 xGame Winners in Canada. Losers in USA?

    Wow. What do you do when the horses are already outta the gate?
    What do you do with the CO2 is already into the atmosphere? This is the idea of capturing that 400 parts per million of CO2 out of the atmosphere after it’s already, well, up in the error — oops… I mean — up in the air.
    Here are the winners of the XGames competition on CO2. This $20M competition is to figure out ways to carbon capture and sequester (CCS). Unlike some industrial byproducts, CO2 can have a value (bottling, for example, to give you that happy fizz in your pop).

    Here’s some info on this big competition in Canada: CBC News discusses competition sponsored by Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance and U.S. company NRG.

    One of the 9 finalist, Ingenuity Labs, emulates photosynthesis to remove carbon dioxide from smoke stacks and such. They use a photosynthesis-like process to extract the carbon and make several industrial products out of the extract. True, this is a lot like planting a tree, but you have to wait 20 years for the wood, vs the immediate gratification of industrial products.

    A very cool concept is by Carbicrete. Take out CO2 from an emissions source (say a smoke stack) and infuse it into concrete where the carbon is happily sequestered and it actually strengthens the concrete. (Note that concrete is a leading industrial source of CO2 emissions.)

    While Canada is moving full forward with sustainability initiatives, the US is set to make a major shift in the other direction. Trump’s Pruitt pick for the EPA might result in two departments of Energy. (Facts and miss-facts about Pruitt.)

    The US has never had an energy policy. Carter was the last to propose one. Obama kinda had one, but without any legislative support, he was force-feeding it through the EPA. No matter who you are, that’s not the right way. So the Clean Energy Plan, is about to get the can!…

    That means the the job of the CCS might turn out to be far, far bigger in the future, as we try to burn up the last century or so of fossil fuels over the next hundred years.

    We here at SustainZine consider “conservative” this way: The bestest, cheapest, cleanest gallon of gas is the one never extracted, never processed and never burned. The bestest, cheapest, cleanest tonne of coal is the one never extracted, never processed, and never burned (scrubbing or no scrubbing).

  • Obama to Unveil Tougher Environmental Plan With His Legacy in Mind – The New York Times

    Obama to Unveil Tougher Environmental Plan With His Legacy in Mind – The New York Times:

    There’s some good and some bad about this.

    We really should have an energy policy in the country, but we don’t. And the congress should be doing that planning and guiding of long-term energy and economic development. But no.

    The video says saving on energy. That’s not true, it will cost more for energy, the massive savings will come from improved health. Coal causes huge health and environmental impacts.

    “The Clean Power Plan will ultimately save about $45 billion a year, the EPA says, by both shrinking Americans’ energy use and reducing health costs for asthma, lung cancer and other illnesses caused by air pollution. The EPA estimates the rule will also cut about $85 a year from the average American’s utility bill.”  via USA News.

    Expect that the costs at the meter will be more, especially since it is so easy for the power utilities to pass them on, given a good (or bad) excuses. However, the health savings are each and every year forever. These are massive savings. Probably far greater than the $45B or so estimated.

    The switch from coal is happening already without any such effort by the EPA. Clean(er) NatGas has been over-abundant and been the main gainer over the last 8 years. Also, we flair about half of the NatGas in the USA from fracking, why not figure out how to flair it into an electric generator and wire the energy back home?

    Two secrets of coal is that about 10,000 people die each year in mining accidents, mostly coal. That’s more than die in many years from natural disasters. The really dirty little secret of coal is coal ash. It has very high levels of heavy metals and such. It appears that we have no plan as to what to do with the ash, so it sits around in every state just waiting for disaster. Much like we have not plan for Nuclear waste.

    NatGas is far better than coal, but it is still not sustainable. Since power plant planning is 50 to 100 years forward thinking, it seems that we should be doing likewise. Wind only works when the wind blows. Solar only works with the sun signs.

    It seems that if we had a plan to be sustainable eventually, we would be better able to make decisions on the actions that a rational man (or woman) would make today.

    Sadly, the coal miners and coal economies are stuck in the middle of this ugly downturn to their livelihood way of life.

    Just saying…

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  • EPA loss in supreme court.

