Biodiesel in MA

This AP article was printed in the Boston Metro newspaper this morning:

Firm Speeds Up Alternative Fuel Effort

A Massachusetts-based biodiesel company announced plans yesterday that could make the alternative fuel more available and cost-efficient across the Northeast.

Northeast Biodiesel president Lawrence Union said 75 percent of the biodiesel his company plans to start making will be sold to Biofuel Brokers, a Michigan company that will distribute the fuel to nearby refineries and wholesale suppliers.

"The mission here is to have biodiesel available on every street corner," Union said.

But that goal isn't about to happen overnight.

Northeast Biodiesel still needs to build its production facility, which is scheduled to open in a Greenfield industrial park next spring. And by the end of 2006, Union said the company will be ready to make about 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year from the recycled vegetable oil it's been buying from a New York-based business.

Biodiesel, which can be used on its own or blended with petroleum-based diesel fueld, can be used as home heating oil and can power cars, trucks and farm equipment with diesel engines. It can be made from recycled vegetable oils or soybeans. [And I's note: Vegetable oils and Soybeans are two of the least effecient sources of biomass with which to produce biodiesel. Check out this list of biodiesel yields from various sources. Soybeans are near the bottom of the list. Rapeseed is the most common feedstock for biodiesel production in Europe--it is far more effecient than soybeans. We should get on that tip...]

Its popularity has been growing since 1992 when Congress passed the Energy Policy Act to reduce the nation's dependency on foreign oil. [And I's note: I'm gunna have to check up on that act, we have not reduced our dependence on foreign oil one iota since 1992... In fact we have increased our dependence on foreign oil consistantly over time.] It has since been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as an alternative fuel.

The Petrodollar Revisited

Some of you may have read my previous post entitled "Understanding why we are at war: the Petrodollar." I highly reccommend this article, written in Jan 2003 by William Clark, who is far more educated than I, and basically says the same thing I was saying in my essay. You'll notice the article is almost 3 years old and therefore much of recent history would make it irrelevant, you might think. Read it... It predicts exactly how the Iraq War II started. The article linked above includes a "post-war" commentary written in Jan of 2004.

This Article, entitled Oil Currency Geopolitics, was penned by William Clark much more recently and is an equally vital read.

Iran is now putting into effect it's own oil bourse (trade exchange) which will accept Euros for oil. NOW is the time to learn about the 3rd major cause for war--currency (ideology and religion being numbers one and two). You may not agree with my or William Clark's conclusions, and that is your right. But you owe it to yourself to learn about the Petrodollar, Petrodollar Recycling, and how the upcoming shift in the world's major reserve currency will affect you.

my bike ate my car

the wife and i took a nice bikeride yesterday evening. her folks live about 3 miles away, and we wanted to hang with them for a while (and i wanted to help fix their computer (wasn't printing (restarted, fixed))). instead of hopping in the car, which is what would probably occur to most americans, we hopped on our bikes and pedaled from Salem to Marblehead (up that huge hill on 114), had some barbeque, watched some red sox, talked for a while, then rode back home, showered, and got into bed. it took us about 15-20 minutes to make the trip, so driving would have been about twice as fast, but we are both determined to use our cars less and this was a great way for us to put that into practice. on the way back, one of those "most amerricans" i was talking about above honked at us from his car and shouted "get off the road!!" mind you we were waiting to make a left turn at a red light, not in the lane of oncoming traffic that he was in and not obstructing any traffic at all... anyway...

not only does biking save gasoline, lessen pollution, free up some space on our congested streets, but the excersize feels REALLY good. it was just a 6 mile round trip. so we saved maybe 1/4 gallon of gas. but today i feel energized! i feel good! which is hard to do when you work for the man and have nothing to do all day long... just this little bit of excersize and enacting the small positive changes that we can, my wife and i feel a lot better about the world, and our own problems.

mind

body

spirit

amen

How oil prices are effecting the world economy right now

So it's a given in my book at least that despite the moderate price drops in the past few days, the price of oil is not really going to go back down. This is already beginning to affect very many sectors of the economy--aside from consumer gasoline prices. You think $3 at the pump is rough? Airlines are feelin' it a bit more than you are...

US airline losses in 2005 could reach USD$10 billion, due mainly to soaring fuel prices made worse by Hurricane Katrina, the industry's chief trade group estimated on Friday.

