Renew News » biodiesel

Discovery’s Future Car TV Show Talks Fuel

Mark — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:23:54 +0000

The Discovery channel is 3/4 of the way through their four part series on the car of the future, appropriately called Future Car. The most recent episode was about fuel and hit on everything from ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen and solar all the way to having a car powered by air.

A few of the finer details are a little off, but all in all the shows have been great. It’s really cool to see what the designers are thinking about, and what is on the way. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me in this episode on fuel is that a lot of the future is already available now. Of course they showed prototype cars that can do some amazing things, but really the near future of fueling our vehicles is not so much about bringing in new technology, as it’s about getting more people on-board with the advances that are already commercially available like ethanol, biodiesel and hybrids.

One of the great things about cable is that you get more than one chance to see a good show. If you missed any of Future Car, check out the schedule for your second chance.

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A Plea to Our Nation’s Leaders: Get Us Off Foreign Oil!

Mark — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 05:01:56 +0000

Tonight I was visited by someone from the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, and it inspired me to make the following plea to our nation’s leaders:

To our Leaders at all levels,

It’s time to get serious about Renewable Energy. This country has made some good steps, but it’s time for more serious action. We need a National Renewable Energy Standard (RES) for the United States. We need it for four reasons: environmentalism, to maintain our economy, to avoid an energy shortage, and for national security.

A Renewable Energy Standard is a plan that requires utilities to gradually increase the percentage of renewable energy in the total energy that they provide. Twenty states already have their own Renewable Energy Standards, and it’s time to follow their lead. This can be done locally, statewide, or nationally. With enough leaders at all levels working on it we will be able to have an impact.

I live in Indiana, and the main thing that has been in the news in this state regarding Renewable Energy is biofuel. Since we are a corn and soybean-growing state it makes sense to promote biodiesel, and I am very happy with the progress and the attention that biodiesel has gotten so far, but there is another area that deserves greater attention in Indiana and throughout the nation: wind.

I have just learned that most of the northern half of Indiana is more than suitable for wind power, and there are many, many areas in the country that are underutilizing their wind power potential. I recently chose to pay more in my home for electricity that comes from wind power, and I was amazed to find that they were going to import it all the way from a Minnesota wind farm. That’s three states away! It just doesn’t make any sense to me that we don’t have enough wind power generation in this state for our needs. Not only would it create jobs, and leave us with cleaner air, but even better then all the obvious benefits, there is a great double benefit for our farmers. A farmer could be growing soybeans or corn for biodiesel in the same field where he was farming wind. Not only would he get the income from the crop, but he would also get a nice chunk of cash from the operators of the wind farm ($5000-7000/yr from what I hear). Wind power is profitable very quickly and with current technologies, and unlike oil, we will never run out of wind. I have even read about farmers who have started their own wind cooperatives. We need to do as much as we possibly can to encourage this kind of thing.

The most pressing reasons for massive and immediate action to support Renewable Energy are our wars in the Middle East. Our citizens are overseas dying in wars that our own President now admits are not working. Imagine where we might be now with Renewable Energy if even a tenth of the money spent on our failed wars had been spent on energy research five years ago when we went to Iraq. Now imagine where we would be if ALL of it had been spent on Renewable Energy research. We could have taken the wind out of the sails of our problems in the Middle East. It’s surprisingly hard to imagine, but we could someday be free of foreign oil in a sustainable way, and that would make a number of our current foreign affairs problems vanish.

As a leader you are in a special position to make a greater change than someone like me. Most of the time issues that are even remotely environmental, like Renewable Energy, are seen as a Liberal crusade, but I think that most Americans would support action that would make us less reliant on foreign oil. Renewable Energy is an especially good choice since it can be cost effective (and cheaper in some cases), but it requires forward-thinking, planning, and government support. I am no expert, but it is my understanding that the petroleum industry enjoys special considerations from the government that Renewable Energy doesn’t get. It’s time to either level the playing field, or tip it the other way.

