Kevin Welch's Blog

Can't say enough about cans

2010-08-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

All hail the mighty can

U.S. Can Manufacturers Institute is celebrating the birthday of the can this year – really.

They get a little weird about it, but they seem sincere.

“The history of the can is literally a history of western civilization,” their Web site proclaims.

There is a lot of money involved, Americans use 130 billion cans a year creating an $8 billion industry, according to the institute.

But then they fly away again.

“Because we have come to rely so much on the convenience and easy familiarity of canned products, almost imperceptibly present in every part of life, we are the 'tin can civilization.' ”

Really.

The history is interesting. 1796 Napoleon’s troops were starving so he started a contest, according to the Web site. A Parisian tried for 15 years before preserving food by partially cooking it and sealing it in bottles with cork stoppers using much the same technique as today’s home preservers. He won the prize in 1810.

The same year, an Englishman won a patent for preserving food in a variety of containers, including iron coated with tin to avoid rust and corrosion, according to the Web site.

Is that a clone in your mouth?

2010-08-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

Both sides of the debate over selling meat or milk from animals with clones in their bloodlines is are in a tizzy.

Seems the Food Standards Agency in Britain has confirmed meat from a bull that originated as an embryo of a cloned cow got into the food chain a year ago. That would be against the law because it should have been labeled a "novel food" to be sold legally, reports meatprocess.com
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority have no problem with cloned meat.

Also, the FSA has traced an offspring from the same family line to a dairy but hasn't confirmed its milk is going into the food supply. Let's see, if the dairy is feeding and caring for this cow, where do you think the milk is likely going?

Do you care if that happens around here? How would you know?

Just one more bite

2010-08-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Wasn't eating our way through Santa Fe enough?

My wife, Karen, and I recently took an all-too-short trip to that city recently, and, of course, the first stop was a restaurant. The Shed makes basic New Mexican, but so good. Of course, the raspberry soup wasn't traditional, but so what?

Anyway, several days and more than several restaurants later (Check out the fairly new Restaurant Martin opened by Martin Rios, formerly of Inn of the Anasazi), it was about time to leave.

But wait, there's more. Trader Joes, Whole Foods, the fabulous farmer's market and several hundred dollars later, it's time to hit the highway. We were stocked with everything from dried tart cherries to several containers of unique olives and pickled peppers from the olive bar.

Then comes the sad part. It only lasts so long. Last night was the end of the Mario Batali pasta sauce. Can't get it here, so I guess that's that.

Do you ever go grocery shopping while on vacation. Is that wrong?

It's so stimulating!

2010-03-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's almost time to do your duty to pump up the economy while greening your home.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs is quite excited about the approaching reservation period for the cash-for-clunkers home appliance program. Check it out, a special Web page that is ever-growing.

She's positively breathless about the opportunity, as evidenced by the countdown clock on the page.

Really, the motivation behind the drive is probably pure, but can't they find better writers to promote a $23 million program? How snappy is "Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program," the federal program or "Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program," here in our part of the world?

The idea is to spend federal stimulus money on rebates to consumers who replace their aging, but functioning, dishwasher, water heater, central air, clothes washer, refrigerator, etc with new, energy efficient models that are ENERGY STAR® or CEE qualified?

The comptroller's office is still working out the details, but they'll start taking reservations April 5, at a time to be announced and the buying begins April 16 for a limited time. Don't jump the gun in your enthusiasm or you'll lose out on your rebate. There will be a recycling aspect that is less than clear, but I'm sure it will be more so soon. It will include a $75 bonus rebate for recycling your clunker.

The comptroller's office is so sure this will have buyers buzzing, it's establishing a waiting list for when the rebates are all reserved.

They're really stimulated.

Now spend - after April 16.

I need a lawyer

2010-03-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

It is truly the season of whiplash - sweat, freeze, green, brown. It makes you wonder if you need one of those tv personal injury attorneys to "get you what you deserve."

I know it happens every year, but that doesn't make it easy to cope with. The beds are ready to dig then they're covered with a white blanket. I'm ready to spread mulch, but the snow drift on the drive needs shoveling first.

The piles are starting to grow in the house. Between seed packets coming in and the stuff I'm hauling in from winter storage, like flats to plant in, it took me about five minutes this morning to make a stack that wouldn't avalanche in the corner of the living room.

Thank goodness I told the shippers to wait until April 19 before sending any plants this way. Then I scrape a few dried leaves away from the base of what is supposed to be a perennial, and, wow, here comes the green stuff.

Despite how it sounds, I am trying to be good and not trim plants back too soon. And I started some seeds Sunday in frustration in a kind of fancy holder for making sprouts. Maybe that will help when in a few days, in theory, we'll have sunflower, fenugreek and broccoli sprouts to make it taste like spring.

But could someone speak to whoever is responsible for scheduling and let them know these weekend storms are getting on my nerves and trashing my schedule.

Random local greeness

2010-03-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

The city's Environmental Advisory Committee met today, and as they kind of rambled through the meeting, several tidbits emerged that locals might be interested in.

First, the official business of the committee involved voting to discuss at their next meeting the names of people they want to recommend to city commissioners to fill some spots possibly soon going vacant because of lack of attendance at meetings. They also voted to begin writing a strategic plan to guide their work over the next year.

One topic that drew emotional comment was participation in community events as promoters.

"I don't think we're in any position to do events," said committee Chairwoman Kim Vincent. "There's this many of us (motioning to the few in attendance) the Web site was hard enough to pull together and we have no money."

Committee member Jacob Breeden chimed in, "I think we should avoid like the plague having any money."

Now to the tidbits: Earthfest will be April 17 at Wildcat Bluff (it attracts thousands for educational fun), hits to the committee's new Web site totalled 2,124 since Jan. 5, Travis Middle School has a "Green Team" of students and there will be a house made of bales of compressed trash at Mariposa ecoVillage.

Is that random enough?

Spring unsprung in the garden

2010-03-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

Boy, the momentum was building, but as happens every year (when will I learn) that frosty Mother Nature just had to show off who's boss this weekend.

The chilly winter afternoons lolling through the seed catalogs are passed. One frenzied weekend of making the hard choices of who will get our money for what plants and seeds (no fancy starter kits this year, just flats and seed starter) left me feeling bad..."Sorry Johnny's, I know we've been faithful to each other, but that perky new Cook's Garden got your share of the cash this year. Well, her and that High Country Gardens in Santa Fe." And the afternoons sketching what holes remain in beds as I add more and more perennials are just memories on a legal pad.

Now the action is to begin. My wife pruned like a buzz saw. I planted potted chrysantemums outdoors. We both brushed away the brown refuse of winter from the expanding green crowns of plants. All that on Saturday. Then the winds turned chilly on Sunday. We were limping around a little when we went to Lowe's to stock up on supplies for mostly outdoor chores we're planning on. As long as the product wasn't on a low shelf where we'd have to bend too far over, things were passable.

Then Monday morning got here. It was dark outside, thanks to the stupid time change. A chilly rain/snow was falling and our backs were even stiffer.

Sorry Mother Nature. My bad. But your reminders that we're another year older and the average frost date (not to mention the Easter snow storms) are still to come are fully understood. We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness.

But the next sunny Saturday can't be too far off, giving hope for more adventures. Not to mention the first seed packs have arrived. Do you think it's too early to start cukecumbers?

NOTE:
By the way, there will be a three-day seminar on "Planting the Seeds of Sustainability" this month in Amarillo. It's sponsored by the High Plains Institute for Applied Ecology, High Plains Food Bank and Wildcat Bluff Nature Center. It runs March 19-21. Check out the above link for details.

Another seed sprouts

2010-03-01T16:38:00.000-08:00

Linda Lloyd, project manager at Mariposa ecoVillage on the west edge of Amarillo, was happy to be in the cold wind today. Predictions of snow had her worried, but the weather stayed dry so it was time to get busy.

Workers were pouring concrete from a mast high above what will become her house in the development meant to show off sustainable living. For example, her abode will be totally powered by solar panels and will have no water well.

"I won't be paying Xcel (Energy) anything," she said.

The water will come from harvesting rain.

The home is dug into a 12-foot cliff facing south to collect the warmth of the sun during winter months. The walls will have six inches of concrete lined on both sides with two and a half inches of foam.

The living area is about 800 square feet, topped with 300 square feet of office/studio space.

This is the first home at Mariposa. The hospitality center is up, made of compressed dirt blocks. And work to plaster it and complete the pressed earth floors will begin soon.

"I'm on specialist at that," Lloyd said.

Another first happened within the past few days as Mariposa started taking reservations for single-family home lots. There are 17 on offer. They measure about one acre and go for from $20,000 to $25,000.

"You're so fat"

2010-02-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

"Your shoes don't fit on your feet"

I must be such a geek. Data brings on music.

Those lyrics, from Robert Palmer's "Trouble" (notably also done by Lowell George), got in my head while looking at some fascinating data from the USDA.

