Greenhouse Mending

Alternate Energy Investments up, But May Go Way Down “Renewable Power Trumps Fossils for First Time as UN Talks Stall” headlined a Bloomberg.com article of November 24. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-25/fossil-fuels-beaten-by-renewables-for-first-time-as-climate-talks-founder.html (Alex Morales) The good news for greens was that last year [presumably calendar year 2010] green energies of wind, sun, waves, and biomass received $187 billion in vestments while conventional energy sources of natural gas, oil, and coal only received $157 billion. The bad news for greens is that green-energy investments may decline severely in 2012. The article noted two interlocking issues, economic crisis and stalled climate negotiations. One good economic crisis was that billions of dollars of green-energy subsidies drove prices down; good for consumers but tough on fledgling companies. However, economic problems in many countries may drastically lower energy investments in the next several ...

Unhappy New Year: Biofuels in the Tank—Financially       Markets are often unkind to new ideas. Biofuels are a case in point. Several years ago, the price of oil per barrel shot upward, but the price of agricultural produce was still low. That offered possible profits for converting crops to synthetic fuels.      Meanwhile, there were rising environmental concerns about the carbon footprint of burning fossil hydrocarbons for transportation. Plants pull their carbon in from the air as they grow, so burning plant-derived fuel is carbon neutral. (We won’t get into those spoiled sports who grumble about carbon emissions associated with fertilizer, herbicides, tractor fuel, processing heat, etc.)      Finally, there has been a lingering hostility about large transfer payments to foreign oil-producing countries since the Oil Crises began in the 1970s. Thus, governments in Europe and the Americas subsidized production of s...

Gentlemen, I am writing this letter because you are iconic figures representing three vital points of a political triangle needed to make a major energy revolution. T. Boone Pickens, you are a business deal-maker controlling billions of dollars who has recently cultivated a following among democrats and environmentalists to develop greater use of natural gas and wind energy. Richard Rainwater, you are an investments advisor and broker, also controlling billions of dollars. Moreover, you have strong contacts with a number of people in the Republican party, including the Bush family. Antonio Villaraigosa, you are the Hispanic mayor of a major Southwest United States city, short on electrical power but rich in sunlight and heat. Together you three have the wild hairs to dream, the money to build dreams into innovation, the political clout to burst through walls of inertia, and the managerial drive & finesse to maintain the drive for transforming innovations...