Fracking threatend by new fuels?

If this works out, there may be little need for hydrofracking.  Per TigerHawk, a Massachusetts  startup called Joule Unlimited has developed on an organism that can produce liquid fuels on demand.  Great, but at what cost?  How about thirty bucks a barrel?

Joule says it now has “a library” of fossil-fuel organisms at work in its Massachusetts labs, each engineered to produce a different fuel. It has “proven the process,” has produced ethanol (for example) at a rate equivalent to 10,000 U.S. gallons an acre a year. It anticipates that this yield could hit 25,000 gallons an acre a year when scaled for commercial production, equivalent to roughly 800 barrels of crude an acre a year.

By way of comparison, Cornell University’s David Pimentel, an authority on ethanol, says that one acre of corn produces less than half as much energy, equivalent to only 328 barrels. If a few hundred barrels of crude sounds modest, recall that millions of acres of prime U.S. farmland are now used to make corn ethanol.

We expect the professional opposition to shale gas will soon rush to invest in Joule's venture.

PA residents support fracking

A poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac University shows Pennsylvania residents support hydrofracking for natural gas production by a 2-to-1 margin.  In what should serve as guidance to bankrupt New York's governor Andy Cuomo, Quinnipiac pollsters reported:

"'Drill, baby, drill,' is the call from Pennsylvania voters, and 'tax, baby, tax,' is the follow-up as voters see natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale as an economic plus more than an environmental negative," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "They also see added taxes on gas drillers as one of the few acceptable ways to help balance the budget."

While New York lets its neighbor to the south reap the benefits of hydrofracking, Unlikely Hospitalist is following the escapades of our seemingly corrupted US congress, which continues to transfer Finger Lakes tax dollars to giant agribusinesses.  Ethanol subsidies enrich political campaign donors, while increasing your food and energy costs.  And UH reminds us that mandatory ethanol in our gasoline is a hazard to your power equipment as well.

Fill 'er up!

Could the answer to our decades long "energy crisis" be domestically produced coal, oil and natural gas?  A shocking hypothesis from Michael Lind in, of all places, Salon, is sure to get the left's hemp panties in a wad. 

What if the conventional wisdom about the energy future of America and the world has been completely wrong?

As everyone who follows news about energy knows by now, in the last decade the technique of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," long used in the oil industry, has evolved to permit energy companies to access reserves of previously-unrecoverable “shale gas” or unconventional natural gas. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, these advances mean there is at least six times as much recoverable natural gas today as there was a decade ago.

Natural gas, which emits less carbon dioxide than coal, can be used in both electricity generation and as a fuel for automobiles.

The implications for energy security are startling.

In Lind's view, the Finger Lakes' ubiquitous voluntary peasants may soon be sent to the political locker room for a long delayed shower.

The renewable energy movement is not the only campaign that will be marginalized in the future by the global abundance of fossil fuels produced by advancing technology. Champions of small-scale organic farming can no longer claim that shortages of fossil fuel feedstocks will force a return to pre-industrial agriculture.

Economy of scale

Mowing season under way

Finger Lakes people share a deeply rooted cultural affinity for large lawns.  Relatively inexpensive land, abundant rainfall, and occasional bright sunshine facilitate large swaths of manicured turf.  At this time of year, small talk among native or assimilated homeowners involves only two subjects:  tax assessments and lawn mowing.  

We embrace a lot of diversity between our Slim Fingers, but proper lawn care must be understood as a quasi-religious obligation.  Young and old, rich and poor, gay and straight, even Democrats and Republicans are all lawn care fanatics.  You can argue with a guy's politics, hate the Yankees, drink Bud Light, even wear long sleeves in the summertime, but don't disrespect your neighbor's well trimmed acre.

With seemingly endless rainfall this spring, our lawn mowing days have been limited, while the grass is growing like crazy.  When we do get a chance to mow, our equipment needs to be in top shape.  So be aware that the ethanol our state government requires in New York gasoline, while good for rewarding political cronies, is hazardous to you mower. 

"Since they've added the alcohol and other components to get the alcohol to mix with the fuel it causes it to break down quicker," Titus Mower Manager Gary Kubasiewicz said. "That does cause problems. It does affect fuel components. We run into corrosion in the fuel systems. It's attacking the rubber gaskets and inlet seats, things like that. So it's definitely causing problems."

We use STA-BIL.