(click above to read the rest of the article)

It will affect the price of things that don't seem to be dependant on liquid fuel, too. The food you buy at restaurants and at the grocery store travels an average of over 2000 miles to get to its final destination of consumption. Most of the goods you buy at wallmart were shipped 5000 miles from southeast asia. trasnportation costs are only a very small part of the price of goods and food, but consider this--the shipping industry is probably feeling it as much as the commercial airline industry. shipping goods from china to boston may be cost effective for the retailer, the manufacturer, and the consumer, but it is quickly approaching the tipping point of not being cost effective for the shipper!

again--we're not running out of oil, we're running out of cheap oil. we've got lots left in the ground but it's mostly of the heavy/sour crude variety and is very difficult both to extract and to refine.

ok, i'm off to the train. i'll be walking home from the train station this afternoon. the car is planted in the driveway, where it shall remain for the foreseable future.

Yet another case of profit over people

Interesting excerpt from the script of a documentary on the automobile industry's caclulated plan to destroy public utilities and services that cut into their profits. They were sued by the government and found guilty of conspiracy and fined--$5,000...

local politics

beth and i rode our bikes to yesterday's open forum for councilmen-at-large (councilpeople) and mayor. heard the candidates speak to the issues and answer questions submitted by the townspeople in the audience. there were about 250 people there, and even though Salem has a lot of diversity in its population, the population of this forum was about 98 percent white. which was weird. anyway we have a coal power plant in salem. a company called Dominion runs it, and apparently they are more responsible and accountable than PG&E used to be in running it. but this is a coal power plant... even though it may not spit black smog up into our sky, it gives people cancer, and generally lowers the health and well being of salem citizens. not one candidate approached the issue of the powerplant from anything but a financial perspective. "your residential taxes have gone up by 62 percet in the last 3 years and the powerplant is our biggest tax base! we can't afford to lose it!" i mean... i guess i see the point. you can't fund a $105million budget and have adequate services for 42,000 people without some good industry to provide some tax dollars. and at least the powerplant is not near the hospital... but there are 65 acres of land that could be used for some clean industry or even alternative power generation. i'm going to do some research on the power plant and viable, profitable alternatives that could exist on 65 acres of land...

Holy Stupidity Batman!

FEMA sends over 1,000 firefighters to the scene... AS P.R. LIASONS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

bike!

i bought a bike from a friend who owns a bike store in salem. it should be ready for me to pickup within an hour. i'm going to walk into town and ride home. woo-hoo!

Understanding why we are at war--the Petrodollar.

The mass media would have you believe that we are at war because Iraq is a hotbed for breeding terrorists and we are protecting our national interests by bringing democracy there. Common liberal thinking would have you believe that we are there simply for "oil" and that the war is wrong and it only serves the interests of the rich and greedy. While the war certainly does help the rich and greedy, that characterization is not entirely true... The answer is--and it is a simple one--we are at war with Iraq to protect our currency, and to protect our way of life. While the answer is simple, understanding why that is the answer takes a bit of explaining.

If you've read my blog or you read www.museletter.com, you know that oil is traded in dollars. That means if anyone wants to purchase oil, be it a corporation or a nation, they must exchange whatever currency they use for US dollars. This policy was instituted in a deal with the US and OPEC shortly after the oil shocks of the 70s. During the late 20th century, The World Bank, under the direction of Robert Mcnamara from 1968-1981, "helped" 3rd world nations industrialize by floating them HUGE loans--in US dollars--so they could buy oil. Of course there was no way these countries could pay back these loans, but the investment in dollars created by this practice allowed the dollar to grow stronger and stronger and allowed us to carry a RE-GODDAMNED-DICOLOUS amount of debt. But as long as countries are buying dollars to buy oil, things were right and good--as there is demand for dollars.

Our currency remains strong not because we produce any exports of intrinsic value (aside from weapons), but because foreign investors were buying dollars left and right. In fact we started the practice of mass-outsourcing of physical goods production and jobs at about the same time as the "petrodollar" was created.

Basic economic theory says that the more something is demanded, the more it is worth. In the simplest terms, currencies work in the same fashion. Dollars are vaulable because there is a demand for them in the global marketplace. Once that demand is taken away, the value of our currency plummets, and we are stuck being with no choise but to devalue it. Trust me, while they are a bunch of fuckwads, the Bush administration has our best interests in mind in not wanting this to happen.

