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Aug
18
ANWR post explodes as nation tries to figure out energy independence
Filed Under energy | 2 Comments
I had a note from Steve Dalton at Porter County Politics advising that his post on ANWR — the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and an Indiana congressional candidate’s visit to that region — was attracting a lot of attention in the blogosphere.
In these days of ever increasing gasoline and energy prices, it’s great that Steve has taken a look at an area that has generated a lot of controversy, but that might also be one of the solutions that allows the United States to finally break free from dependence on unfriendly and hostile nations for our energy supplies.
Would you support drilling in ANWR if it meant that we didn’t have to spend some much time and energy keeping oil flowing from the Middle East? Maybe ANWR drilling is the price we need to pay in order to have some peace — at least until the Russians or some other lunatic country decide to flex their muscles.
The whole issue of energy independence and rising prices has gotten me thinking that it would be great if everyone would add a solar panel that was interconnected with the power company’s grid. Not only would everyone get some net metering benefits, it could also reduce the need to burn natural gas, oil or coal to produce power.
While a solar panel or two won’t be enough for a household to go off the grid — wouldn’t it be great to never have a power bill again — the aggregate of neighborhoods back feeding solar power into the grid would be a great step toward ending our reliance upon oil from evil dictators, crazy potentates and other people in control of energy sources who don’t have our best interests at heart. At the very least, maybe we could reduce our own energy bills by a significant amount by selling power back to the power brokers.
There’s something beautiful in the thought of a backwards spinning energy meter, isn’t there.
Jun
20
Trash-to-ethanol plan gets Hobart’s support
Filed Under E85, E85 / Alt Fuels, E85 prices, Lake County, energy | Leave a Comment
City officials in Hobart are supporting a plan by Lake County, Indiana solid waste officials to build a trash-to-ethanol conversion plant in the county, reports the Northwest Indiana Times.
City officials have agreed to draft a letter supporting efforts by the Lake County Solid Waste Management District to turn garbage into ethanol.
The council’s agreement Wednesday to go forward with a letter of support followed a presentation at a meeting two weeks ago by district manager Jeff Langbehn.
Langbehn said the district’s board voted in March to draft a contract with Genahol-Powers 1 LLC and Indiana Ethanol Power LLC, both of Evansville, and Allied Waste, of Crown Point, to turn the county’s municipal garbage into biofuel and more traditional recyclable materials.
Meanwhile, county officials have delayed a vote on the proposed trash-to-cellulosic ethanol plant for up to two months to work out contract details, reports the Northwest Indiana Times.
