Suggested Discussion Outline - Oct 11th

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Suggested Discussion Outline - Oct 11th

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Proposed Discussion Outline
Global Warming
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future
(Jeff Goodell, Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin 2006)


1. Review of “The Basics” – please see attached outline

2. The Human Cost of Mining Coal

2-A. Examples in “Big Coal”
2-B. Our own Utah Mine Disaster this past summer

3. Grim Statistics from “Big Coal”

3-A. >50% of American electricity generated by coal-fired plants
3-A-1. most of the rest is generated by fuel-oil fired plants
3-A-2. all new plants during the last 30 years have been fired by coal or fuel oil
3-B. >20 lbs/American/day of coal burned for electricity
3-C. >60% of all American sulfur dioxide emissions (think “acid rain”) come from coal-fired electricity plants
3-D. >40% of all American carbon dioxide emissions (think “global warming”) come from coal-fired electricity plants
3-E. 2/3 of China’s energy comes from coal-fired electricity plants (per NY Times, China is currently passing the U.S. as the world’s largest carbon emitter/global-warming polluter)

4. Kyoto Protocol

4-A. Does NOT prevent global warming – merely slows it down
4-B. Exempts India and China
4-C. The European Union’s “compliance” with Kyoto has largely been based on “cap and trade” which is generally agreed to have been a farce
4-D. No effective enforcement mechanism
4-E. Expires in 4 years

5. Kyoto-Successor Negotiations

5-A. Last month’s U.N. Conference in which >100 countries participated
5-B. President Bush’s Conference last month
5-B-1. Initial negotiations limited to the world’s 15 largest polluters (the G-8 + India/China + a few others)
5-B-2. Widely criticized as being, at least at this stage, is voluntary
5-C. A “down the road” decision – verification/enforcement (a la nuclear non-proliferation complete with U.N. inspection teams and sanctions/invasions???)

6. The Nuclear-Hydrogen Economy

6-A. Time to go “all in” on nuclear???
6-B. Or better to wait for a while in hopes of better technologies???



*****************************************************************************************************
Energy Pollution Basics
Global Warming
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future
(Jeff Goodell, Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin 2006)

1. Fuels

1-A. Polluting = fossil fuels, aka “hydrocarbon” fuels = coal, natural gas, petroleum products (gasoline, fuel/diesel oil, etc.)
1-B. Non-Polluting = wind, solar voltaic, hydro-electric dams, tidal and (vis-à-vis air pollution) nuclear

2. Special Considerations Re Electricity Generation

2-A. 75% of BTU’s lost in conversion of coal/natural gas/fuel oil to electricity
2-B. Accordingly, “base line” 400% more carbon emissions from using electricity vs. gasoline engine for the same purpose (e.g., lawnmower, chain saw, electric public buses)
2-C. In addition, other air pollutants such as sulfur emissions (the “acid” in “acid rain”) greatly exceed the 400% “base line”
2-D. The 400% “base line” for carbon emissions can be reduced to 250% with carbon sequestration (capturing carbon-gas emissions & burying them in underground caverns)

3. Economics

3-A. Worldwide energy market pegged to petroleum products produced from crude oil
3-B. Natural gas is generally cheaper in most areas of the world because it is generally produced with the crude oil and must be flared if it cannot be piped overland (to ship it by sea requires liquefication which is usually prohibitively expensive) – HOWEVER, IT IS BECOMING SCARCE/EXPENSIVE IN THE U.S.
3-C. Coal is very cheap compared to petroleum (BUT VERY DIRTY) – in the U.S. it is plentiful enough (particularly in Wyoming where it can be open-pit mined) that it could supply 100% of America’s energy needs for the next century
3-D. Hydro-electric dams, once built, produce electricity very cheaply – but no new hydro-electric dams have been built in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
3-E. Wind, solar voltaic, tidal, etc., have not proved economic except in very isolated geographical areas – otherwise, they typically depend on governmental subsidies, e.g. tax credits
3-F. Nuclear has always been economic
3-F-1. The U.S. has not built any new nuclear plants in 3 decades – if the U.S. used nuclear to the same extent as France or Japan, it would have been able to comply with the Kyoto Protocol with ease
3-F-2. The over-riding concern in the U.S. (vs. France & Japan) has been safety
3-F-3. Due to rising crude-oil prices and global-warming concerns, many new nuclear-construction permits have been issued in the U.S. during the last 1-2 years.

4. Portability for Vehicles, Etc.

4-A. Hydrogen burns cleanly, producing only water (2H2 + O2 > 2H2O)
4-B. Hydrogen can only be produced economically (at least at this time) with nuclear power

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