Transportation
Global Warming Guilt $$
Carbon Offsets for Individual DriversI've been writing this weekly Energy Grok for almost a year now, so it seems that a little full disclosure is in order. On the scale of major climate-changers, I’m a pretty small fish, but I'm still doing my part. Yes, I drive an SUV: a 2000 Toyota 4Runner. My rationalizations include a) I need 4WD to get up my driveway, especially in winter; b) I need plenty of space for camping and bicycling gear, my 7-year-old son's sports kit, and so on; and c) I have a short commute to work and I ride my bike and/or take the bus a couple of times a week, so I drive about one-third less than the average American's annual mileage.
That still leaves about 8,000 miles of driving, or around six-and-a-half tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, every year. So, maybe it's time to do something about it, eh?
Like most Americans, I don't see giving up driving altogether. So, I've found another option: a TerraPass.
In other energy news: Marathon Oil becomes the latest U.S. energy company to buy into Canada's oil-sands reserves; Rolling Stone gets to the bottom of the ethanol boondoggle; and linking the electrical grids of Europe could take wind-power to the next level in supplying continental power demand.
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New West Energy Grok
Alternative Energy Tax Package FailsFaced with a chance to stand up and do something farsighted and courageous about the future of our energy supply and our climate, the U.S. Senate yesterday demonstrated again why the "world's greatest legislative body" currently has the lowest public esteem in its history: it ducked.
Rather than reversing eight decades of political favors and government handouts to the oil and gas energy -- by enacting a $29 billion redistribution of public wealth toward renewable and non-climate-altering power sources such as wind, solar, and hydrogen -- the Senate by a margin of 3 votes failed to protect the big tax package at the heart of an energy bill now withering into inconsequence. Two proposals to direct billions in subsidies to coal-based liquid fuels also failed.
The Senators did agree to raise auto fuel-economy standards, approving a somewhat scaled back amendment that requires carmakers fleets to attain an averge of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The auto industry fought that provision hard and succeeded in removing a requirement for continued improvements after 2020, though the compromise deal on the so-called CAFE standards was seen as a defeat for Detroit. (Montana Democratic Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, who were undecided on the CAFE issue until the end and were thus targets of heavy lobbying by Big Auto, both supported the new requirements).
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part v
Cycle Montana: Closing the Circle
With seven hundred miles logged since rolling away from Billings at the end of May, the university students cycling Montana to explore the state and its opportunities for producing clean energy have made it back to Missoula. They're weathered and sore but stronger and wiser, and eager to share their tales from the road. On Tuesday 50 people came to learn from the four students and their two instructors as they gave a presentation at the Missoula Public Library.
Enjoy this last collection of blogs as the students pedal from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to Glacier National Park, down Route 83 through the Swan Valley, and along the Blackfoot River en route to Missoula -- a familiar place but now, they say, a little different.
Check back next year for another Cycle Montana go-round. For more information on Cycle Montana contact the instructors, Nicky Phear of the University of Montana and Dave Morris of the Wild Rockies Field Institute. Thanks for reading.
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a link to reserve street
Missoula to Add New Bicycle PathIf all goes well, by next fall a new bicycle and pedestrian trail will link Central Missoula to Reserve Street, creating a safe passageway through a heavily congested part of Missoula.
Extending the Milwaukee Grade Trail, which now runs through central Missoula, farther west past Russell to Reserve along 3rd, and eventually out to Mullan, will give commuters a safe alternative to dodging cars on the way to work, says Dave Shaw, park and trail design manager for the city.
Many would-be commuters are afraid of city traffic, said Bob Giordano, director of the Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation. “I know for some people that’s the main barrier, lots of cars,” he said.
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part iv
Cycle Montana: Small Acts under the Big Sky
The Cycle Montana riders are almost home, and in this installment of blogs from the road they consider government policy, catch fireflies, hike the Rocky Mountain Front, and build bridges. Enjoy these clean energy ruminations, and stay tuned to New West for the riders' next -- and last -- report. If you've missed them, click here for Part I, here for Part II, here for Part III.
