Wave Energy - One of the many ways the Earth generates power without burning something.

The ocean produces a tremendous amount of power 24-7. Wave energy is frequently captured with buoys that rock with the waves, and also involve a great deal of steel. This is one that uses a long, rubber, under water tube called the Anaconda: As waves push against the tube, a surge of water forms and is pushed all the way to the back of the tube where it hits a turbine. http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/giant-rubber-snake-anaconda-could-bring-cost-of-wave-power-down.html

54% of energy generated in the U.S. from Burning Dirty Coal, Petroleum, and Gas is lost.

We drill and spill and burn and pollute to get the energy and don't even use half of the energy that was generated.  

Charts of Energy and Consumption:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/chart-us-energy-use-reveals-oil-coal.php?campaign=weekly_nl

In addition,  the US currently uses about 19.7 million barrels of oil a day, 71% of which goes to transportation via cars, trucks, buses, airplanes. So, the longer we rely on the internal-combustion engine to fuel vehicles rather than electric cars, bikes and public transportation, the longer we stay dependent on drilling for those rapidly diminishing fossil fuels, which means more risky wells in deep water areas of the ocean and the inevitable occurrence of another disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

Letter to Obama on fuel standards and reducing our dependency on oil.

These are my embellishments to a form letter written by Union of Concerned Scientists Action Center to be sent to Obama at a click of a button.  You are always supposed to customize them so they hopefully get more attention.  The 3rd and 4th paragraphs are theirs.

More than 20 years ago, I took a photo of graffiti on a wall in Spain that said basically, 'Americans are vampires of petroleum.'  And we've gotten even worse since then. 

I also recently saw an issue of Popular Mechanics from the '50s. The cover story was about the best cars with the best mileage. The artwork involved a graph showing the models and their mpg.  And guess what?  It was about the same as today!  There's been no improvement in 60 years!.  We've used the internal combustion engine for over 100 years with little innovation.

We cannot be held hostage any longer to America's addiction to oil. When we talk about the high price of gasoline, today's gas prices are the most visible, but certainly not the only price we pay. We pay in pollution. We pay in endangering our security. We pay in falling behind in the jobs that can come from a clean energy economy.

You have the ability to empower U.S. industry and U.S. drivers to be the solution to this problem once and for all. Raising fuel efficiency and global warming emissions standards to the equivalent of 60 mpg by model year 2025 would save the average U.S. driver nearly $9,000 over the life of the vehicle at $4 gas prices, even after paying for cleaner car technology. That's like cutting the gas price from $4 to less than $2.75 a gallon, all while cutting global warming emissions and creating jobs right here in the United States! 

Personally, I don't mind the higher gas prices. It's seems to be the only way to get Americans to conserve or change their lifestyles. I know it will be painful in the short term, but the changes we have to make will be amongst the best things that ever happened to the planet. 

A few additional details that need to be addressed:

-We need better home building methods (which exist but builders keep building things the same old way), solar and wind turbines on our roof tops, more walkable cities, and more fuel efficient transportation methods.

-Why didn't you make the automakers convert factories to produce mass transit equipment rather than close them down as part of the bailout?  We have to buy these things from overseas.  Manufacturing needs to be more local. Perhaps the government can help interested businesses purchase these factories by guaranteeing them the contracts for the equipment?

-Also, why do we not require methane gas to be captured to keep it out of the atmosphere and to be used as fuel.  They just vent it into the atmosphere where it's the worst of the greenhouse gases at coal mines, oil and gas wells, land fills, etc.  Why are we so wasteful? In other countries, they have generators that produce electricity directly from this. It could be used to power equipment at the mine, well, landfill or neighborhoods that surround the landfill. 

Along that note, any nuclear power plant should have a turbine that keeps turning producing power to circulate cooling water and run equipment as long as there is heat coming from the reactor.  Simple solution to what has happened in Japan.

-Please stop subsidizing corn! For any purpose, but especially for ethanol! It is a low yield per acre crop that requires tons of harmful fertilizer.  It wastes more energy to grow and produce the ethanol than we get from the ethanol.  And the products they make from it are bad for our health. It's also a lousy food for livestock.  It makes them unhealthy.    Instead subsidize small farmers that grow  vegetables and humanely raise livestock for sale locally.

Invest in the future. Oil and gas, is not the future.

Why isn't a turbine turning to provide power to pump the water in the reactors?

Another example of how we ignore simple solutions and waste available energy.

So, they build these plants to produce electricity, but then they have diesel and batteries for backup power? If it's producing heat, it's producing steam, which means it can turn a turbine. Even with the reactor shut down, as long as there's heat, there should always be a turbine turning to provide the energy to pump the water and run equipment. Why would you do anything else? This way there would always power to operate the plant in an emergency.

This is worse than the coal mines just venting out the methane from the mines rather than capturing it or using it to power equipment in the mine, because it could prevent a disaster.

Some of the things I do for the environment.

