IDAHO FALLS – Hydrogen researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory have reached another milestone on the road to reducing carbon emissions and protecting the nation against the effects of peaking world oil production.

Stephen Herring, laboratory fellow and technical director of the INL High Temperature Electrolysis team, today announced that the latest fuel cell modification has set a new mark in endurance. The group’s Integrated Laboratory Scale experiment has now operated continuously for 2,583 hours at higher efficiencies than previously attained.
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A major international study says palm oil plantations reduce plant and animal diversity, and do little to reduce carbon emissions.

Researchers say tropical forests are increasingly cleared to make way for palm oil crops, leading to a reduction in habitats for many rare species.

The problem is most acute in Malaysia and Indonesia which produce around 85% of the world’s palm oil.

The report is published in the journal Conservation Biology.

Palm oil is a common vegetable oil, and is now regarded as a major source of biodiesel, however the researchers question whether it really offers environmental benefits over conventional fossil fuels. Read more

WASHINGTON, — (BUSINESS WIRE) — Keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations, a study in the journal Conservation Biology finds.

The study reveals that it would take at least 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost through forest conversion. And if the original habitat was carbon-rich peatland, the carbon balance would take more than 600 years. On the other hand, planting biofuels on degraded Imperata grasslands instead of tropical rain forests would lead to a net removal of carbon in 10 years, the authors found.

The study is the most comprehensive analysis of the impact of oil palm plantations in tropical forests on climate and biodiversity. It was undertaken by an international research team of botanists, ecologists and engineers from seven nations.
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Opponents of an effort to bring coal gasification to town proposed some alternative development ideas Wednesday during a rally in the parking lot of Rockland Trust, 100 Slades Ferry Ave.

Al Lima, research director for local environmental group Green Futures displayed his rendering of what the site now occupied by Somerset Station, a coal burning electric plant with plans to convert to coal gasification, could look like.

Last month, the state Department of Environmental Protection approved the plant’s conversion from coal-burning to synthetic gas. It also eliminated a 2010 deadline making the conversion or closing the plant.
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Nearly all envision medium- to small-scale projects: a wind farm on Kodiak Island (total cost: $24 million), a series of “low-impact hydro” projects in Kenai Peninsula streams ($19 million apiece), a geothermal plant at Manley Hot Springs ($880,000).

Towering over them all, however, was a giant from days gone by: an ambitious hydropower project at Chakachamna Lake, about 85 miles west of Anchorage. Total cost: $1.75 billion.

Driving such ideas, developers say, is the increasingly high cost of energy derived from fossil fuels in Alaska and the improving affordability of green alternatives. That and the sudden availability of state oil-windfall cash.

As a result, legislators recently appropriated $25 million to help build a Fire Island wind farm in one bill and authorized spending $250 million on future renewable energy projects in another.
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U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green), who leaves tomorrow on a trip to Alaska to promote oil drilling on federal park lands, again yesterday called for a comprehensive energy strategy that would allow more use of oil, coal, and nuclear power.

Mr. Latta, a freshman congressman, said other countries, notably China and India, rapidly are building coal and nuclear plants while the United States is failing to make use of its coal resources and has not built a new nuclear power plant since 1996.

“The No. 1 issue is energy. If we don’t have energy this country is going to fall further and further behind in the world,” he said.

Tomorrow he joins a fact-finding trip from Washington to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska with 10 other congressmen, all Republicans.
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Oil prices fell further today after slumping by more than $10 over the past two days on concern that slowing US economic growth would hurt crude demand, traders said.

New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, dipped 42 cents to $134.18 a barrel, after slipping $4.14 yesterday.

That followed a dive of $6.44 on Tuesday, the sharpest daily decline since January 1991.

London’s Brent North Sea oil for September dipped 21 cents to $135.60. The Brent August contract expired yesterday down $2.56 at $136.19.

Prices have crumbled since striking record highs above $147 per barrel last Friday.
Losses accelerated yesterday after a bigger-than-expected rise in US crude reserves, analysts said.
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