Brian McGraw

Post image for Energy and Environment News

Why Your Car Doesn’t Have a Spare Tire
Sam Kazman, The Wall Street Journal, 27 June 2011

Snow job: Al Gore doesn’t know how to use the internet
Anthony Watts, WattsUpWithThat, 27 June 2011

Will the CFTC Prosecute Obama and the IEA for Manipulation?
Craig Pirrong, The Streetwise Professor, 26 June 2011

The Facts About Fracking
Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal, 25 June 2011

Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush
Ian Urbina, The New York Times, 25 June 2011

(A Rebuttal to the NTY Piece)
Is Shale Gas a Ponzi Scheme?
Michael Levi, The Council on Foreign Relations, 27 June 2011

Low-hanging corn
Editorial Board, The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 June 2011

Obama’s focus on visiting clean-tech companies raises questions
Carol Leonnig, Joe Stephens and Alice Crites, The Washington Post, 25 June 2011


Post image for More on the Cellulosic Ethanol “Mandate”

We recently posted about the EPA’s decision to reduce the cellulosic ethanol blending requirement from 500 million gallons in 2012 to somewhere between 3.45-12.9 million gallons, which is 0.69- 2.5 percent of the original “mandate.”

Via Greenwire ($ubscription required), we see that refiners are still required to purchase “credits” from EPA indicating that they are complying with the mandate, despite its impossibility:

The proposal fine-tunes blending mandates for 2012 called for by the federal renewable fuel standard, and EPA said yesterday it expects to require a total use of between 3.45 million and 12.9 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels next year. Officials said the final figure could come out to more or less than the 6.6 million gallons required in 2011.

Charles Drevna, president of NPRA, said given that EPA’s own data show the ethanol industry has produced no qualifying fuel in the past year, the requirement for blenders to either use the fuel or pay EPA about $1 per gallon for a credit makes no sense. [click to continue…]

Post image for Does Ethanol Keep Our Gas Cheap?

Under attack from almost everyone these days, the ethanol industry has been digging deep to find ways of convincing America that they really are the best. They’ve been running advertisements everywhere claiming that ethanol (and presumably, federal ethanol policies) have helped to keep the price of gasoline up to $0.89 per gallon cheaper in 2010. They commissioned a report from the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development at Iowa State University. The report itself merely updates similar research from past years, the original study can be found here. The abstract (of the 2010 report):

This report updates the findings in Du and Hayes 2009 by extending the data to December 2010 and concludes that over the sample period from January 2000 to December 2010, the growth in ethanol production reduced wholesale gasoline prices by $0.25 per gallon on average. The Midwest region experienced the biggest impact, with a $0.39/gallon reduction, while the East Coast had the smallest impact at $0.16/gallon. Based on the data of 2010 only, the marginal impacts on gasoline prices are found to be substantially higher given the much higher ethanol production and crude oil prices. The average effect increases to $0.89/gallon and the regional impact ranges from $0.58/gallon in the East Coast to $1.37/gallon in the Midwest. In addition, we report on a related analysis that asks what would happen to US gasoline prices if ethanol production came to an immediate halt. Under a very wide range of parameters, the estimated gasoline price increase would be of historic proportions, ranging from 41% to 92%.

[click to continue…]

Post image for Cellulosic Ethanol “Mandate” Downgraded Again

Today the EPA announced its proposed 2012 Renewable Fuel Standard requirements:

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) established the annual renewable fuel volume targets, which steadily increase to an overall level of 36 billion gallons in 2022. To achieve these volumes, EPA calculates a percentage-based standard for the following year. Based on the standard, each refiner, importer, and non-oxygenate blender of gasoline or diesel determines the minimum volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is used in its transportation fuel.

The proposed 2012 overall volumes and standards are:

Biomass-based diesel (1.0 billion gallons; 0.91 percent)
Advanced biofuels (2.0 billion gallons; 1.21 percent)
Cellulosic biofuels (3.45 – 12.9 million gallons; 0.002 – 0.010 percent)
Total renewable fuels (15.2 billion gallons; 9.21 percent) [click to continue…]

Post image for The Future of Ethanol Policy

As was widely reported, the Senate voted last week on a bill that would terminate the ethanol tax credit and corresponding tariff. While many were excited by the prospect of finally moving towards better energy policy, it seems likely that things will still get worse before they get better. The ethanol industry does not seem worried.

Consider the following: John McCain (R-AZ) offered additional legislation, while the Senate was voting down the tax credit, that would have ended federal subsidies for ethanol fuel pumps at gas stations. This was voted down 41-59:

“It lost because of the influence of the ethanol lobby,” McCain said on Fox News Thursday, alleging ethanol “is probably the greatest rip-off that I’ve seen since P.T. Barnum.

[click to continue…]

Post image for Repairing the IPCC’s Image

Via Steve McIntyre

Doesn’t seem to be a top priority, and I wouldn’t count on it anytime soon. The report released a month or so ago touting Renewable Energy: “Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation” intended to show that the world could easily meet 80% of its energy needs with renewable by 2050. It was widely discussed on a number of blogs and reported in news media.

It turns out that the lead author of the report was an employee of Greenpeace, and relied heavily upon a joint Greenpeace/European Renewable Energy Council report — not exactly unbiased peer reviewed material: [click to continue…]

Post image for EPA Continues the E15 Push

Reuters is reporting that the White House has given its seal of approval to the EPA’s proposed label for E15 (85% gasoline, 15% ethanol). The picture above is of an earlier draft label, no actual images are public yet (to my knowledge) of what the final image ended up being. I suspect the label will be quite similar though it will change 2007MY to 2001MY.

Despite cheers from the ethanol industry, its not clear where the path goes from here. The EPA has suggested that E15 could be sold across the country by September, but a number of gasoline stations are in opposition. Here is a letter (.pdf) sent to Lisa Jackson from the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) and the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA), whom together represent roughly 80% of retail fuel sales in the United States. In it they write:

[click to continue…]

Post image for Senate to Vote on Ending Ethanol Tax Incentives

In what is being described as an ambush, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has successfully forced a vote (next Tuesday, June 14) on legislation that would, upon July 1, terminate the ethanol tax credit and corresponding tariff. A back of the envelope calculation suggests it would save approximately $3 billion in the remainder of 2011.

According to the article, Coburn is cautiously optimistic that he has 60 votes. Politico gets it right, this is a big deal regardless if it passes:

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Post image for Renewable Energy Inputs and Human Pessimism

Today The New York Times ran two dueling opinion pieces featuring Robert Bryce, author of a number of books, and Tom Friedman, who chose this column to unleash his inner Paul Ehrlich. The latter column will make regular NYT readers anxious and depressed, the former will make them angry.

Bryce argues that though wind and solar farms do not produce emissions, they require a whole lot of land, significant natural resource inputs, and new transmission lines. He believes that these shortfalls are under appreciated by renewable energy proponents, and the scaling of renewable energy might have other environmental consequences. California appears to have plenty of land, but that is to meet a 33% renewables goal, which is unlikely to satisfy environmentalists, and California has much more land than other states. The takeaway is that all energy choices have their tradeoffs:

[click to continue…]

Post image for Are Your Google Searches Killing the Planet?

“Could the Net be killing the planet one web search at a time?” in The Vancouver Sun

It’s Saturday night, and you want to catch the latest summer blockbuster. You do a quick Google search to find the venue and right time, and off you go to enjoy some mindless fun.

Meanwhile, your Internet search has just helped kill the planet. Depending on how long you took and what sites you visited, your search caused the emission of one to 10 grams of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

[click to continue…]