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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (9739)	11/29/2009 11:02:53 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24211

Energizer Bunnies: Turning Rabbits into Green Fuel By Tara Kelly Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009 Sweden's Tommy Tuvuynger and his team of professional hunters don't have to go far to find their prey. Tuvuynger is employed to keep down rabbit numbers in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The rabbit population there has exploded over the past few years thanks to owners setting free their pets. Last year the eradication squad killed 6,000 of the furry critters, which are not native to Sweden. When the city started killing the rabbits in 2006, officials realized they would have to dispose of their carcasses. At around the same time, the European Union passed a law that makes it illegal to dispose of raw meat or carcasses in landfills. Solution: use the bunnies as fuel to heat Swedish homes. When German newspaper Der Spiegel broke news of the novel fuel source last month, many Swedes were outraged. "It feels like they're trying to turn the animals into an industry rather than look at the main problem," says Anna Johannesson of the Society for the Protection of Wild Rabbits. Johannesson and other wildlife campaigners recommend spraying the park with a chemical that makes shrubs and plants unappetizing to the animals. Tuvuynger, though, has little sympathy for that argument. "If you do that you only move the problem 100 meters away. Overpopulation is not good for the animals' well-being because they use up limited natural resources for survival, so shooting them is the only answer." (See pictures of 10 species near extinction.) It's not just rabbits that are being used to heat homes. Reindeer, moose, horses, pigs and cows are all thrown into an incinerator run by a firm called Konvex near Lake Vanem, southeast of Stockholm. Using a new method that was developed with the help of E.U. funding, raw animal material is crushed, ground and then pumped into a boiler where it is burned together with wood chips, peat or other waste to produce heat. "It is an efficient system as it solves the problem of dealing with animal waste and it provides heat," says Leo Virta, the managing director of Konvex. "The main part of this fuel is coming from cows, pigs and moose. Rabbits are only a small part of the total volume. We take the raw animal material, mince it up into small pieces and add some formic acid. We then take the fuel and deliver it to the heating centers. One hundred thousand tons of raw material can generate enough heat for 11,000 homes a year." While killing animals to use them for fuel is rare in Europe, using animal by-products as fuel is now normal practice thanks to the E.U. law about disposal of raw meat and carcasses. Offal and other by-products must be incinerated or treated by approved waste-disposal companies. Not only does that help Europe meet its ambitious green energy targets, it also aids in the E.U's bid to reduce landfill waste levels by 35% by 2020. (See the top 10 green ideas of 2008.) The law is already having an impact. In Britain, big supermarkets send unsold and expired meat to companies that convert it into fuel to heat homes. Since 2001, the German biofuel company Saria takes greasy animal fats and cooking oil from caterers and restaurants and then turns it into renewable energy used for power stations and manufacturing plants. Saria found using animal oil instead of vegetable oil is not only a cheaper alternative, but it also produces less harmful emissions, delivers better engine efficiency and reduces noise pollution. Corporate America is getting into the animal-based biofuel market as well, thanks to U.S. government subsidies. Like Europe, the U.S. has a law that bans dumping raw meat into landfills. In July 2007, energy company, ConocoPhillips teamed up with meat giant Tyson to make biofuel from chicken and pork fats that would otherwise have been added into makeup, pet foods or soaps. Although biofuel produced from animal fat is better suited to fueling industrial boilers than cars, Tyson and ConocoPhillips have come up with a fuel for the "on-road" market. (Read: "Tallying Biofuels' Real Environmental Cost.") In Sweden, Tommy Tuvuynger takes a pragmatic view of the trend. "People like the rabbits because they are pretty. What else can we do with them though? We can't give them bunny birth control pills. So we have to put the rabbits away." time.com

To: SiouxPal who wrote (9739)	2/26/2010 11:45:20 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24211

Report says oil supplies in Fla. waters negligible By BILL KACZOR Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press Feb. 26, 2010, 4:40PM TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Estimated reserves in Florida waters would provide the United States with less than a week's worth of oil and have no discernible effect on prices at the pump or U.S. reliance on foreign oil, says a report released Friday as part of a state Senate review of whether a ban on offshore drilling should be lifted. The report is the latest indication that the push to open Florida waters as near as three miles from the state's beaches may be waning, at least for this year. Another is that all 12 lobbyists for Florida Energy Associates, a group of independent petroleum explorers known as "wildcatters," that's been pushing for lifting the ban have withdrawn, according to the Legislature's lobbyist registry. That and the report were welcome news for such drilling opponents as Eric Draper, policy director for Audubon of Florida. Draper said the report "will help us to make the case that drilling is the wrong idea for Florida" and the loss of lobbying power on the other side offers hope that drilling won't be an issue this session. "Take out the special interests and this is going nowhere," Draper said. Florida Petroleum Council executive director David Mica, though, said his organization will continue to push drilling. He said the authors of the report did a good job in general but he disputed its conclusions about how Florida drilling would affect prices and reliance on foreign supplies. No bill has yet been filed on drilling in Florida waters with the annual legislative session set to start Tuesday, but resolutions have been introduced in the House and Senate that would urge Congress to lift moratoriums in federal waters farther from shore. Senate Energy, Environment and Land Use Committee Chairman Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, said legislation still could be passed by amending it onto another bill. "Nothing is dead for this year," Constantine said. "My job is to find the questions and answer those questions." Frank Matthews, formerly the lead lobbyist for Florida Energy Associates, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The report was prepared by the Collins Center for Public Policy, a Florida think tank, in conjunction with the state's Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, has asked the commission to submit information for the chamber's examination of the issue. The 40-page report is full of data gathered from government and private sources but makes no recommendations. Government assessments suggest oil and gas reserves in state waters east of Apalachicola in the Panhandle are "modest," the report says. The area west of Apalachicola has a separate geologic structure "that may contain natural gas fields at significant depths in the subsurface." Most of the total reserves east of Apalachicola also are gas. The oil estimated in state waters would boost U.S. supplies by less than 100 million barrels, or a small fraction of 1 percent. "To put that in context, the total estimated amount of oil reserves in Florida would satisfy the U.S. demand for oil (approximately 20 million barrels a day) for less than a week," the report says. Mica said those figures are all based on old estimates for Florida waters that date to the 1980s and have to be updated. He said a 1985 estimate for the entire gulf for 6 billion barrels has already been surpassed with the latest estimate at 42 billion barrels. Estimated reserves off Florida in federal waters are more substantial than state waters at a bit less than 4 billion barrels but "pale in comparison" to the central and western regions of the Gulf of Mexico, the report says. It adds that drilling in federal waters off Florida would boost total U.S. production by only 1 or 2 percent and "have no discernible impact on the state's or country's dependence on foreign oil." Mica disagreed, saying even "drops in the bucket add up" and that any time another gallon is added to the supply chain "you put a downward pressure on prices." The report also says the chances of accidental spills are low but that Florida's coastline is especially sensitive because of its mangrove forests, sea grass beds and coral reefs. The closer to shore a spill occurs the greater the hazard. The report says that makes drilling in federal waters less of a threat even than drilling in Cuban waters. "Studies show the sea currents flowing off Cuba's northwest coast could deposit oil from a significant spill anywhere from the Keys to Palm Beach," the report says. chron.com