The Economic Research Service maintains historical numbers of available food per capita in the U.S. Some of the stats go back to 1909. How do they do that?

Sure, the Palmer lyrics have to do with a depressed person, "Your car wouldn't start so started to eat your heart out," who has nothing but bad luck. But what I saw today on the Web said fresh and processed vegetable consumption stayed about the same at 336 pounds in 1970 compared to 392 pounds in 2008, but natural cheese went from 11 pounds per person in 1970 to 32 pounds in 2008. That's a lot of cheese burgers, smothered burritos or something.

Anyway, even with a grain, or shake, of salt, it's pretty interesting to see so here's some more.

Not a big surprise bottled water went from 1.6 gallons in 1976 to 28 gallons in 2008. But look at meat consumption per person on a boneless basis. Beef was at 51 pounds in 1909 and 61 pounds in 2008. Then here comes chicken from 10 pounds to 59 pounds.

An interesting side note is the measure of the total meat consumption of beef, pork and chicken started at 102 in 1909 to end at 166 in 2008. But in the 30's during the Depression, consumption dipped for several years, getting as low as 75 pounds in 1935.

But most importantly? Mushrooms (not the fun ones). We ate about two pounds per person in 1969 but seven pounds in 2008.

What's up with that?

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

2010-02-23T15:47:00.000-08:00

What a classic movie line, especially coming from a wild-eyed Robert Duvall.
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning... Smells like, victory."

It got him that beach in Vietnam to surf in "Apocalypse Now" and might be what people downstate need for their pesky fire ants instead of club soda.

Texas AgriLife Extension bug specialists recently had to readdress the Internet rumor about using club soda to kill fire ants. They politely called it “erroneous pest control advice.” But how can something environmentally friendly be bad.

Erroneous advice indeed.

That’s an understatement of Biblical proportions. I used to have to deal with those devilish ants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. They killed just-born calves and fawns, they made grown men jump into swimming pools hollering like little girls.

Just pour two cups of club soda on a fire ant mound and no more problem, according to the "advice." All that would do is make the little red monsters mad.

“According to the message, the carbon dioxide in the soda is supposed to displace the oxygen and suffocate the ants, including the queen, killing the entire colony within about 48 hours,” an AgriLife news release said. “It also notes that club soda leaves no toxic residue, does not contaminate ground water and will not 'indiscriminently' kill other insects or harm pets.”

“Impressive bubbling action” from the club soda is about all you’ll get - if you're lucky.

Doesn't something that can do this deserve a little napalm?

A giant sucking sound

2010-02-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

Apologies to Ross Perot, but his phrase may be a perfect match for the kiri tree.

The kiri grows up to 30 feet its first year, according to several sources beyond the company promoting it. What helps make that happen are massive leaves (some say up to three feet across). And here's the eco thing - those leaves let it suck in more carbon dioxide than any tree should be allowed to.

A Sacramento, Calif., based company, Eco2 Forests, is promoting the tree as an earth saver. Collie Christensen is the head of the company, after having been involved early on with Cellular One, a barter trading market and a variety of land development deals, so maybe he's good at the Pied Piper thing.

Here's what the tree looks like when just planted before it turns into a carbon-killing machine.

The "Global Forestry Plan" of Eco2 Forests is to plant 3.3 million trees in Malakula, Vanuatu, in the South Pacific. That could earn the company $120 million in carbon credits, according to its own figures.

See, I think Christensen must just like fun words. Malakula and Vanuatu? And how's this, the companies research and development takes place in Jimboomba, Queensland. And the tree is also more properly called the paulownia or the sapphire princess tree. Then there's the "ecoimagineer" job title amongst the CEO and CFO titles of Eco2.

But who knows, it might just be crazy enough to work - for somebody's pocket book anyway. I don't know about the carbon. The wood, ready for harvest in seven years, is highly rated and goes for more than oak plus the carbon credits help.

The company touts the tree as sustainable because it can grow back from the stump, once harvested, about 10 times. Of course it sucks a lot of water too, but that's a different argument as is the fact the National Park Service lumps the kiri in with "alien plant invaders" because it spreads like a bad e-mail joke.

And the company has a good pr team because it's all over any Google search of a related term

Relax, somebody has to make some green out of green.

We don't need no stinkin' green badges

2010-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Big businesses appear to be having second thoughts about whether green is their color, and the state of Texas is going to court against the EPA butting into our state business.

Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, just had a pr firm send out an e-mailed comment from him about BP America, Conoco Phillips and Caterpillar dropping out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

I don't know that he's right, but at least the Twitter world is abuzz with the "news."

Anyway, Myron's take is this on the big businesses.

They “are recognizing that cap-and-trade legislation is dead in the U. S. Congress and that global warming alarmism is collapsing rapidly. We hope that other major corporations will soon see the light and drop their support for cap-and-trade and other energy-rationing legislation,” Ebell said.

Not being tied into an industry mouthpiece group like Ebell, I can’t swear by all that, but the hits keep coming.

According to another industry group, the CLEAR Act that advocates a cap and dividend program in which greenhouse gasses are controlled but there’s no trading of carbon credits in a marketplace that could involve speculation by those Wall Street types is generating a huge buzz of lobbying in Washington.

Really? I wouldn’t have dreamed.

And then there’s the EPA opposition by the state of Texas. The good governor, attorney general and ag commissioner announced today they will lay siege on the U.S. Court of Appeals to challenge the EPA finding that greenhouse gasses are a danger, and we need federal regulations to curb them.

Of course, Texas’ argument is the same as the industry groups’ – money matters more. (Let the kids fend for themselves. We’ve got an empire to defend.)

Rick Perry, according to a news release, said this: “The EPA’s misguided plan paints a big target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers and the hundreds of thousands of Texans they employ. This legal action is being taken to protect the Texas economy and the jobs that go with it, as well as defend Texas’ freedom to continue our successful environmental strategies free from federal overreach.”

Besides, Perry doesn't look good in green. He's more of a red-white-and-blue man.

But to be fair, the Texans at least offer a compromise to “just say no.” They want to continue developing alternative energy production with tax credits to multi-national companies.

Seems this could be another momentum switch as the carbon-laden winds blow another direction. Doesn’t mean we will see a resolution, just a shift in who thinks they’re winning the hearts and minds.

There’s billions of dollars involved, so the dancers should continue to swirl and twirl.

I know, I know

2010-02-15T15:53:00.000-08:00

Been a while, but this really is cool and not nearly as alarming as the polar bears falling from the sky I showed you the last time I returned.

It's called the W+W or wash basin + water closet. Very European, don't you think?

The Rocha company of Spain is marketing this contraption, albeit with sleek lines.

"A meeting of ways between sophistication and love for the planet," according to the company's rather spare, or maybe sophisticated, Web site. The images are nice but the video, well, you decide.

It filters the water you run in the sink then fills the cistern of the toilet, oops, I meant water closet. Allegedly it saves 25 percent of the water normally used.

But I must say the idea of a toilet facing a big ol' wall of glass overlooking a balcony open to the city is a little disconcerting or maybe it's European.

How will carbon screw up your life?

2010-01-29T11:28:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, the feds are on the case.

Yeah, it kind of makes sense investors would like to know if too much methane is going to break them, but now federal regulators will be watching to make sure they know.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gave publicly traded companies “interpretive guidance” on Wednesday, telling the businesses they will have to disclose to investors how climate change might affect their bottom line. I don't know how much pain and suffering comes if you're a violator, but it sounds bad.

But investors don’t have enough to worry about, oh, like losing all their money because of greedy, arrogant risk takers or borderline criminals. Now they need the enforcers to look out for cow farts raising ocean levels and flooding the condo they invested in or whether the coal-fired utility they have shares in will get big-time fines for pumping out too much carbon.

The guidance is the first economy-wide climate risk disclosure requirement in the world, according to a group of environmentalists like green-minded investors at Ceres and the Environmental Defense Fund.

“The lack of specific guidance until now has resulted in weak and inconsistent climate-related disclosure by public companies” they said in a news release.

“Today’s vote is a clarion call about the vast risks and opportunities climate change poses for US companies and the urgency for integrating them into investment decision making,” said Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of 80 institutional investors with $8 trillion in collective assets. “The business risks of climate change cannot be ignored. With this guidance investors can make more sound decisions based on better information – and businesses will have a level-playing field with clear standards and expectations for disclosure.”

Feel better?

Go ahead and freak

2010-01-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

Everybody else is. "OMG snow's coming!"

The weather jockeys are all out of breath about it. Predicting this and that. Of course there's the complication that they really don't know for sure what's going to happen. Maybe that's why they're covering their bets in vagueness. But for a change they have something to talk about.

My mom's out of breath because she lives in the country where electricity and phones get knocked fairly frequently. (Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to be an SPS guy messing with electricity in a blizzard.) So my wife and I took her a giant cooler of water, an extra lantern and some reading material.

My wife's out of breath to the extent we'll be staying in town at her mom's so we don't get trapped away from work. What a drag that would be.