It’s not too late. Any action that you, as a leader, can take to make it easier, cheaper, cooler, or more profitable for greater use and development of Renewable Energy will create jobs, sustain our economy, clean our environment, save lives in our Middle East wars, and perhaps even reduce the threat of terrorism by getting us out of that region.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for your efforts to make our nation great.

Mark Hayward

More info on wind power

5 Simple Things to Save the World

Mark — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:58:44 +0000

It can be overwhelming to want to save the world. I know… I’ve been there.

Not everyone has the time, energy, or especially the money to get onboard the Renewable Energy Train. Even if you are not yet able to install solar in your home/business or get that cool diesel car so you can have French-Fry smellin’ exhaust, there are little things that you can do every day. I made a short list, and provided a link to a much longer and more thorough list for those who want to do a little more.

Five Simple Things You Can Do to Help Save the World

Biodiesel May Be Catching On

Mark — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 03:48:01 +0000

As I travel around the Midwest doing yo-yo shows, I have been seeing more and more evidence that biodiesel is entering the public consciousness. In the style of the old (like 1950s era) Burma Shave ads, I have started seeing biodiesel ads. These are in the same style as the ones that you have probably seen from the gun enthusiasts where there are four or five signs in a row on the shoulder of the highway, where each one has a part of a larger message. The soy farmers have latched on to this technique and I like it.

I think it’s really cool that biodiesel is starting to become a patriotic product. I can’t remember what they actually said, but the most recent group of signs that I saw was something like: “Grown in the Heartland/ American Made/ Fill Up With Biodiesel/ Keep America Safe/ www.ILsoy.org” I think this is a really great thing. Farmers get a greater market for their crops, and we reduce our dependency on foreign oil all in one fell swoop.

Biodiesel Co-op Starts Up in Madison WI

Mark — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 15:49:56 +0000

A group of ten forward-thinking Madisonians have turned the former Car Care Clinic at 1894 E. Washington Ave into PrairieFire BioFuels Cooperative. If all goes well they will be selling 100% biodiesel from a real, honest-to-goodness pump on E. Washington Ave. by the end of the summer. At the moment all fuel sales are done at 100 S. Baldwin St. When winter comes there will be blends available that won’t congeal in the cold weather.

In addition to the fuel sales, you can pay PrairieFire to convert your diesel vehicle to use Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO), or they can teach you how to make your own biodiesel.

There were a couple of articles on this new co-op in Madison, but they don’t seem to be available online, so you’ll just have to check out their website: www.prairiefirebiofuels.org

Jessica Alba Loves Biodiesel

Mark — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 04:33:12 +0000

Jessica Alba was just on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to plug her new movie: The Fantastic Four 2. Right at the end of the interview she mentioned that she is really into alternative fuels, and she tried to convince Jay to run his diesel vehicles on biodiesel. He was thoroughly unimpressed.

Nice try anyway Jessica.

Willie Nelson is into Biodiesel… who knew?

Mark — Tue, 23 May 2006 05:43:01 +0000

Not only is Willie Nelson into Biodiesel, but he has an entire webiste and business devoted to it. One of their selling points is that biodiesel is fuel that is a fully renewable enrgy source, it is grown right here in America, and it supports our farmers. I think this is a great way of looking at it and it ties right in with all of Willie Nelson’s efforts with Farm Aid. The site has some really good information, I learned a bunch the first time I visited it. Good ol’ Willie….

Anything Into Oil… Even Turkey Guts

Mark — Wed, 03 May 2006 05:52:26 +0000

I have to admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about people running their cars on french fry grease. Run your car on a waste product, and have it smell good at the same time? Too good to be true.

Now though, it seems that quite a few people are actually doing it. I’m not sure I have the patience to make my own bidiesel at home, and now it appears that we may not have to. Discover Magazine had an article a few years ago about making biodiesel from slaughter-house offal on a mass scale. I have been waiting with baited breath for a follow-up article… and here it is:

http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-04/features/anything-into-oil/