Upon returning to Missoula the Cycle Montana group will give a presentation at the Public Library Tuesday, June 19, from 5:30-6:30 with a Q&A to follow. All are welcome.
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New West Energy Grok
Wall St. Pops BioFuel’s BubbleWay back in Nov. 2006 I wrote about the possibility that the financial side of the renewable-energy business – venture funding, private-equity investments, and so on – was showing bubble-icious signs. The founders of Denver-based BioFuel Energy found out yesterday how warily Wall St. views cleantech startups: after cutting its offering price twice in the run-up to its IPO, Biofuel opened at $10.50 and closed at … $10.51.
Founded last year to build ethanol production plants across the Midwest and the Rockies, BioFuel gathered around $140 million in venture funding and scored a long-term contract with Cargill, the agribusiness giant, for supplies of corn and for marketing channels to sell ethanol from its plants to utilities. Two BE plants are under production, in Wood River, Neb., and Fairmont, Minn., and the company plans three more – blueprints that may be shredded by Thursday's thud on the Nasdaq.
The weak market for BioFuel Energy shares could put a damper on other Rocky Mountain green-energy companies looking to raise public money in the next couple of years – particularly since experts are already talking about a short-term ethanol glut, according to Investor's Business Daily, because of the lack of power plants to burn the stuff.
In other energy news: Congress revises 2005 Energy Act; U.S. auto industry whines and moans about fuel-economy standards; and Senate offers a prize for a better lightbulb.
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Getting to Work
Drive Times Headed Up, Up, Up
This post is from Osman Parvez's Boulder Real Estate blog:
Do you know how long the average worker spends commuting each week? In New York, it's a little over 30 minutes, the longest commute in the country. We Coloradans have a shorter but still hefty 23 minutes (source: Census, American Community Survey, 2003). With FasTracks among other infrastructure improvements on the way, our options will increase. But despite the benefit of more choices, because of population growth, time spent commuting is expected to continue to increase for the forseeable future.
That's why doing your due diligence on commute times is critical. 10 or 15 minutes extra might not sound like much, until you have to drive it every day.
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part III
Cycle Montana: The Unexpected Pleasures of Pedaling
Having rolled through Helena, the four university students cycling 700 miles around Montana to explore the state and its opportunities for producing clean energy are more than halfway through their journey. Here, in the third collection of blogs from the road, the riders and their two instructors discover those unexpected pleasures of traveling by bicycle, like Montana hospitality, bird identification, and a renewed appreciation for the ordinary.
Check back again for more updates from the road as the cyclists head north to Glacier and then swing down to Missoula. If you've missed them, click here for Part I, here for Part II.
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part II
Cycle Montana: The Road to Innovation and Self-Reliance
Last week New West published the first batch of blogs written by the four university students cycling 700 miles around Montana to explore the state and its opportunities for producing clean energy. It's the inaugural ride of the University of Montana course “Cycle Montana: Energy Alternatives for a New Century," offered through the Wild Rockies Field Institute and led by Nicky Phear and Dave Morris. The following is the second installment of the cyclists' notes from the road, days four through seven, as they pass through the Musselshell River Valley and consider Montana innovation and self-reliance. We hope you enjoy reading about the cyclists' journey. Be sure to check back to New West for more updates. [more]
part I
Cycle Montana: Contemplating our Energy Choices
This week four students and their two instructors wheeled away from Billings, Montana to begin a three-week, 700-mile cycling tour to explore the state and its opportunities for producing clean energy. It's the inaugural ride of the University of Montana course “Cycle Montana: Energy Alternatives for a New Century," offered through the Wild Rockies Field Institute. Along the way -- a loop from Billings to Missoula via Helena and Glacier National Park -- the students will visit a range of energy production sites, learn from a diversity of state, industry and environmental experts, and meet with local Montanans concerned with the impacts of climate change and energy sustainability on their communities.
Every few days New West will be publishing the students' writings and photographs from the road. Here in this first installment you'll find the raw contemplations and curiosities of the intrepid cyclists as they begin their trek. It's a technical lesson on Montana's energy picture, too. Enjoy, and check back often for updates.
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