One sister wants to know "Are we going to die?" Okay, the other one is happy she can stay in her cave in front of a fire and eat candy with her dogs. Maybe that balance out.

And there's a general buzz of out of breathness in the newsroom because who knows what could happen.

Are we going to die?

Probably not. This 12 inches, maybe, forecast sounds like a cakewalk compared to other snows we've gotten. I've been snowed into Amarillo for almost a week before I could crawl home back to Wildorado on I-40. It really did look like a parking lot. People were getting out of their cars and visiting in the bright sun after the storm. I could have walked home faster.

So we'll see. All we can do is wait. And no, I'm not making fun of the people and animals who will really suffer. I love a snow, but I hate that. It's just that the air seems to be vibrating. What's the big deal? We live on the tundra so just be careful out there, and after all, we need the moisture.

I'd rather eat boogers?

2010-01-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

It’s must be hard to rhyme with sugar because Campbell Soup has underwritten a book called “Who Grew My Soup” that quotes the curious youngster lead character Phineas Quinn as saying, ”I like stuff that’s deep-fried and loaded with sugar. But vegetable soup? Yikes! I’d rather eat boogers!"

But it’s all for the good cause of getting kids to make better food choices like eating more vegetables, presumably in the form of soup from you know who.

Apparently, Phineas didn’t like veggies and hatched a plan to avoid eating them. One argument he hatchs is that you never know where they’d been. Maybe they were grown in Timbuctoofar, he argues.

What illustrations I’ve seen are pretty cool and the few rhymes available in preview are kind of fun if you’re a kid.

The book was written by New York ad agency veteran Tom Darbyshire who, you guessed it, was working on an ad campaign to tell the story of Campbell’s “100-year commitment to using only the highest ingredients.” The book’s illustrator was C.F. Payne.

Get the 32-page hardcover here.

Get Smarter About Water

2010-01-25T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ducks take off from the Taylor Lakes playa unit between Clarendon and Memphis. Courtesy Texas Parks & Wildlife.

The thousands of playa lakes across the plains, including the Panhandle, are scattered wet treasures in need of a little TLC to stay their best, and several groups have gotten together some presentations for landowners on what we’re talking about.

Classes, including lunch, will be from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 3 in the Swisher Memorial Building at 127 S.W. Second St. in Tulia.

Playas are hangouts for all kinds of birds and provide what little recharge the Ogallala Aquifer gets. So it’s important to keep them healthy and happy.

“Since most playas are found on private land, landowner management is essential to maintaining and preserving playas as a linchpin in our precious water cycle,” said Darryl Birkenfeld, director of Ogallala Commons.

The workshop presentations will touch on depletion rates of the Ogallala, playa conservation programs, and techniques for playa grazing management. And best of all it’s free.

Dave Haukos, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service migratory bird specialist at Texas Tech University will begin with an overview. Kevin Mulligan, a Tech geographer, will talk about saturated thicknesses and depletion rates of the Ogallala. Manuel De Leon, wildlife biologist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, will cover federal incentive programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Grasslands Conservation Program. He will also discuss grazing practices that enhance playa functioning and increase wildlife habitat, according to a news release.

To reserve a place at this workshop, or for more information, contact Jeff Lewter, NRCS District Conservation in Tulia at 806-995-4126, ext.3.

The workshop is sponsored by Ogallala Commons, with its partners: the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, and Playa Lakes Joint Venture.

graphic from Playa Lake Joint Ventures

The circle of life or something

2010-01-21T11:54:00.000-08:00

This is a new one on me - "upcycle."

An Oregon winery, COWHORN, is promoting not only its early releases, but recycle, upcycle, whatever programs. It's sent its first shipment of 1,000 used wine bottles to be "upcycled" into "heirloom goblets, pitchers, tumblers, vases and votives," according to a news release.

Don't ask me why they spell their name in all caps, but they do.

COWHORN is also partnering with Ashland Food Co-op to covert used corks into compostable wine packs.

On top of that, literally, "At COWHORN, even the soft metal bottle cap covering the cork gets a new life through Rogue Recycling."

And then there's talk of nature flowing in cycles, etc. But the Biodynamic winery seems to be trying. And the end products look pretty nice.

The only rub is they tout their wines as pleasing the James Beard Foundation and people in the Oregon eco-culinary scene.

"Among the new estate’s early accolades is a 90-point rating from Wine Spectator for its 2007 Viognier, now sold out. In their annual round up of most memorable wines, the San Francisco Chronicle featured COWHORN’s 2007 Marsanne Roussanne, also sold out, as one of the year’s top 20 'unexpected pleasures.'”

Please note, two sold outs mean we'll never know how good they might be. Frustrating.

Another day, another lawsuit

2010-01-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

WildEarth Guardians are still on their BioBlitz warpath.

It’s their campaign to raise awareness of endangered species and to mark the 36th birthday of the Endangered Species Act with a new lawsuit or complaint every workday for eight weeks.

This time their focus is the prairie ecosystem we call home. Prairie Week will include suits to save two insects, a fish, a lizard and a kangaroo rat. The threats include” urban sprawl, oil and gas extraction, invasions of non-native plants and animals” and other stuff, according to the group.

“The Great Plains needs a home makeover that provides enough space for the original prairie occupants from the animal kingdom,” said Lauren McCain, Prairie Protection Director for WildEarth Guardians.

I know, I practically bet the lesser-prairie chicken would have been on the list. But our highest-profile threatened species didn’t make the cut.

The lawsuits and petitions this week are aimed at protecting habitat for the Great Plains wolf, plains grizzly bear, Audubon bighorn sheep, eastern elk, passenger pigeon, and heath hen.

Now we surely live on the plains here, but I haven’t seen any of these around. The Great Plains covers a lot of area, so I guess they’re somewhere.

Cap and trade is so passé

2010-01-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

There’s a push on to cut those nasty Wall Street people out of climate control in the U.S. It’s called cap and dividend as in there are still permits for businesses to belch global warming gasses, but the income generated through sales of the permits mostly go back to the public. They wouldn't be traded in the Chicago marketplace specially established for that and patterned after the Mercantile Exchange there.

Every energy conference I’ve been to has provoked questions about how to curb financial speculators in the market for carbon credits. You know, those people who like to make money for nothing. (I wish I hadn’t said that because the MTV song is in my head now, probably for hours.)

Continuing. The supporters of the proposal say while energy prices will go up under any cap system, especially as the permits shrink, allowing fewer emissions. The key is consumers under the dividend version get – dividends. They would amount to about 75 percent of the income the government gets for the permits. The rest of the green would go to environmental research.

The bad news is both the passed House version of climate legislation and the proposed Senate version are cap and trade. The good news is the new proposal would limit a business’ ability to use offsets, like planting trees in Sri Lanka, to make their emission quota. And then there's that limited trading of greenhouse gas permits.

The cap and dividend proposal has a Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, as a co-sponsor, so maybe it would have some momentum since Republicans who support cap and trade are an endangered or extinct species. However, even if the Senate passes a dividend plan, they would have to negotiate with those House people who make those Wall Street people look like school kids.

And now, the local bits

2010-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Linda Loper, who's kind of the honcho on the ground at Mariposa EcoVillage, reports the cold weather has put a crimp in some of the work out there west of town.

After Tuesday's Environmental Advisory Committee meeting, she said work on plastering was on hold until things warmed up a little. The welcome center, however, is weathered in, so work can begin soon on the earthen floor. That will be a lot of packing of dirt from the site to make it hard, smooth and shiny.

And building No. 2 will begin to take shape soon. Linda said her house will be going up. It will be built with insulated cement slabs on a site carved into a hillside.

While the welcome center's compressed earth walls were interesting, her home should be fun as well. It will be completely off the electric grid, and 'look ma,' no well. The water will come only from rainfall capture. Now I can see that in Austin or somewhere, but here in the Great American Desert, as early maps labeled our stomping grounds.

She seems to know what she's talking about, so we'll see.

Back to the Green Committee, they will take the new Web site to city commissioners Tuesday to get their blessing and suggestions. Live launch is planned for Jan. 19.

Lights Out – The clock is ticking

2010-01-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

The second annual “Sylvania Socket Survey” is full of surprises.

Okay, it says 74 percent of participants have switched to energy-saving light bulbs in the past year. That may be true, but there are more than 74 percent of shoppers at stores I frequent buying standard bulbs or the stores are foolishly filling shelves with the outdated bulbs.

That was surprise one. But No. 2? Almost 75 percent of respondents didn’t know that incandescent bulbs are headed for a phase-out beginning Jan. 1, 2012.

Count me and everybody I know in that group. I’m not proud of that, but it’s true. A press release about the survey says the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 calls for the transition to start with traditional 100-watt bulbs and continue from there.

At the bottom of the release is the explanation that the survey involved only 300 adults. That makes some of the findings make a little more sense, but I wonder if some of the them are really true. How does compact fluorescent lights get into “71 percent of homes in America” but rank second to traditional bulbs in terms of use? Are the CFLs not turned on or do people only use them in a few lamps, using the usual bulbs in all the others?

