James Howard Kunstler on The Long Emergency

6 Comments on "James Howard Kunstler on The Long Emergency"

KenZ300 on Mon, 6th Dec 2010 3:17 am 



Can the transition to alternative energy reduce the economic and social impact of Peak oil? Every barrel of oil not used in an automobile will stretch the supply.

The US mandate of 10% ethanol in a gallon of gasoline has reduced the consumption of oil by replacing it with ethanol.

If Brazil was able to move to an ethanol based transportation system with a majority of flex-fuel vehicles being sold so can the rest of the world. Second generation biofuels from cellulose and algae can and will be produced. That trash we throw away every day can be converted to fuel.

Bloomer on Mon, 6th Dec 2010 11:50 am 



Is replacing food crops with crops to power our SUV’s a really good ideal? Just a thought.

Zoli on Mon, 6th Dec 2010 11:02 pm 



Problem with renewables is the net energy return on energy investment. Ethanol for instance, only gives a 2:1 return. In other words, if you want two gallons of the stuff in your SUV, you are in effect consuming 3 gallons, not just two, because it took one gallon to make the two you wish to burn.

KenZ300 on Tue, 7th Dec 2010 12:58 am 



A California -based company is building a $120 million biofuels plant near Reno Nevada. They expect the plant will create more than 50 full-time and 450 temporary jobs.

The plant is expected to produce over 10 million gallons of ethanol AND 16 megawatts of electricity annually by processing MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE.

This plant will create clean energy and reduce dependence on foreign oil by
processing HOUSEHOLD GARBAGE.

Clean, sustainable alternative energy — that is what we need — local energy, local jobs.

If every garbage dump in the country co-located an ethanol plant we could go a
long way toward producing local energy and local jobs.

Why do we keep pushing oil, coal and nuclear when there are clean,
sustainable alternatives? At the very least we should diversify our energy sources.

Since the garbage is already being collected daily and the input material to the plant is basically free I wonder what the EROI of this plant will be?

Sounds like a great idea to me. Produce low cost energy and reduce the amount of trash going into landfills. This is a solution that can be replicated around the world.

Second generation ethanol plants producing ethanol from cellulose or algae can be part of the solution.

James on Thu, 9th Dec 2010 11:35 am 



In the State of Ohio, the present Governor Strickland implemented a railroad initiative where they would build a railway system between the major cities of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland with future additions as needed, and hopefully connect it to a nationwide system. Now, we have a new Governor elect John Kasich (republican) who wants to scrap the project and return the money back to the Federal Government or use the money for other purposes. Thankfully, President Obama said no, it had to be used for the purposes intended. Mr. Kasich has vowed to fight this program during his governorship.

James on Thu, 9th Dec 2010 11:43 am 



Also, with respect to using trash to generate ethanol or electricity, The City of Columbus Ohio had trash burning power plant 15-20 years ago with which they provided electricity for the city to provide power to their street lights and city facilities, and sell to the local grid. Along came a series of Republican Mayors who were instrumental in getting the plant torn down. EPA was telling the city that it was producing too much pollution and had to be modified to prevent air pollution. The mayors didn’t want to provide funding to correct the problem and ordered the plant torn down. Now, the citizens get socked with increasing tax liabilities to provide a much larger area of public lighting provided by a generating plant located in West Virginia or S.E. Ohio at 3-4 times the costs that the trash burning plant would have cost.