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Showing posts from February, 2011

What about biofuels?

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NYT>Science>Environment>Green>Yet Another Route to Cellulosic Ethanol>Feb. 10, 2011 Corn ethanol plant in Colorado. A/B) My personal commentary: Lately I've been reading a lot about biofuels— oh, and natural gas/hydraulic fracking, but I'll focus on just one energy source for now. A lot of good questions to ask about biofuels pertain to its viability— economically and sustainably. This NYT's blog post addresses revenue methods for one biofuels plant in particular,  Ineo Bio. I say it's a pretty clever strategy. To summarize the article, Ineos Bio, a subsidiary of a major chemical company, introduced a new concept for bringing biofuels to a commercial scale. This concept involves a three-way stream of revenue. The strategy kind of reminds me of how media advertising works now, in a bundle. To incentive advertisers, media companies throw in 'free' ad space, ie, Seventh Generation pays $1,000 for a half-page ad in The Economist , The Economis

My Energy Finance Essay

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Folks, I just whipped up this essay a couple nights ago for an Energy Finance fellowship for which I applied. It's long and dense, so take a bite, digest what you can. The essay prompt was rather open-ended, which was fun in terms of throwing in my opinion (God knows I've got lots stored up). It was was kind of enjoyable pondering over the prompt, as I've been more on the "Got an idea? Write up a plan, gather what you need, and do it" side of eco-consciousness, as oppose to the technical, bureaucratic side. Hopefully my essay expresses my optimism for a more energy conscious American society. There's something about the Golden Gate.  Is it because it pushed the boundaries?  Challenged, at the  time, new technologies?                                                                                     Prompt:  In your opinion, what is a government's ability to transform the energy sector?  The U.S. federal government has the