WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

Anthony Perl, co-author with Richard Gilbert of Transport Revolutions: Moving People and Freight Without Oil, recently debated Rich Moskowitz, of the American Trucking Association on the CNBC show "Street Signs". Interviewer Erin Burnett reports that the CEO's of both DHL America and FedEx have been recently interviewed on her show and stated that less than 5% of their fleet use alternative energy. She wants to know, "What are two things we can do right now to start moving in the direction of renewable energy in trucking?" Anthony recommends electric powered trucks for local distribution within a 100 mile radius of major metropolitan cities as the place to start. You can view the entire interview here.

As usual, it is the economic feasibility argument that takes the fore. When asked if he thinks America really has the will to get off of oil, Anthony Perl calmly replies, "They will have to in a short period of time so I am expecting there will be some big changes coming."

To find out more about what those changes might be, read Transport Revolutions:

Well, I didn't think I would have much to report about our travel to the Denver Green Festival, after all it was just a trip through Vancouver and Denver airports, but, as it turns out, the Denver International Airport is quite interesting and has an extensive environmental management system.

As we pulled away from the airport in our taxi, we passed a massive field full of flat grey shiny things. A solar panel array? Yes indeed.

The 7 1/2 acre field contains 9,200 photovoltaic panels that swivel east to west to follow the sun. The system became operational in 2008 and presently generates over 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year. This is about half the power needed to run the airport’s terminal-connecting underground train system. City officials say this will reduce carbon emissions by more than 5 million pounds a year. Not bad for the fifth busiest airport in the United States.

By the way, did you catch the New Society Publishers title that flashed up in the airport video link posted above? Be the first person to send us an e-mail at heather at newsociety dot com with the words "blog contest" in the subject line and we will send you a free copy of the book!

Stay tuned for more from the crew in Denver as the weekend progresses!

This morning's crop of e-mail newsletters contained a story in Renewable Energy World entitled New Uses for Old Staples: Butter and Coffee As Biodiesel Feedstocks. The main thrust of the story (and it is an interesting one) is that used coffee grounds could potentially add 340 million gallons of high quality biodiesel to the world's fuel supply using an inexpensive conversion process. The story also focuses on the conversion into biodiesel of 1000 pounds of butter used in the Pennsylvania Farm Show butter sculpture. This biodiesel will subsequently be used by the Pennsylvania National Guard in its equipment at home and overseas.

It's exciting to see that a great deal of work is going into finding a low-cost, high quality feedstock for biodiesel, particularly one that makes use of materials that would otherwise be discarded. On the other hand, the fact that in the current climate of economic uncertainty and looming food insecurity there are actually people who believe that using 1000 pounds of butter to make a sculpture instead of feeding hungry people is incongruous at best and breathtaking in its inappropriateness at worst. As such (for me) the story becomes more interesting as it inadvertently highlights not only the need to reuse as many of our valuable resources as we possibly can, but also the need to use said resources wisely in the first place.

If you have access to waste oil and would like to learn how to power your vehicle then check out SVO: Powering Your Vehicle with Straight Vegetable Oil. Unlike biodiesel, in which oils are combined with alcohol to form a stand-alone fuel that can be used in a conventional diesel engine, straight vegetable oil can be used in a modified diesel engine with no chemical alteration of the oil. In SVO Forest Gregg provides the definitive practical guide to designing a system and converting an engine to run on waste vegetable oil. It's amazing!

Researchers at Penn State have recently demonstrated a method to convert cellulose and other biodegradable organic materials directly into hydrogen. Using microbial fuel cells, researchers Bruce Logan and Shaoan Cheng have shown that their method produces 288 percent more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is expended in the process. See the details here.

Like the technologies described in Christopher Swan's Electric Water, the energy source described in this article is based on technologies that are already available. Reader comments seem to range from wholeheartedly enthusiastic to somewhat skeptical. I think the idea sounds solid and promising, but of course my scientific background can fit on the head of a pin along with rather a large number of dancing angels. What do you think of their ideas? Leave your comments in feedback.

This just in - a guest post from Neville Williams, author of Chasing the Sun and chairman of Standard Solar. Thanks Neville!

BOOKS OPEN DOORS IF THE RIGHT PEOPLE READ THEM

Last year I was, to my great surprise, invited to attend the highly prestigious Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. The invitation was complimentary – "members" as attendees are called pay $15,000 for the 3 day event. My invitation came out of the blue. A young woman on the line, who tracked me down via the office of New Society Publishers, said "President Clinton read your book and he says it's one of his favorites and he wants you to attend. Can you make it?"

It was short notice, but without question I could make it, despite the hotel prices at the New York Sheraton during the simultaneous UN Week having gone through the roof ($500 a night, single). The CGI was not to be missed.

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