Tapping Mother Earth (SFW)

Whaddaya know. I was just talking with a friend about geothermal heat. Seems his brother has a geothermal furnace and it's like an amp that goes to 11. He heats his home. He doesn't pay those 'taller than the guy from Midnight Oil' natural gas bills.

Then I saw a link to 'Geothermal energy a booming business (shameless plug).'

The story says alternative energy mandates and the promise of Obama (cue power chord) have increased interest in geothermal energy as a power source. Requests for drilling permits are way up.

This is technology that creates energy using heat stored in the Earth. Perhaps that devil guy from the Dio videos had the right idea (obscure reference alert).

I did a little digging (pun intended) and found something even better than the free heat mentioned earlier. The feds offer a $2,000 tax credit for installing a geothermal furnace in your home. Not bad. Of course, geothermal furnaces cost more upfront, but think of the potential such a furnace has for sparking conversation.

- Green Mullet.

Where I've been

I know I haven't been around for a while. My last post was Dec. 24. Aren't the holidays great? Relaxing in your pajamas? Having to work the Day After Christmas? Spending too much time playing video games?

Which brings me to my subject for today: Video games use up a lot of energy. The Natural Resources Defense Council recently conducted a study, along with some smart consultants, and found that the PS3 and the XBOX 360 use gobs of electricity. A post at Plenty mag says the consoles "gobble up electricity as fast as Ms. Pac-Man swallows pellets," a little dated reference if you ask me.

Anyway, the PS3 uses about $134 in electricity a year. Sounds like a refrigerator. The XBOX isn't much better, at $103 a year. The Wii, the most awesome of them all (gosh, my shoulder hurts), uses a mere $10 a year. Hell yes.

So if you get Guitar Hero, for the Wii, you could play something by an eco-conscious rocker and feel good about wasting time.

Also, if you follow the instructions on the NRDC Web site, you can enable the power-saving mode for the (wish you had a Wii) PS3 and XBOX and cut your carbon footprint.

- Green Mullet.

Michigan muck removal starts in 2010

Hopefully the days of Great Lakes goodness that I (and Kid Rock) remember are on their way back. 

The Michigan Legislature passed a couple of bills on Dec. 18 that will limit phosphorus in laundry and dishwashing detergents beginning July 1, 2010. 

This development went unnoticed by Mainstream Media, from what I can tell (thanks Google News). But the Michigan Policy Network has a rundown, with the requisite links, and the Michigan Environmental Council praised the legislation in a year-end wrap-up report. So I feel it. 

This is big news if you care about limiting phosphorus, a nutrient that's been blamed for nasty, stinky dead algae that's been fouling beaches and shoreline property for years in the Great Lakes state. 

Of course, simply cutting out this bit of phosphorus won't cure the problem (hello invasive species), but it will hopefully improve conditions, experts say. It also will lessen the strain on wastewater plants that have to remove phosphorus as part of the treatment process. Similar phosphorus limits will begin at the same time in 2010 in several other states, too.

The new Michigan standards, which actually should begin sooner, will cut phosphorus levels in detergents from a current 8.7 percent to 0.5 percent (a 17-fold decrease if my math is right). Local governments started this wave, by banning phosphorus in residential lawn fertilizers earlier this year. Hopefully that's next for Michigan. 

Have a muck-free holiday!

- Green Mullet

Manta Ray in U.S. waters

Back when Metallica was cool, before Lars and the gang cut their hair, their songs, sold out, got greedy and generally annoying, they released "... And Justice For All" . I bought it on cassette. The first song, "Battery." 

So it's with some nostalgia that I write about the latest twist in the U.S. auto industry spiral. Plenty Mag has a story today about U.S. battery makers forming an alliance to develop and produce batteries for the next generation of domestic automobiles. It's called the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, or NAATBCM for short. That's catchy. 

The group aims to get U.S. batteries in U.S. cars. They want up to $2 billion in federal aid, but say a little upfront investment would help create jobs (remember those?). Other countries subsidize battery cell manufacture.

Argonne National Lab says: "Lithium ion batteries are anticipated to replace gasoline as the principal source of energy in future cars and military vehicles. Today, United States automobile manufacturers and defense contractors depend upon foreign suppliers — increasingly concentrated in Asia — for lithium ion battery cells."

Why not make them here? We used to make good metal here, too. 

- Green Mullet

P.S. The first time one of my friends heard "Battery," he thought the chorus was "Manta Ray." We all had a good laugh. "Manta Ray!"

The Chevy Volt: Made in China

Nah. I'm just kidding. The Volt will be built in Flint (ho ho ho). I'm talking about the first mass-produced plug-in hybrid car, which went on sale Monday ... in China. 

Soon, the new cars, from a company owned by Mr. Wang, may be available at Walmart (Kidding, but Warren Buffet owns about 10 percent of the company). 

 

The car that beat GM to the punch is made by Build Your Dream Autos, and called the F3DM. It gets 60 miles per charge. The (fictional?) Volt gets 40.

Toyota also is working on a plug-in hybrid, to be on lots by 2010. That's the same year (uh huh) as the Chevy Volt. 

Gosh, it sure is easy to pick on the Volt, huh? It's easy to pick on hybrids and electrics in general. Heck, I love to save money on gas. But I sure enjoyed driving my 4x4 SUV today, when it snowed almost a foot in Michigan. Can an electric/hybrid do that? If so, let's hope it's a domestic one. 

- Green Mullet. 

Musta got lost

This morning, I finished my Christmas shopping. Then I went to the store to pick up some refreshments for a Christmas party at the house tonight. On the way home, "Musta Got Lost" came up on the iPod. 

How prophetic it was. Because I just checked my 500+ unread RSS feeds and found this newflash: GM is halting construction of its Volt plant in Flint, Michigan. The Volt, the plug-in electric car. The supposed saving grace for the dying automaker. The next great hope from Detroit. Halted. 

Musta got lost. The automakers didn't get any of the loans they wanted from Congress. But, behold, President Bush may turn out to be the hero on this one. Ho ho ho.

In the meantime, the automakers are showing how much they really care about moving into the future. Apparently, they don't. The Volt, allegedly, will get 40 mpg on electricity alone (if it's ever built). 

The Detroit Free Press says the Volt and Cruze (an efficient gas model) are (still?) expected to launch in 2010. 

Musta got lost. You'd think that if GM really was making plans for the future, hoping to reinvent itself, that the Volt and Cruze project would be Priority No. 1. Autobloggreen says GM execs are still vowing to build the Volt, with or without government money. Is that a threat?

Someone once said that Chinese Democracy would be released before the Volt. Guess what?

- Green Mullet. 

Composting RIP

Am I crazy? Maybe, but is composting dead?

First it was recycling. Prices for recycled materials are so low that haulers are losing money, sorting centers are stockpiling stuff like cardboard and plastic, waiting for prices to go back up. We're all on a cycle here, right? Things will get better, won't they? 

Now comes composting. Huffington Post has some holiday suggestions: Don't throw away that food waste, compost it. Because, they say, if you don't, your old food will decompose in a landfill and create methane gas.

Is that so bad? Yes, methane is a potent greenhouse gas, a lot worse than its more famous counterpart, carbon dioxide. 

But there's technology out there, being used at landfills in Michigan and elsewhere, that can harness that methane and turn it into electricity. 

Are there emissions from landfill gas to electricity systems? Yes, but they're cleaner than Old King Coal. So throw away your food waste (as long as your landfill harnesses methane. Mine does). As for throwing away your recyclables, let's see how long the cycle lasts. 

- Green Mullet.