Yesterday I declared this the Week of Oil. While the Obama administration is calling for more green jobs and support of the clean tech industry, it is also calling for more research on ‘clean coal’ and more off-shore drilling. It’s these last two items that really seem to fire people up so I decided it was high time I learned more about oil’s world and I began by reading “Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil,” by Peter Maass.

This book takes you on a journey around the world and throws you into the violence that surrounds nations’ quest for oil. It’s not pretty. To reiterate what most people already know, the majority of oil left in the world lies in volatile areas. And not just the Middle East, but areas of Africa and South America. Too many people believe that oil leads to wealth and the revival of a country. However, too often, it leads to corruption by government officials, increased poverty and unrest – not to mention the environmental devastation that occurs.

The sad thing is that despite knowing better (America is all for human rights, right?) our own corporations support these evil regimes. A case in point that Maass discusses is Equatorial Guinea and its corrupt dictatorial President Teodoro Obiang. His reported salary is $60,000 a year (US dollars) but it was recently discovered that he has bank accounts in access of $700 million. The bank accounts reside in the U.S.

So while he’s rolling in the dough, the people of his county are uneducated, underfed and lacking in basic amenities like clean water and electricity. Eventually, the Senate released a report detailing “money laundering and foreign corruption” after being tipped off by journalist Ken Silverstein, and in the report wrote that oil companies operating in the country “may have contributed to corrupt practices in the country.” Naturally, the oil companies denied paying bribes (which is illegal), a few hands were slapped and business as usual resumed. The only true losers were the citizens of Equatorial Guinea. Continue reading →

I thought it would be apropos to tie this week’s book review into a common New Year’s resolution -weight loss. Enter “The End of Energy Obesity,” by Peter Tertzakian. While this book has the same theme as most energy books these days, breaking America’s energy addiction, it varied from the most common used parallels and likened our country’s energy addiction to our country’s food addiction. It is an effective analogy.

Tertzakian writes, “Over the last decade, specifically in North America, our energy appetite has soared to such an extent that we are now energy obese.”

Throughout the book, Tertzakian outlines how America became energy obese as well as the way our country can curb its energy appetite as this will need to be done, in part, through a new energy diet that is compelling. He explains that energy sources, both renewable and nonrenewable will need to meet nine energy attributes. The higher the score, the better chance the energy source has of being successfully incorporated into our energy diet. The nine attributes include: versatility, scalability, storability and transportability, deliverability, energy density, power density, constancy, environmental sensitivity, and energy security.  Ultimately, Tertzakian feels that renewable energy has limited potential and his winning solution is increasing the use of natural gas.

For the most part, he stays the course with his metapor through the first two parts but he begins to wander off topic in part three as he delves into conservation, dissolving distance and the development of communication technologies. I also disagree with him in the sense that relying on an increase in natural gas is not the best way to go. Natural gas is a limited resource that fluctuates heavily in terms of pricing. An increase in the use of this energy source could cause our energy prices to become even more volitale. Yes, energy prices will increase as we ramp up the integration of alternative energy sources but over the long-term, prices will become more stable than they are now.

Ultimately the book presents some interesting ideas to mull over but if you’re short of time, just focus on the first half of the book. To read this book or any book I review, click here.

Remember that old wives tale told to children that babies come from storks? Here is the addendum to the tale…and everything else comes from oil. When President Bush delivered his now famous quote, “We’re addicted to oil,” I don’t think he quite realized how prolific that was. He obviously meant in the form of gasoline/energy use but petroleum by-products are used to make plastics, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals (like you lotion and makeup) and even your clothes, and author Amanda Little takes you on this journey in her new book, “Power Trip“.

Little traveled the country for two years, starting her journey on the “Cajun Express,” an offshore rig located miles from the coast of Louisiana, and ending her trip back in Louisiana, spending time with Hurricane Katrina victims as they move into their near zero emission homes as part of the Make It Right program. In the middle, she spent a good bit of time visiting companies developing alternative energy sources.

The end of her journey is spent with the leaders of tomorrow, but these are not your typical Generation Xers or a group of kids who feel “entitled” to everything. These are the people who are refining the new environmental justice movement. These are children who are growing up in areas that have shouldered most of the hidden costs of our country’s fossil-fuel based lifestyle, and they’re making change door-to-door, not via the power of Capital Hill lobbyists. Continue reading →

I’m writing this review as I fly on a plane and I’m feeling guilty about the amount of CO2 that is emitted when flying – on average, flying contributes about 10 times as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as a similar journey by train. And no, I didn’t buy carbon offsets for this trip….