What I do:
Minimize auto usage by walking and/or combining trips and considering if I really need to go there today.  Follow certain safe eco-miling practices such as not wastefully letting the car idle and driving around and around looking for the closest possible parking space.  I don't start the car until I'm ready to move, park at the first space I come to and turn the car off immediately.  And where possible, park where I can pull out without a lot of maneuvering.  Keep tires inflated and car in good running condition. We don't have mass transit of any use to me here, btw. If we did, I'd use it.

Keep the thermostat at 80 in summer with the ceiling fan on. (I live in a beastly hot climate.) I don't use the oven or even multiple stove burners in summer. I believe in one pot meals, which also minimizes cleanup. Keep the thermostat below 70 in winter and use the oven for cooking when it can warm up the house.  And always dress for the climate.

Have a water filter and drink only from glass at home, stainless steel bottles and cups when on the go.  No plastic bottles. I drink tea and other drinks made at home. The bottled beverage industry gets little money from me as well. 

Use only a low-energy notebook computer which I turn off and unplug when not in use.  I have no accessories or chargers left plugged in when not in use.

Grow some of my own food and shop in my local farmer's market.  Carry my own shopping bags and re-use produce bags.  Eat mostly meatless meals and only buy animal products from pastured animals. While I'm not extreme enough to make a big deal about it when eating at someone's home or something, the horrific, inhumane, unhealthy, polluting beef and pork industries get no money from me. And poultry doesn't get much either.  And I try to buy only sustainable fish. I just can't get the hang of cooking those whole Idaho farmed trout. But I'm trying. I also buy a lot in bulk such as dry beans at Whole Foods where I bring my own bags.  I also volunteer at a school garden where hopefully the kids are being encouraged to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Shop resale. The charity thrift shops near me are really good. Maybe they are near you as well.  Look for those that take consignment. If I bought it over the last 5 years or so and it's not shoes or underwear, it's most likely resale. Especially, clothes, accessories, linens, kitchenware, furniture, etc. And I have a far bigger and better wardrobe than when I shopped more retail. And so much cheaper. There's also yard sales and freecycling websites. Make sure you offer your castoffs to others rather than throwing away.

I make very little garbage.  In fact, I use the bags my cat food comes in and it takes me two weeks to fill the 25lb size bag. I compost food scraps. And I have very little to recycle. Just junk mail, occasional cardboard boxes, the boxes a few food items like tea and pasta come in, vitamin and aspirin bottles, a few glass jars although I reuse many of those.  I bought re-usable bowl covers to use instead of plastic wrap for most leftovers.  They sell them in the same place as the plastic wrap in the supermarket and at Dollar tree. I also use cloth napkins and rags for cleaning.

I also use very little in the way of soap and detergent. You don't need as much as most people use. Why use a cleanser to strip your body of oil, then apply moisturizer?  My clothes aren't very greasy, so why all that detergent?  And I do most of my cleaning with water, rags, vinegar and baking soda.  BTW, you aren't supposed to fill those caps that come with the liquid concentrate detergent.  There are lines indicating how much they want you to use and they are at about half a capful. 

And of course, I have CFL light bulbs, recyclable batteries, turn things off, etc.

These things really aren't tricky or a hardship.  I plan to do a lot more when I get my dream house built out of energy saving methods and designed around gardening and other details of my ideal lifestyle. But right now it's just all designed in my head.  I'm looking to get a new job and relocate out of here. And for now, I rent.

Methane

So, I only recently learned that methane is 85% of the fairly clean burning fuel we call natural gas. I don't know why I never heard that before.  And methane the most damaging of the green house gases (which I did know) so apparently we are better off burning it for energy.

And thanks to mining and drilling disasters. I've observed that it just gets released into the atmosphere in all our carbon fuel extracting activities like coal mining and oil drilling. Not to mention by decomposing plant products and animal waste and the outrageous number of cattle we raise. And yet we do nothing to capture all that. 

Why would a coal mine just vent the methane into the atmosphere when there's money to be made from it?  Why wouldn't natural gas companies make deals with the coal, oil and waste management companies?  Why would they rather pump millions of gallons of water into the earth to extract shale gas and let the toxic water seep into our water system?

If we are better off burning it for fuel than letting it get released into the atmosphere, then it should be the law that it be captured.

So have you started reducing your carbon footprint yet?

I don't mean recycling. I mean reducing.

Everyone is criticizing big oil and BP, yet I don't see any more people refusing the plastic bags and/or bringing their own in the stores.  Except in places like Whole Foods, I look around and I'm usually the only one with my own bags.

And are you using any fewer plastic bottles yet?  Wasting any less gas yet?  Adjusted your thermostat yet?  Turned things off yet?

Also, here's a blog post about oiled wildlife on Grand Terre island from many days ago.  Why is the media only now telling us about this? Why do they keep reporting from Grand Isle?
http://birding.typepad.com/gulf/2010/05/day-33-heavy-oil-and-carnage-to-grand-terre-island.html