I don’t get it.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the results.

66 percent of respondents said they are likely to purchase a compact fluorescent light (CFL), halogen or light-emitting diode (LED) bulb in the future.
Halogens are used in 40 percent of homes.
12 percent are using LED lighting.
52 percent said price is a key consideration in purchasing; the responses reflect a 12 percent spike compared to 2008.
Just 13 percent said they plan to buy extra 100-watt bulbs before the phase-out.
16 percent say they will shift to lower wattage incandescent light bulbs.
91 percent said they consider energy consumption per bulb to be an important factor.

I don’t get it.

But then there's the recycling. CFLs have mercury in them, so don't throw them in the Dumpster, experts say. And you might want to use a drop cloth when changing bulbs because you don't want to have to sweep up a toxic mess.

But wait, there's more!

The phase-out will happen over two years, and by 2014, maybe there will be more choices, but the main option now is CFLs. Just be careful you get the right kind. There is a special kind if you have a dimmer switch, and you have to get the right temperature bulb, for some reason measured on the Kelvin (not my idea) scale, to get the type of light you want from yellowish to blueish. The Energy Star folks have a good illustration, but this seems a little complicated.

Nevertheless, the idea is to save energy, and that's a good thing says Andrew deLaski, director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project in U.S. News & World Report.

"It's hugely important," he says. "A 60 to 70 percent reduction in light bulb energy use will save as much energy annually as that used by all the homes in Texas last year."

I guess disrupting my life is worth that.

Adopt an invertebrate this week

2010-01-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

Those WildEarth Guardians can’t be still. They’re in the midst of celebrating their BioBlitz and biodiversity in general.

Think of this, eight weeks of suing somebody almost every business day to mark the International Year of Biodiverstity. Sounds like fun.

The efforts are to commemorate the 36-year anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. The group is saluting the act’s impact on preserving biodiversity. So there will be 36 lawsuits or legal petitions to protect something new under the act.

They are so zany and lawyer friendly I can’t believe it.

This week, is E.O. Wilson Week for the campaign. He commented, “Attention is turning (at last) to invertebrates and microorganisms, which are what I call ‘the little things that run the Earth’ and to their immense diversity."

Dr. Wilson sounds like he's no slouch in his field, so I’ll take his word that this is a good thing. He’s won two Pulitzers and is a professor emeritus and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard, according to the Guardians.

In honor of the doc’s "life-work, all species in this week’s BioBlitz line-up are invertebrates," the Guardians said in a news release. So what will we try to protect in honor of the week? The Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly, the narrow-footed diving beetle, the unsilvered fitilarry (butterfly), the Brian head mountainsnail and the Arapahoe snowfly.

I really do get it. What is good about building a ski resort in the last remaining habitat of some creature that is nearing extinction? But the Guardians might want to consider a broader outreach. Preaching via “BioBlitz” theme weeks, next week is Prairie Week, can you say lesser prairie chicken?, seems like yelling on the highest mountaintop. Who’s going to hear you except the other crazed hikers?

Did somebody get the number of that bus?

2009-12-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Whew! When I say I feel like I got run over by a bus, I'm not joking.

Ever on the edge of sanity, the holidays on top of the crazed year of service I've had with the family took me down.

But no mas!

Here's a light start to build up momentum to do better in 2010. I know, heard it before, but here goes.

Want the easy road to green? Try out these actual books that came out this fall: The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Renewable Energy for Your Home
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Greening Your Business
It's easy, really.

While I was contemplating these, I got sidetracked, kind of like reading three unrelated pages of the dictionary because of the cool stuff I see when I look up something like "jalap" (The dried root of a Mexican vine of the morning glory family, formerly used as a purgative, according to Webster's).

So on the sidetrack, I found these books (also actual) that came out this fall, just in time for Christmas cheer:

The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Graphic Novel
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Connecting with Your Angels
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® Numerology Workbook
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Getting Government Contracts
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Making Money with Craigslist

So far, so good, but is this one really going to help if you need it?
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Getting into Top Colleges

Can't imagine what this would be about without being gross.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Eating Clean

If you want to brush up on being authentic,
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the American Accent

And a few more just to round out the selections.
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Natural Childbirth
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Yorkshire Terriers, Second Edition
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Buddhism, Third Edition
The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Werewolves

It's easy, really.

Much Mish Mash

2009-12-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a few unrelated, but related items.

Yeah, baby it's cold outside
But the Wildcat Bluff Nature Center has a Night Hike coming up December 11 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for children and seniors and members are free. Bring a flashlight for the hike and activities. They promise hot chocolate after the hike. It better be really hot.

The next day at the Bluff is a program on land management and fire.

From 10 a.m. to noon hear a lecture on fire ecology and then hike to an area that was burned in November 2008 to get smart about the importance of fire in our ecosytem. Admission is the same as for the Night Hike.

The Bluff is out Soncy Road north from Interstate 40 on the west side.

Powering up
Makes sense. Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge is getting $96,000 in recovery money from Uncle Sam to install solar power panels. Natural power in the middle of nature - the ducks will probably approve.

Boost your bill
SPS is asking pretty please in Austin to put a new charge on your bill. The money would go to purchase Renewable Energy Credits. It's a voluntary program the PUC has to approve, but monthly payments to help fund wind energy might be a handy way to do it.

How much for a shower?

2009-12-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

A recent report says solving water supply issues globally may look similar to solving electricity demands – cut demand.

The report from McKinsey & Co. calls the current situation a water gap since about 1.1 billion people don’t have access to clean water. It says the answer is economics or charging more for water to make people use less.

Enhancing the ability of farmers to grow more "crop per drop" is also thrown out as a viable approach.

That’s a roughly similar approach to the calls for increased efficiency to reduce power usage before trying to produce more sustainable energy as an answer to carbon emissions.

While the report is a little geeky, it poses some interesting questions and posits some solutions that sound like they'd work. Of course, it talks mostly about developing countries where large portions of the population might not be so touchy about being forced to conserve.

So how much would you pay for a shower?

Site headed for prime time

2009-12-01T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Amarillo Environmental Advisory Committee is ready to get the green conversation started - hopefully by Jan. 5.

They met today and set that date as the target to roll out the Web site they've been working on.

Another way to get Amarillo talking about sustainability is to put green goals into the comprehensive master plan the city is developing. Committee members are starting to talk about what the major components would be in the goals.

Committee member Linda Lloyd suggested reducing water use, enhancing energy efficiency, reducing storm water runoff and more city acceptance of alternative building materials in the city construction code.

Committee member Anette Carlisle added walkable neighborhoods, more bicycle paths and public transportation as ways to improve Amarillo's environmental future.

Ouch

2009-11-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

Warning, due to my extended absence, I thought I'd make a senselessly rude return.

Well, it might not be senseless, depending on your point of view. It probably depends on what side of the global warming debate you fall on. But it might also depend on how strong your stomach is and how much you think of polar bears as cuddly teddys, only bigger.

And stinkier from all those seals they eat.

But I digress.

The media battles just keep heating up. This one is an ouch! Like a two-by-four over the head ouch.

It's from the London-based group Plane Stupid that is all upset about how people are stupid about planes. Their catch phrase is "Bringing the aviation industry back down to earth."

In this case, "It's really not about polar bears anymore." We just fly too much.

Now the science cited in the video may be questionable, but don't let the kids watch.

Those zany Brits.

How much do I care?

2009-11-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well, there's a new way to spend time online and save the planet at the same time.

I got a press release today with a link to a nifty new beta site that allows you to enter facts about your home and find out what you can do to save energy which translates to saving money and reducing the amount of carbon you are responsible for utilities spewing into the atmosphere. It also shows you the do-it-yourself cost of changes and how your home ranks to an "average" home, whatever that is.

Just don't be in a hurry. It may look like you're about to finish the survey when - boom - there's subquestions on the topic you are on.

How'd our house stack up? It's hard to tell, but the accuracy of ratings against average should improve as more people take the survey.

Biggest saving? Install a programable thermostat at a do-it-yourself cost of from $30 to$190 dollars. Quite a spread, but supposedly it will save us $208 a year and reduce carbon by 1,848 pounds annually.

Next up? Install compact fluorescent bulbs.

But I don't get this helpful hint. Put in more attic insulation at a cost of $700 and save $22 a year. That's a long payoff in my wallet world. Besides, there's a puny 195 pounds of carbon to be saved with this move.

Hmmm

Make up your mind

2009-11-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

New Pew Research Center survey shows Americans are less hot under the collar about global warming - much less.

In a recent Pew poll, 57 percent of respondents said there is "solid evidence" the average temperature on Eargh is getting warmer. In April 2008, 71 percent said that and in 2006 and 2007, that opinion hit 77 percent.

What gives? Is solid not solid? Is squishy the new solid?

