OK, pretty much every environmentalist is backpeddling away from ethanol at great speed.  The new meme is “OK, ethanol does suck, but biodiesel’s still groovy!”
No, actually it’s not.

A very smart engineer in Seattle wrote this brilliant piece for Gristmill, an enviro blog, using his handle “Biodiversivist.”
I got nothing to add — except to wish that the Governor, every Oregon legislator, and every last person in Portland city government had to read this piece and actually justify what they’re doing when they promote [...]

Great news reported by Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board (www.oregoncub.org): Gov. K has vetoed the line item that proposed taking $4.6M from the Energy Trust of Oregon and giving it to OMSI to help with the institution’s financial woes.
Thanks to the good Gov, and also to all the people everywhere in Oregon who insisted that [...]

Stop.  It’s nonsense.  Big Oil LOVES biofuels.  With good reason.   And at last I’m not the only one pointing this out:
“Big Oil is one of the major engines driving the biofuels bandwagon.  Measuring all energy inputs to produce ethanol, from production of nitrogen fertilizer to energy needed to clean the considerable waste from [...]

“Give the robber 10% of what he took from you and I’ll return the rest.”
That appears to be the plan for rewarding the great cash grab engineered on behalf of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry:  Instead of a clear announcement of a veto, Gov. K appears to be rewarding the robbery by only [...]

Article here.
“Big Coal” is a hugely important book for anyone concerned about the energy future and climate stability.

Ok, so here’s (I hope) the last one for this session. There’s simply no good policy argument for the money grab the Lege pulled here. The ends (supporting OMSI) don’t justify the means used (grabbing money from PGE ratepayers’ — including those who live far away from Portland — out of the [...]

There’s little time to spare if you haven’t already visited the Campaign to Save the Net and told the FCC to ensure Net Neutrality.  Without it, you are going to find that the Net you know is not the one that survives, because the Telcos will be free to start cutting deals with providers based [...]

The one place Oregon has acted to tart itself up and throw itself at any stinking smokestack is in biofuels production.  Check out this tremendous summary of just how staggeringly costly and counterproductive ethanol is — JUST at the federal level … (editorial emphasis added):

Oregon League of Conservation Voters has a blog where they have asked for your ideas for the next Legislative session — so dream big!   The only stupid ideas are the ones that no one ever expresses, because all the rest can spark something better, even if it’s not such a hot idea in itself.
So hit [...]