We invaded Iraq in 1991 shortly after they annexed Kuwait. They had just gained control of over another 1.5 million barrels of oil per day and Sadam Hussein wanted to trade this oil for currencies other than the dollar. So we blasted them into the stone age and slapped some sanctions on their ass for 12 years, granting contracts to US corporations to rebuild the country that we had destroyed. This not only kept the dollar strong and the rich happy, but it sent a message to all other oil-exporting nations--fuck with the petrodollar and we will blow you up a whole bunch. Problem solved... sort of. In 2003, those sanctions were lifted, and Hussein began trading oil for EUROs. So we made the of course false claim that Iraq is connected to Al Queda and that they were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and we had to kick their muslim asses.

The reason we attacked Iraq again? THEY WERE TRADING OIL FOR EUROs! This war was not a pre-emptive strike on our part. Hussein struck first--economically. This war is definitely about oil--but not for consumption--for profit. Without "people" buying dollars to buy oil, our country would sink into a MASSIVE depression. And ain't no prozac gunna help us outta that one. Haliburton would not stand for their shareholders' investments becoming worthless in a matter of a few months as the dollar lost value and inflated by hundreds upon hundreds of percents. I was in Russia during 1993 as their currency was devaluing. When I got there, the Rubel was trading 700:1 against the dollar. ($1 = 700 rubels). When i left--8 days later-- it was trading at 800:1.

I will be the first to tell you that this war is bullshit, we should not be there, war in general is wrong, violence is wrong. But trust me the devaluation of currency as I described in Russia above will happen in the US as well if we don't defend the "petrodollar."

The last thing we are interested in doing in Iraq is building democracy. It is not in their best interest to trade oil for dollars and they know it. So why would they continue to do so if they had free-will over their own government and fiscal policy?

So the real reason we are in Iraq--to defend our nation's economic security. To defend our national security. To defend our standard of living. To defend our god-given right as Americans (god bless america...) to consume. It's not so easy to be anti-war when you understand that we were attacked first--economically. We really are fighting for our lives.

understanding oil/gas prices-revisited

I got information from the EIA (US Govt Energy Information Administration). this information shows us plainly that prices are not set by oil companies. if you hear anyone talking about that, they are flat out wrong, and you should set them straight.

real information on how prices are set

"The pre-tax price of gasoline (or any other refined oil product) reflects:
- its raw material, crude oil
- transportation from producing field to refinery
- processing that raw material into refined products (refining)
- transportation from the refinery to the consuming market
- transportation, storage and distribution between the market distribution center and the retail outlet or consumer.
- market conditions at each stage along the way, and in the local market."

"Oil prices are a result of thousands of transactions taking place simultaneously around the world, at all levels of the distribution chain from crude oil producer to individual consumer. Oil markets are essentially a global auction -- the highest bidder will win the supply. Like any auction, however, the bidder doesn't want to pay too much. When markets are "strong" (when demand is high and/or supply is low), the bidder must be willing to pay a higher premium to capture the supply. When markets are "weak" (demand low and/or supply high), a bidder may choose not to outbid competitors, waiting instead for later, possibly lower priced, supplies."

How oil and gasoline are priced - and why it may not be so important to harp on it...

How oil and gasoline are priced

i took the easy way out and just asked some folks on a messageboard...

i think i may have to drop this issue altogether for a while. it has occured to me that i have choices to make in life. i have options... but continued ranting, raving, and thinking about resource depletion and economic collapse doesn't help make those choices easier. it just confuses things, as sometimes it leads me to discover that the best choice to make in light of it contradicts my principals in exchange for security in life, relationships, etc... sticking to one's principles one hundred percent of the time is a great way to live, but it requires complete independence, and I, of course, am married. i wouldn't trade that for anything--including the right to act like a stark-raving-anti-capitalist-whistle-blowing-sky-is-falling-commie-pinko-bastard-freak.

priorities being what they are, i think i must concentrate on building a happy home first. things are going to play themselves out the way they will, regardless of my mouth. what's most important for us to do now is keep earning... if the wife and i are on the same page we can get through anything together. if i alienate her with constant talk about peak oil and how it affects our lives, and apply it to every decision while belittling her position because "i've done more research..." i guess i have to go back and re-read my post about balance, because i kinda went off the deep end. it's just hard to realize where to draw the line. the truth doesn't help in doses that are too large...