    High Court Strikes Down EPA Limits on Mercury Emissions http://www.wsj.com/articles/high-court-strikes-down-epa-limits-on-mercury-emissions-1435590069
    The EPA must consider the cost of compliance when coming up with rules. That’s what the Supreme Court ruled.
    Of course it is hard to estimate the cost of the pollutants, that have been going on for a couple centuries now.
    With natural gas being so cheap, and most of the conversions already complete, the whole issue is rather mute point.
    But it does set back EPA action on CO2 emissions, where is the coal lobby would like to consider the cost of externalities nonexistent.
    Still in the absence of Congress and its inability to do anything, you have the problem of the Fed and the EPA trying to do the heavy lifting.

  • Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times

    Why I support the EPA’s Clean Power Plan | TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times:

    This July 28, 2014 article by Lynn Ringenberg (Professor Emeritus at USF) discusses the horrible health and wellness impacts of burning coal.

    “There is no such thing as clean coal.”

    The good news is that Natural Gas is so plentiful in the states and so very very cheap, that it is seriously supplanting coal in power plant production. NatGas is so plentiful and contain in oil, that 40% to 50% of all US NatGas produced is flared into the atmosphere as an oil byproduct.

    Of course the EPA is pushing this conversion along to NatGas. In the absence of an energy policy in the USA, the EPA is the very last stop in this decision process as to produce power, short term and long.

    But here is the BIG problem. As we cut back on energy and oil and coal usage in the USA, we move the coal power production to other countries. Our exports are way up. And other countries don’t use the same cleaning technologies as we (scrubbers and such).

    Here’s a great discussion of our coal usage and export-imports at The Energy Collective by Meredith Fowlie on July 29, 2014.

    No matter what you feel about the EPA stepping up and getting involved in coal power, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. The EPA is the last, and arguably the worst way to address energy policy, health issues from fossil fuel consumption and global warming.

    Some would argue, the EPA actions are better than doing nothing at all.

    The EPA is the wrench used to hammer the square nail. Coal has huge impact on health and wellness, so let’s export all we’ve got. We take make the green, they take the black.

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  • As BP oil spill trial resumes, lying accusations bubble up – CBS News

    As BP oil spill trial resumes, lying accusations bubble up – CBS News:

    Everyone remembers the  massive Gulf oil spill starting April 20, 2010 and 87 days of spillage.

    As we all watched the pictures from the surface oil slick and the underwater cameras at the well head, it was a tale of two oil spills.

    BP: trickle … => Media: deluge
    BP: gallons … => Media: barrels

    BP: creek  => river

    But the truth is, no one anywhere believed the BP numbers.

    They really had no recovery plan. As this article said, they only had a plan to create a plan, if and when they needed a plan.

    Disaster recovery plans for businesses have details that have been well thought through. One page for a wellhead breach under water is not exactly a detailed plan.

    The dispersant (Corexit) works at the surface with sunlight and such. However about 45% of the Corexit was used at the well head, resulting in oil that was stuck in limbo half way to the surface. At the surface it can be removed and/or treated.

    More importantly, apparently, for BP was that at the surface it can more accurately be MEASURED.

    The difference between the 4.2m Barrels by Justice department experts and the 2.45mb by BP is almost half. Of course the BP numbers wrong. Is it more than 4.2mb, probably. Less, probably not.

    Additionally, however, the $1,100 penalty max per barrel (~42 gal/brl) would be essentially 4 times that ($4,300/brl) if BP is found negligent.

    That’s the difference between $18B in fines and about $2.7B (BP’s low-ball estimates and the lower fine).

    There really is, however, lots of blame to go around. The regulatory agency that rubber-stamped everything oil and mining related has now be disbanded in disgrace. The “plans” were the same for all oil drillers. Everyone was doing the same types of drilling, although maybe not quite the lax monitoring/procedures.

    AND the government had a limit on the exposure for drillers in a very cozy relationship with the oil companies. It was a paltry amount… with the official rationale of promoting drilling (and oil independence). Of course, that limitation was immediately revoked.

    Can you imagine if BP were a smaller player that simply went bankrupt? The good thing about a BIG company with deep pockets (pun) is that you can make ’em pay, and then keep making them pay.

    In the end, the oil industry is a far safer place because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

    Here are some lessons learned (and used).

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