Pew opines the sucking sound of the economy is to blame. The center cites drops of about 10 percent in people saying immigration, health care and crime are top priorities for the president and Congress, as signs people are more focused on jobs and pay checks.

Pew says even Gallup and Fox News have seen similar results in polls.

What could this sort of sentiment do to the cap-and-trade train that is just aching to be fueled up with government dollars to get it out of the station?

What do you think? You can e-mail me at kevin.welch@amarillo.com.

Not in your backyard

2009-11-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

I know, I've been lax in posting, but here goes a new era.

There's buzz around the region about the Chinese coming to the Panhandle to build a wind farm. I've been asked a few times in the past week and couldn't find out anything specific because all the information floating around never says where the project will be except somewhere in Texas.

That narrows it down.

The New York Times environmental blog Green Inc. is equally vague, but here's the details it did contain, confirmed on the Web site of Cielo Wind Power, the Austin-based company partnering with the Chinese. It also is active in the Panhandle, most recently developing the Wildorado Wind Ranch and piling up leases for future development.

A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Nasdaq company based in China, will ship in 240 of its 2.5 megawatt turbines for the project slated to cover 36,000 acres. The total cost of the project is estimated at $1.5 billion.

But no wonder people are in a fluff, the company hopes to get $450 million of the financing from U.S. stimulus funds, and the project will create 2,000 Chinese manufacturing jobs, according to the blog. There will be American jobs, but not anywhere close to that.

The thing is, for any wind farm, construction jobs are temporary and the jobs to maintain the farms are few.

Cielo has created jobs in the Panhandle, like at the Wildorado Wind Ranch and White Deer's Llano Estacado Wind Ranch, and has plans to do more, but this deal isn't happening here.

I talked to Walt Hornaday, CEO of Cielo, yesterday, and he said the project will be somewhere downstate where there are transmission lines available now. The Panhandle's are still not absolutely guaranteed until the PUC decides wind developers have proven they will use them, and the process to make them happen puts the finish date in 2013.

Hornaday said the reason the news on where the farm will be is that the exact location is not yet concrete.

This isn't the first time Cielo has reached out to partner with an overseas company. Cielo and Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea are planning to install three of Samsung's 2.5 megawatt prototype turbines near Lubbock for testing.

Playing in the dirt

2009-10-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Workers took advantange of today's mild weather to start topping off the first building at Mariposa ecoVillage, a sustainable development planned for west Amarillo.

Work is going slowly, but it's going, on the 625-acre site owned by Bushland-based businesswoman, environmentalist and philanthropist Mary Emeny. Mary was out with the volunteers as they applied roofing material.

The plan is to get the hospitality/marketing center sealed up from the elements before serious winter hits. Next week, the stucco goes onto the outside of the walls built from dirt compressed into giant Lincoln logs.

Once the doorways and windows are sealed, work can begin on the interior.

I'll get some photos posted here next week as they apply the stucco, also made from soil at the site of former caliche pits. The actual construction of homes and businesses from alternative materials will only cover about 300 acres scarred by the pits. The untouched land will remain untouched.

Work was to begin this week on another building, but developer Linda Lloyd said she has to apply for a waiver from the city because she thinks it's a waste to build roads first and then wear them out during building construction.

Not so smart?

2009-10-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Those Aggies are spoiling all the fun for water efficiency companies that promote "smart irrigation."

Texas AgriLife Extension researchers tested the controllers that are supposed to give your landscape just what it needs and found them lacking.

"The six devices tested, all currently on the market, applied from about one-third to two-and-a-half times more water that was recommended, said Charles Swanson, AtriLife Extension associate.

Some smart controllers use weather information to adjust the amount of water applied, but some of the manufacturers are tapping into weather info from local airports or weather stations to calculate evaporation and transpiriation (kind of the rate of plant sweating). But calculations based on that info tends to be inaccurate, the Aggies said.

Other controllers that have their own sensors were more accurate and saved water compared to most manual applications. Some cities like Frisco down by Dallas require smart controllers so the Aggies raised the red flag to point out they need to be tested for Texas conditions and to recommend which kinds are best.

"Two of the manufacturers have contacted us on what they can do to make their controller better, Swanson said. "The others - we're still waiting on a response."

These are not the same controllers the city of Amarillo is recommending for its "Every Drop Counts" program. The city is promoting sensors that only measure if it rains or air temperatures are at or below freezing to shut off irrigation systems.

Check out the full report.

All over but the crying

2009-10-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Solar Decathalon is history now.

There's a fine Web site to check out if you haven't been following this event closely.

There's a lot of sweat and fancy thinking spent on these projects, and the contestants take it very seriously.

I won't spoil the finish for you, but there's a lot of nice work on the part of 20 university teams from Europe and North America. It was all played out on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

LED lights strategically placed in the base of the house and deck help the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's solar-powered house illuminate at night during the Lighting Design contest at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.,(Credit: Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Blood On My Hands

2009-10-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

To kill or not to kill - the choice is at hand.

It's chilly out there now, but the coming freezes in the next few days have started the internal debate about the outside plants. Which ones to save and how to do it are the questions that keep popping up unbidden.

I've been known to go to ridiculous lengths like using a tarp made for a semi truck load of hay, but I'm not sure I'm up to it this season. Everything has slowed its growth to a crawl except the wild tomatoes, but there are a few flowers to take inside and they need to be in their inside clothes to look acceptable. That means repotting them.

This is a tough time of year, but it's probably time to be tough. One thing to be sort of thankful for, I didn't have time to get a fall garden in, so no lettuce, spinach or radishes to protect.

I just don't know if I'm ready to kiss goodbye my enormous hibiscus or basil tree. Arrgghh.

Maybe the weather guessers are wrong again and the 15 bedsheets I covered plants with a couple of weeks ago should come out a few more times. They kind of make it look like the yard is haunted with a scattering of ghosts.

The transition from brown to green is too hard. But you know, the more I make room for inside, the less carbon that will be floating around in there. Maybe we could have a greenhouse-gas-free Christmas. Very eco-friendly.

A Big Hug From Mother Nature

2009-10-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Speakers at Texas Tech's energy forum in Amarillo today addressed many topics, but digging deep for heating and cooling were a focus.

In a case study, a middle school in Frisco adopted a geothermal heat pump system that will save it $1.7 million over 20 years compared to a central gas boiler and air-cooled chiller, said Don Penn, consulting engineer with Image Engineering Group in Grapevine.

It all comes from filling classrooms with air blown across pipes that go up to 400 feet into the earth. Water under low pressure in the pipes becomes the same temperature the soil is, around 60 to 70 degrees, makes a u-turn and goes back to the surface to units that heat or cool school rooms, depending on the season.

There is a temperature control unit for each room so giant heating or cooling units aren't cranked up because the band wants to practice after hours, forcing the heating or cooling of many rooms that are empty.

"Each room is its own atmosphere," Penn said.

The life of the well field should be quite long, given the low pressure inside heavy-duty pipes.

"You'll be tearing the building down, and the well field will still be there," Penn said.

So the deal is about saving money, and then there's the carbon that is never released into the atmosphere because there's no coal or natural gas involved.

I know he's a salesman, and there weren't any naysayers invited, so my jury is still out on the viability of the technique. However, representatives of Lubbock Christian University who are using it on their campus vigorously vouched for it.

The power of sludge

2009-10-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Interesting. Sewage into ethanol.

It's that dream come true - turning waste into something valuable. There has been a lot of talk about, and work toward, harnessing methane produced at landfills, manure pits and wastewater at slaughter houses, but now an e-mail has arrived touting the use of the solids in municipal wastewater to create energy.

Applied Cleantech and Qteros are announcing their “breakthrough Q Microbe technology” to turn a substance produced from municipal wastewater solids into cellulosic ethanol. That might disappoint researchers who have been focused on cellulosic feedstocks like waste wood chips, switch grass and stuff like sorghum that can grows like it's on steroids.

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with your city’s sewage sludge, this is apparently it.
The companies claim a yield of 120-135 gallons of ethanol for every ton of Recyllose, the feedstock they create from sludge.

There is, however, a problem of scale. The companies say a wastewater plant that handles the sewage of about 2 million people can supply a “smaller-scale” ethanol plant. So don’t be looking for any of this alchemy in the Panhandle, or a lot of places that don’t have a concentration of at least 2 million people.

Meanwhile, if people insist on ethanol as the best next-generation fuel to act as a bridge to some dreamed about solution to oil addiction, don’t stop growing that corn and grain sorghum.

Go, See, Do Stuff

2009-10-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's good to be smart and this might help all of us.

The Wildcat Bluff Nature Center will hold two events Saturday.

Leadership in energy and environmental design is the topic Mark Benton will be talking about from 10a.m. to noon. The regular admission to Wildcat Bluff will cover the event too.

It's also good to have fun and this might be just the thing. From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the center will host its Sunset Seasonal Sausage and Suds Scheindig. Cost is $10.

Both events are open to the public.

