When Money talks

In 2005 ExxonMobil posted $35 billion in profits, the largest ever profit posted by a US company. In 2008 ExxonMobil reported the highest quarterly profit made by any company in the history of the World. Now, in US politics, we know it’s money that buys the senate votes (through their lobbying power); and I believe ExxonMobil profits find their way to some interesting influences.

When the price of oil went up recently, Bush was on a plane to visit the Saudi’s – requesting them to take immediate action on bringing the price of oil down. That’s a pretty powerful lobby group when the President takes action for you! Of course it was in the interest of the American people – cheap oil that is; or is it?

Obliviously the renewable energy sector obviously doesn’t have the same funding as the Oil companies to get power behind US legislation that will support (or not support) the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy. The consequence of all this is seen clearly in political actions in America:

1. President Bush’s FY06 budget requested the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy efficiency and renewable energy programs to accept reductions totalling nearly $50 million - an overall cut of roughly four percent.
2. Bush supported the Vehicle Industry lawsuits against the state of California over a landmark clean-air regulation that requires the production of millions of low-emission cars and trucks over the next decade and a half. California has had to put that on hold.
3. It seems a little funny that the US seemed so focused on invading and occupying the country with the richest OIL reserves on earth…hmmm…
4. Senate voting denied success for a vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.
5. Despite Senator McCain saying he supports renewables, he did not show up for the crucial S.3335 vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. (By the way McCain didn’t show up for any of the eight attempts to pass this legislation whilst Obama did show up many times for the vote).

Recently evidence has surfaced that the Bush administration, in particular Dick Cheney, pressured the EPA into lying about the extent of the harm low level ozone causes the environment, human health, and how it affects global warming. California made request to the EPA for details that would allow them to require stricter air quality rules than federal standards. Apparently they were turned down because the President wants to preserve a legacy of the US oil use (low cost energy) and we’ll obviously see money going from government to encourage more off-shore exploration in US territory. Bush’s thrust is get America off foreign oil not necessarily oil – so he now supports a faulty Corn Biofuel campaign (1).

Now I’ve generally been against Biofuels; since as I have written in this blog before there is concerns that if we start using good farming land for Corn and Sugar Cane and other Biofuel sources, then we are pricing up food; just because of the high price of fuel (2). And it’s questionable if Biofuel is a benefit over the whole eco balance – ie land clearing in Sumatra for Palm Oil has a huge impact on both the environment and species depletion (like apes). This does not encourage me to think that agriculture for Biofuel is a great answer to our fossil fuel problem. However China is doing Biofuels like it should be done. Using waste that would otherwise be an environmental impact. Look at this -

In YanQing District, about 50 km north of Beijing, there is a farm (the Beijing Deqingyuan Chicken Farm) which has three million chickens. Chicken is probably the most frequently eaten protean in China; so it’s well needed. However, in the course of production this farm produces 220 tonnes of manure and 170 tonnes of wastewater each day. New gas engines are being installed that will use biogas created from chicken manure to generate needed power and heat at this large chicken farm.

The farm is installing new cogeneration systems which features an anaerobic digester system to treat the waste material, producing enough biogas to fuel two gas engines. The plant will have an installed capacity of more than 2 MW for use at the chicken farm. Additionally, the plant's thermal output is used to support the chicken waste fermentation process and also heat the chicken farm in the winter. The Chicken Farm Waste Utilization plant will supply some 14,600 MWhr of electricity per year and will qualify for the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Now, this brings me back to where we started. I watched President Bush on television giving a serve to the Chinese on human rights and religious freedom. At the same time he hasn’t supported Kyoto and is withdrawing support for renewable energy (see actions above). So where does Bush get off thinking he’s such a great leader; leading the world continually down the fossil fuel path whilst the Chinese are in fact becoming more supportive of renewable energies, and have set targets that will exceed the US renewable mix in the near term? Leadership considers humanity, something Bush is myopic about. Humanity is better served today focusing on survival and Climate Change that any issue about democracy vs central government controlled economies and censorship vs freedom of speech. Where’s the freedom of the +80% (3&4) of Americans who support the renewable thrusts when the senate (influenced by oil money) take a different tact than what the majority of the population desire. Oh, that's democracy Bush style for you!

Now as a parting gesture here is a great link to read; it outlines how the US defence budget could provide 24 Million homes with renewable energy for a year:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/90742-the-economic-cost-of-the-military-industrial-complex

(1) A vehicle loses 10 % or more mileage from adding 10 % ethanol to gasoline, so it would be better for the energy consumed to have not added the ethanol at all. Why should humans be wasting our grain resources to produce ethanol that could be feeding farm stocks?

(2) In 2004, before the Ethanol mandates were imposed, the cost of corn hovered around $2 per bushel. Now in the US it is close to $8 per bushel – it just doesn’t make sense.

(3) National public opinion survey by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria – nearly unanimous support for 25% renewables target. Over 80% were in favour of increasing financial incentives in contrast to the reduction outlined above.

(4) Also the Schott Solar Barometer™ showed that 77 percent of Americans feel that the development of solar power, and other renewable energy sources, should be a major priority of the federal government. http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3492.htm