The guilt is being fostered by this week’s read, a Green Series, published by Chelsea Green Publishing. I read four in the series, all co-written by Jon Clift and Amanda Cuthbert: Energy; Water; Greening Your Office; and Climate Change. Also in the series: Reduce Reuse Recycle; Composting; and Biking to Work.

I liked how easy the series is to read, many bullets points and quick facts, as well as their, “If you do one thing” pointers and the way they have the, “spend nothing save less,” and spend little, save more.” On the negative side, the books don’t have any real background on the issues, but the authors do have a list of resources at the end of each book.

I’m going to leave you with this thought, since many who are pushing environmental responsibility often go to far as they live further and further off the grid. (Let’s get a grip. It is not in our country’s best interest to revert back to the pioneer days).

“We can take control of the situation and reduce our energy and reduce our consumption. We don’t have to live shivering in an unheated room with no modern appliances; we’re just talking about being more energy efficient – reducing the need for so much power.”

To read these books or any I review, click here, and if you have a book you’d like me to review, email me at jomschro2071@gmail.com.

What do salt and oil have in common? In its time, the world was overdependent on the strategic commodity (oil today and salt more than 100 years ago).  Our country (nor the world) is “salt dependent” but the world is oil dependent, but not in the way that most people define oil dependence. “That is what energy independence means: that it no longer matters who holds the reserves, that oil becomes much less relevant to global affairs, that it becomes just another commodity,” writes Gal Luft and Anne Korin, in “Turning Oil Into Salt Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice.”

The authors, who co-founded Set America Free Coalition and are also co-directors of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), continue,”Contrary to popular conception, energy independence does not mean autarky – it doesn’t mean walling ourselves off from the global market. Independence means not having to kowtow to the various petrodictators that sit on the bulk of the world’s oil reserves. Independence requires that oil become just not that important any more.”

The meat of the book delves into what energy independence looks like and the strategies that are currently in place, which the authors note are not effective and write that, “America’s energy policy still suffers from institutional paralysis.” They discuss terrorism at length but make a point that most authors fail to make, “Energy independence will not stop terrorism and will probably not prevent rogue regimes from obsessively pursuing nuclear weapons.” (The reason the U.S. is supposedly in a war with Iraq.) Continue reading →

I have written often that the best way for our country to transition to alternative energy is through the community – not through the government. As such, the book, “The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook Community Solutions to a Global Crisis,” by Greg Pahl fits nicely into my thesis.

“Community-supported energy (CSE) is similar to community-supported agriculture (CSA), except that instead of investing in carrots, tomatoes, or chicken, local residents invest in greater energy security and a cleaner environment. Local ownership and control allows the community to create a project that meets its particular needs while addressing its concerns about size, scale, and location.”

Pahl covers all forms of energy from wind to solar to hydro-electric to biomass to biofuels. He even touches on the never-going-to-happen technologies, Thermal depolymerization (TDP), a process that turns virtually any carbon-based waste material like tires, old computers and plastic bottles into energy. The second form is zero point energy. This involves harnessing the universe’s “dark matter” and converting it into energy. Very interesting stuff.

The author definitely has some creds for the topic he chooses and he and his wife have installed various forms of solar energy and wind in several of their Vermont homes. But like the trap that Friedman finds himself stuck in, so is Pahl. Too much technical information bogs the reader down from the need to know info. But aside from that, if you are interested in helping your community create its own energy and economic wealth, then this book is a good place to start.

To read this book or any other book I’ve reviewed, visit this link.

“They’ll panic at first and stop all gasoline delivery. They’ll ease restrictions when they figure out which supplies are still clean. Because you can’t order Americans to stop driving. It’s like telling them to stop eating. They think God gave them cars.”

They say that fiction is truth sprinkled with a few well placed lies. In this week’s book, “Black Monday,” by Bob Reiss, the truth has been contaminated with sludge. This fiction novel is based on the world’s near end when a foreign company doing business in the oil industry, sets off a catastrophe of monumental proportions. The crime – introducing a heat resistant bacteria, known as Delta-3, into the oil supply infecting the oil and rendering it unusable. Planes begin dropping from the sky, killing thousands. Cars stop dead in their tracks on the road. Heating oil rendered useless.

In a mix between Stephen King’s, “Cell” and William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies,” the world must learn how to live without oil. Fighting occurs, looting becomes commonplace, people begin starving, and ultimately people form “tribes” to survive. The main character, Gregory Gillette, fights to save the world and his family by discovering how the bacteria infected the oil supply and ultimately the antidote. Continue reading →