For more info, call Wildcat Bluff Nature Center at 352-6007.

Big House On The Prairie

2009-09-30T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sure, she looks a little rustic, but the first building at Mariposa ecoVillage is coming along.

The last I saw her, there were a few long blocks of compressed earth stacked on a low cement wall. She looked like a giant lincoln log project just getting started. She didn't have much vavoom, although there was some promise.

But this morning I checked and was impressed. The walls are complete with openings for windows and doors. The roof is on and you can see how the ceiling will have a gentle upward curve to it. The structure now looks like something. She's even a little imposing in her sturdiness out on the hill northwest of town.

The walls are still draped with what's left of black plastic sheets meant to slow down the curing of the compressed dirt blocks. But the wind this morning, and apparently before that, was taking a toll on the covering.

After a walk around, it was time to go inside. Wow, there's a big pile of dirt inside on the floor. Wait, what floor? There was only rough, bare ground. Then I remembered. Linda Lloyd, the project manager, told me even the floor would be earthen. A highly packed and polished layer of dirt, mined on site, just like the dirt for the walls. But first there are pipes to lay that will carry water heated by the sun, giving off gentle warmth from inside the "floor."

The thick, solid walls will insulate the inside of the visitors' center for the planned ecologically sound community, so people with inquiring minds this winter can feel comfortable taking in the promise of Mariposa. The idea is for the 18-inch thick walls to keep the temperature between 62 degrees in the winter and 72 degrees in the summer.

I'll give it a couple more weeks and go out to take some photos to post here for a proper sneak peek. She's still not quite ready for primetime, but she's shaping up.

Big Green

2009-09-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Oncor, a downstate electric utility, and the State Fair of Texas are all excited about going greener.

Never mind the frying of everything too slow to escape. Never mind the billion cars coming in and out of the parking lots. The midway is adrift with diesel fumes that the lights on the rides try to shine through.

But what about Big Tex?

He's announcing energy efficiency tips over the heads of the crowd while he's bathed in light from LEDs.

Now they gotta be saving energy on that particular aspect of the fair. The 12 special LEDs replace two 1,000-watt spotlights. Oncor donated the lights that, in theory, could light the 52-foot statue for 50 years.

This just in

2009-09-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

Couldn't help it. This is nothing meaningful, just short and fun. It's also from Columbia Sportswear.

Appreciating the Depreciated

2009-09-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

I'll start with an apology, but I can't help myself.

Columbia Sportswear is really thinking outside the box. Cliches aside, the company has a cool way to recycle. The company is known for being somewhat unconventional and its campaign to reuse shipping boxes is right in there. Customers get to choose whether they want their product shipped in a new or slightly used box. I mean why not. It's not like you're going to put the box in your mouth and catch something.

Columbia reports their customers also like the idea to the tune of 60 percent of purchases shipping in the not-new boxes. Less trees into cardboard and less cardboard into landfills.

Less is more. Oops, I did it again. Sorry

Now they've really gotten creative and you can play too. The "A Box Life" program's goal is to encourage people to reduce, reuse and recycle and maybe have a little fun too.

Check it out.

And check this out too.

Carbonated Conversations

2009-09-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Just back from a somewhat steamy Columbus, Ohio, and the McCormick Energy Solutions Conference.

It was a jam-packed three days on the future of energy with a constant background glow thanks to global warming. The panelists were by and large true believers and basically activists for the kill-carbon-before-it-kills-us point of view. Most were more temperate than Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress and blog author, but who isn't?

Anyway, it was thought provoking, even with a grain of salt or two. The shift in scientific thinking puts all the blame for excess carbon on human activity, and that makes more and more sense as the data comes in. But one word of caution from former astronaut, and role model for skyward-looking kids of a certain graying age, John Glenn. He said he still has scientist friends passing on the idea that the jury isn't totally out on whether global warming is part of nature's cycles. And that raises the questions of who or what's spewing the carbon dioxide many blame as the leader of the Greenhouse Gas Gang.

But then he came back with this: "If we screw it up, there's no going back...No matter what's happening in the cycles, we have to clean up the environment."

He described Earth's atmosphere as a "thin film" rather than the chunk of air in school textbooks, painting an image of something fragile and at risk.

What a guy. He and his wife since 1943 are still vital and involved and were then off to a national climate something or other.

I'll be writing here and in the Globe-News in a hopefully more coherent way about what's happening here on the High Plains in relation to the topics the experts discussed at the conference. The common thread was the quickest, easiest ways to reduce carbon are conservation and efficiency.

On that topic, a smarter grid is one way experts propose to burn less fuels that release carbon. I'm working on an update on efforts to make our stupid grid smarter here at home for my first story. The next one may be a look at how school districts are faring on the 2007 mandate to reduce energy consumption 5 percent per year.

By the way, the hospitality on the Ohio State University campus was fantastic, although I was dragging a bit from the pace by the time I got home at midnight last night. The organizers of the McCormick Energy Solutions Conference and especially the staff of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism and the John Glenn School of Public Affairs know their stuff.

And it was a little eerie looking out my hotel window on the Woody Hayes Boulevard towards the solid, gray memorial to his legacy, the holy stadium where he did his thing that is even lit at night.

Some utilities have all the fun

2009-09-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Well, sorry for my absence. I’ve been distracted by family issues with my father failing despite his hospice care and my mother-in-law trying to find her way after the July 4 death of her husband.

I’m going to do better

Here’ something happy about our region’s power supplier. It would be more happy if they were doing these experiments here, but it’s way happier than getting their bills.

Xcel Energy recently announced the first phase of its SmartGridCity in Boulder, Colo., is up and running. It’s a combination of infrastructure and software engineered to increase reliability, provide energy usage info to customers, allow remote reading of electricity meters and the installation of devices the utility or customer can control remotely to manage usage.

One immediate benefit was the system detected four transformers about to croak, allowing Xcel to replace them before customers were left in the dark for hours. It’s an experiment, but the utility says it’s looking good so far on the way to refining a truly smart grid for the future.

An Xcel partner, Spanish energy company Abengoa Solar, just announced another Colorado test, this time in Grand Junction. Abengoa will install a parabolic trough concentrating solar power plant at Xcel’s coal-powered Cameo plant.

That’s the confusing way of saying a trough of mirrors that move to follow the sun and they focus the light that hits them to heat synthetic oil in a pipe, according to Abengoa. The hot oil moves to the power plant and turns water into steam that spins or helps spin the turbines that generate electricity. That and makes plant run more efficiently, using less coal to make the same amount of electricity. More efficient, less carbon emitted. Don’t ask me the details. I’m still working on finding that out.

But why don’t they try that stuff around here? Not that any emissions stay around long with our gentle breezes – except Hereford’s, Borger’s and Pampa’s, I guess.

Please, hold the surprises

2009-09-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

Consistent and predictable, those are bywords for food manufacturers and even produce companies. Notice the words manufacturers and companies. They can be large entities with little ideas.

When I first saw this story about “electronic tongues” my curiosity made me rush into it. Somebody or sombodies had developed technology that “boasts 100 percent accuracy over the full range of natural and artificial sweet substances.” That means a sensor that can accurately taste test a lot of stuff.

Interesting.

But then I started to think about it and got a little depressed. These developers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had no doubt tried to make something to improve processes for manufacturers. You know, make things better. The device is the size of a business card, an improvement over the first electronic tongues, and much more accurate.

But to what end will these be put to use? Making things more the same. From China to Amarillo, the candy you eat or soda you drink will taste even more the same than they do now. Where’s the fun?

Now I don’t ask for something crazy like every Red Bull tasting different from the next, but guaranteeing sameness allows for companies to expand. That expansion can chew up the little guy, erasing the variety that is cooked up in smaller batches. It’s like barbecue or enchilada sauces, when you get one that doesn’t taste like it came out of a mass-produced can, no matter how good that stuff is in the can, that new sauce can be a discovery, a revelation, a diversion.

I know, its somehow comforting to walk into a McDonalds and know that, within a certain margin, everything will taste like the last McDonald product you consumed. But does that mean we should banish the Burger Barrel or Arnold's? Should our goal be to become absolutely consistent and safe? That’s what got us the tomatoes everyone curses at the grocery store. They’re reliable and travel well to make for bigger business.

Yummy.

But I still think the idea of an electronic tongue is kind of cool – as a novelty.

Blinded by science

2009-09-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

All the details are beyond me, but think about how cool it would be to be able to paint a solar panel onto almost anything.

Chad Boutin recently reported for the National Institute of Standards and Technology that scientists are developing organic photovoltaics (see, I’m already getting a little confused). The short version is that they would replace rigid silicon cells. They would begin as a kind of ink that you could paint on various surfaces.

One rub is that the best organic photovoltaics currently can only convert less than 6 percent of light to power and don’t last very long.

Scientists at the institute are working on improving that performance and recently made discoveries that should help make progress.

“The 'ink' is a blend of a polymer that absorbs sunlight, enabling it to give up its electrons, and ball-shaped carbon molecules called fullerenes that collect electrons. When the ink is applied to a surface, the blend hardens into a film that contains a haphazard network of polymers intermixed with fullerene channels.”

See, clear as mud. But the important part is that, “By applying X-ray absorption measurements to the film interfaces, the team discovered that by changing the nature of the electrode surface, it will repulse fullerenes (like oil repulses water) while attracting the polymer.”

That means improvements in performance and lifespan because the materials aren't mixed haphazardly. That seems like a good thing to me.

And organic photovoltaics, try typing that fast six times, are a hot topic these days. A quick Google search brought up about 230,000 results. Go there for some light reading.

Slime sublime

2009-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

The National Biodiesel Board is pushing research to turn slime respectable.

The NBB is supporting scientists in their work to make algae an efficient source of oil to make biodiesel. Research topics include developing a non-destructive oil extraction process. That means there would be a lot fewer algae bodies to dispose of or find a good use for after squishing them to get the oil out. Continuously removing oil from living algae is called, “milking the algae,” according to the NBB.

I get a real fuzzy picture of what that entails, but the potential result sounds good. Besides, you can grow algae in tanks of yucky water on land where crops like corn for ethanol or soybeans for biodiesel can’t grow.

The enthusiasm at a recent summit covering the topic almost sweeps you away.

“Ted Abernathy with the Southern Growth Policies Board captured the as yet unknown potential for algae in his welcome address.,” according to the NBB Web site. "When this started, it seemed interesting," he said. "Now it seems really interesting."

Really or really-really interesting?

Okay, he’s not a motivational speaker but the results could be helpful, especially if algae can be contained and not become an invasive species like kuzu or johnson grass.

The New York Times recently ran a cautionary story about some of the crops under consideration for farmers to grow to make cellulosic ethanol. The story cites giant reed, a scary grass that grows in dense clumps up to 20 feet tall, that researchers want to plant in Florida.

We probably don't have to worry about it here, since it grows in damp spots, but it crowds out native plants, forms a dense root mat that blogs water seeping into the ground, chokes water ways and, oh boy, is easily ignitable.

Giant reed photo courtesy of the National Park Service. Hmmmm.

Funky food fun

2009-08-27T09:07:00.001-07:00

Here's a bit of hodge podge from the food world.

First up - British-based Tesco, the third largest retailer in the world, is offering bits of land to grow your own veggies. The company touts the "allotments" as great ways to get exercise, teach children about nature, preserve the environment, reduce shopping bills and curb the use of fertilizer and pesticides.

Of course the stores also sells grow-your-own gardening supplies.

The allotments are small parcels of ground that rent for between $15 and $75.

Tesco is also planning on selling chicks and adult hens to lay eggs and reports the chicken coops it sells are very popular.

Take two - The brat burger could be in your future.

Johnsonville, maker of all things sausage has been rolling out slices of sausage meat for food service customers. Next up is the brat, which is a pre-cooked product that follows Johnsonville's other Ultimate Sausage Slices — Andouille, Italian, and Hot 'N' Spicy.

The company suggests using them for everything from snacks to stir fries. But check out this useage. No wonder one comment on a blog about this subject asked to be reminded why health care costs are so high.

It's a beautiful world - kind of

2009-08-25T12:27:00.000-07:00

Ziploc's evolved, presumably you can evolve, and it's all bright under the orange-slice sun in a new ad for Ziploc Evolve plastic bags.

The Ziploc bag in the ad is covered with a field of peas, broccoli trees and some wierd hybrid wind turbine/palm tree things under the aforementioned orange slice. On the Web site's slide show, there's even animal cracker elephants and rabbits and the clouds look a little like califlower in the frame for Evolve.

But when you need two astericks in an ad to clarify your statements, well, not a good sign. The ad bills the new bags as "made with wind energy & 25% less plastic." Then comes the fine print, but note, it is made up of very small letters in green ink making it a little hard to read. "Made with wind energy and traditional energy sources" and less plastic "when compared to regular Ziploc Brand storage and sandwich bags."

Of course you can still buy those not-so-good Ziploc bags, but now you can feel better about yourself and the planet with Evolve. How many plastic trees do you think have lost their lives to make all the Ziploc bags in the world?

Can't we all just shop together?

2009-08-20T12:55:00.000-07:00

My wife laughed, perhaps nervously, when I told her we need to vacation at the Amigo’s supermarket, but I wasn’t laughing.

I just took a tour of the United Supermarket made over to appeal to latino shoppers as well as white bread shoppers. Oh baby. They’ve integrated the Hispanic food into the normal fare so there’s no ghetto where half an aisle has all the good stuff.

The imported candy is with the Hershey’s bars, the exotic shapes of Mexican pasta are with the American Beauty spaghetti. The Mexican Coca-Cola, made with cane sugar, is with the Mountain Dew.

Then there’s the prepared food.

Chicken mole, aguas frescas in six or seven fresh fruit flavors, four kinds of flour tortillas – they’re all made on site. And they're right next to the fried chicken.

Amigo’s COO Sidney Hooper said every effort was made to keep things authentic, not Tex-Mex, and convenient.

The meat market might make the less adventurous a little confused, but how can you beat the whole cow and hog heads for roasting underground in burlap? Well, there’s also five kinds of fajita mixes ready for stir frying, goat meat, rabbit halves, boneless chicken thighs flavored with adobo spices, and yes, hamburger. But there's also cheek meat for barbacoa and whole tongues for lengua. They're really big and look surprisingly like tongues (I've only seen them chopped on my plate).

I’ll have a full story with photos on the Sunday business page. See if you think it’s worth a visit at Interstate 40 and Grand Street.

And Hooper said to ask for a taste if you’re not familiar with something in the prepared food section. Don’t miss the chunky guacamole. Trust me on this.

Five mixes of fajita ingredients ready to go to the stove.

Photo by Stephen Spillman

Friendly skies?

2009-08-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

The headline was somewhat troubling – Airlines unite in deal for alternative fuel.

Is that safe? Flying planes on algae or beef fat turned to fuel?

My concern was testing. I haven’t seen a lot about how aviation has access to all this great bio-fuel that works fine. You would think we would want to be careful about this thousands of feet in the air. It might work, but I don’t know about it.

Reading into the press release and my pulse went down a little. Seems Rentech was announcing it had signed an “unprecedented” agreement to supply eight airlines with up to 1.5 million gallons per year of renewable synthetic diesel - but wait - for “ground service equipment” at Los Angeles International Airport.

I was feeling much better. I hadn’t missed some breakthrough. I wasn’t flying on a fuel that was just hitting the market. And I don’t have plans to be at LAX anytime soon, so the trucks on the ground aren’t even a problem.

Much better. Besides, the plant that will make the fuel won’t even be online until late 2012. The low-carbon, clean-burning fuel will be made from “woody green urban waste” like grass clippings.

There goes the pulse again, flying on grass clippings.

This whole green thing will take some getting used to, and I want lots of testing. And that’s not to say this fuel will not be great. I’m just saying…

Dreams going up

2009-08-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

It was pretty interesting to see several dreamers get their hands dirty to start Mariposa ecoVillage on Friday.

Linda Lloyd, the project manager, Larry Williamson and Gary Hames, of EarthCo Building Systems, and several volunteers were like a tribe with a mission. The sun and wind were typical Panhandle - strong. But the group got started laying columns of compressed earth like giant Lincoln logs to create the hospitality and marketing building for the development devoted to a different lifestyle.

It was messy work - sweat, dust, mud - and then it showered a couple of times just to goo things up. But everyone was smiling and joking, happy to be where they were.

Building the earthen structure is as primitive as any native hut of mud, but they cut the 18-inch-wide columns with electric chisels that work like jackhammers with blades. Then comes the mud, a slurry of water and dirt used to fill cracks, smooth seams and make one column stick to another.

Kind of a humble beginning for a big dream that could include live/work spaces, homes of compressed recycled plastic, car-free zones and people capturing rainwater and the sun's rays. Not far from the day's of half-dugouts in the Panhandle, but miles from today.

It's official

2009-08-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

The season is ripe now because we finally had our first meal of the year that came mostly from our gardens.

Sure, there's been plenty of herbs, a tomato or two spread over time. And sure, I'm late like always.

But last night I got to cook a ragu with eggplant, bell pepper and tomatoes from our beds. And the rosemary, basil and oregano were ours as well. To round it out I threw in some garlic, garbanzos, wine and zucchini (our Lebanese squash is almost ready). It tasted a lot like summer.

Tip on the eggplant. Buy it young, maybe at the farmer's market at Sunset Center Tues., Thurs. and Sat. mornings, cut it into one-inch chunks and put it on a plate covered with a layer of coffee filters. Salt it and microwave on high for about eight minutes. That gets the water out and precooks it before the saute. No mush, no fuss.

Got another e-mail from Boone, well, his aggressive pr people. It quoted U.S. Senate leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, as being a member of "the Pickens church." Scary. See what natural gas and a lot of money can do to you.

I threw in these pictures from an e-mail newsletter I get. It puts up links to all the wind stories I write, so it can't be all bad. Disclosure about the site that publishes the newsletter - it can get a little negative about wind energy. But it asks good questions. I like it for balancing other sources. I mean, I listen to Rush, too, for balance.

There's no good reason for the photos except they're kind of cool. The first is from Minnesota, the second from West Yorkshire in England.

Chicken? Egg? Wind?

2009-08-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

What has to come first to cover our horizon with wind turbines? This photo was taken near Palm Springs and shows part of an installation of 4,000 turbines.

I have mixed feelings about how much wind would be good for the Panhandle - not really at the wild-eyed chamber of commerce level, but not totally against it like the grumpy old man people accuse me of being.

The American Wind Energy Association recently released its second quarter market report, saying wind installations nationally went against expectations, beating the 2008 first half total. The industry installed 4,000 megawatts in 2009 versus 2,900 MW last year.

In another segment of the business, orders for parts are slowing as is the manufacture of turbines.

AWEA's CEO, Denise Bode, says what we need is a stronger push by the federal government via a robust national renewable fuel requirement.

And what can't the federal government make better? Nevertheless, in the shortrun, that probably won't help the Panhandle.

Walt Hornaday, head of Cielo Wind, knows about the wind business here. His company finished the Wildorado Wind Ranch in Oldham County a couple of years ago and has developed numerous other projects in Texas.

While people continue to say "if only the transmission lines would get here to take our power to the neon lights of Dallas, we could start building wind farms," there might be something else hitting the brakes.

According to Hornaday, The financial sector would not step up and fund that building right now. With projects costing about $2 million per megawatt, that's a lot of missing financing when you think about the Wildorado installation being rated at 161 MW capacity.

The AWEA report has some other interesting information, especially if you're a wind geek. For example, Missouri led the country in second quarter growth at 146 MW added while Texas doesn't even make the top 10 with 454 MW added. I know that's because Texas already has a lot of wind farms, so the 454 is a smaller percentage, but it looks weird to get beat by Missouri.

Your life in a box

2009-08-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's like a land rush, but not.

An excited news release came my way recently, positively vibrating with the news that Facebookers can now be virtual farmers with virtual green thumbs making piles of virtual money and doing it all with their virtual friends.

“Zygna, the No. 1 social gaming companion the Web, is opening up millions of acres of virtual farmland with the launch of its new FarmVille,” the release reads.

First, a disclaimer, they said No. 1, not me.

Players can “run a profitable farm while also enjoying the social aspect of a rural community. They can select neighbors, exchange gifts and even chat amongst each other in real time,” the release continues.

Does anyone want to volunteer to go to the local coffee shop in Spearman or Dimmitt and poll the farmers on this? Players, with no idea where bread comes from, can build their bank accounts if they tend their farms diligently. And they can "share the social aspect of a rural community" from the safety of their bedroom in the suburbs.

And I can’t even go to "chat amongst themselves." It’s personal, but "amongst" and "atop" should never be seen outside Southern Living magazine.

And the best thing is, you can bank on this game being authentic because Zygna says it is building on its success with other games like Mafia War and Texas Hold'Em.

Okay, my assessment is at its heart unfair because I can’t even remember how to get on Facebook to be with all my fans and test FarmVille for myself. Guess I won’t get to earn my virtual green thumb.

I'll just go sweat in my dirty little garden.

Pests and Power

2009-08-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Two bits of info - a plague update and a different kind of Happy Meal.

I got a bit of advice in the form of a news release from Texas AgriLife Extension about those grasshoppers that have me hopping mad. Our bit of rainy weather put them into hiding, but the 100-degree temperatures arae back and so is the plague, so I was happy to see the release until about the third paragraph.

"'Can homeowners get rid of grasshoppers? During outbreak years like this one is shaping up to be in some parts of the state, I'd have to say no,' said Mark Muegge, AgriLife Extension entomologist at Fort Stockton."

"They are some of the most difficult insect pests to control in the urban landscape," he added.

Thanks for that. But there are some resources to pass on if you are tired of feeding your innocent plants to these things.

Extension recommends integrated pest management through removing any weedy borders where they lay eggs, using several different insecticides, and choosing plants that are less tasty. (Now you tell us.)

My goal is to save what I've got because replanting the beds doesn't excite me.

Here's a link to the details.

And now about the McCharger. The Charlotte News & Observer reported a couple of weeks ago about a curbside service at a Cary, N.C., McDonald's.

Just think, you're running a little low on energy, so you whip in for a fast-food favorite. Then you remember you forgot to plug in your Prius last night. Pick the right parking place and you can feed your car thanks to McDonald's two charging stations.

The Cary McDonald's is also under review to be LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. That would make it the third LEED McLocation after Savannah, Ga., and Chicago.

Mayhem on Main Street - The controller from outer space

2009-08-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

The city of Amarillo is giving rebates up to $50 per water customer to people who buy controllers that turn their sprinkler system off when it's raining or near freezing, but Tom Ash thinks that's a "baby step."

Ash is the director of conservation for HydroPoint, a company that offers more than just a puny rain/freeze controller. They can input what plants you're growing, the slope of the yard, how much exposure to the sun there is, the soil type. Then the controller crunches the data to calculate the most efficient irrigation schedule for you.

But wait. There's more.

Just picture all the information flying through space from Earth to satellite to Earth to satellite to Earth as HydroPoint constantly collects information from the National Weather Service, other government weather observatories and private weather stations. They do some kind of way-too-complicated number work and figure out the evaporation and transpiration rates in the "micro zone" your yard is in. (That means how much water vapor is going back into the air and how much the plants are releasing in the surrounding half square mile.)

All that figuring goes into tweaking the irrigation schedule that is transmitted by satellite to the controller.

There is a monthly fee for all this high-tech aid, but Ash says you save water, but also energy to pump the water. Then there's the carbon dioxide that would have been created by the Harrington Power Station while Xcel Energy to makes the electricity to power the pumps that move the water for the house that Jack built.

Let's see, that's a win, win, lose...well, good thing I'm not doing all this high-concept calculating.

I don't know if it works, but it is an interesting idea.

Oh yeah, and you can wire a "baby-step" rain sensor in for an extra charge.

It ain’t easy being green

2009-07-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

Not everybody is swooning over green.

Consider Ash Grove Cement. The Austin American-Statesman reports today that the company is suing the city of Plano because the city wants to give preference to cement companies using modern kilns that don’t pollute as much as older kilns.

“Plano adopted a cement purchasing resolution that is not only unconstitutional, but also highly prejudicial to Ash Grove,” the company said in a statement, according to the Statesman story.

We’re not talking the far more cutting-edge cement like I talked about a couple of days ago with rice hulls and what not in it. Just the same old stuff made with less mess.

The company is also suing Dallas and Fort Worth for the same reason.

Let’s see, invest in modern equipment or pay lawyers to make people buy stuff from you. What would be the smart thing to do? They’re the largest U.S.-owned cement company, so I guess they know what they’re doing.

Say what?

2009-07-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just in time for the global warming debate to move from the House to the Senate, the Grist online magazine, which calls itself “a beacon in the smog,” has an interesting research project on its site.

Grist writers looked at the official Web sites of all U.S. senators to see how clearly they express their views on the environment. It didn’t matter what the views were. All that mattered was how well a visitor could understand the senator’s point of view.

Our Republican Texas senators had a mixed showing.

Out of a possible 25 maximum points, John Cornyn came in with 13 points, a solid C. Not a bad showing against people like New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman at 8 and Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat, at 10.

Not that a Republican do better than some Democrats on being transparent on their environmental stance. In fact, the project showed no real pattern by party.

Then there’s Kay Bailey. Senator Hutchison earned an F with 4 points. Now she did beat out Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa, with a 2, Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, who got a 0, and couple of other people. So I hope Rick "I-Never-Met-A-Can-Of-Hairspray-I-Didn’t-Like" Perry doesn’t use the poor showing against her. But maybe he uses a pump bottle instead of a spray.

There were several surprises, like Republicans Orrin Hatch, of Utah; Olympia Snowe, of Maine and James "Greenhouse-Warming-Is-A-Hoax" Inhofe, of Oklahoma, all trouncing Ted Kennedy.
The big winner with 24 out of 25 points? That would be Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota. Never heard of her. But I’m sure she’s very popular up north, and they can be proud she’s their senator.

By the way, the other Democratic Minnesota senator, Al Franken, didn’t have a Web site to survey at the time.

I'm a victim. Really

2009-07-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

They've driven me to dream of mass murder.

I don't mind prying a tomato worm or two off my plants and stomping them into bug heaven. Okay, don't stomp because they're really juicy. But the grasshoppers are making me a little crazy.

Crazy enough to load up with Sevin dust and start sprinkling plants that haven't seen any herbicides or insecticides all season. You can walk across the lawn and stir up clouds of hoppers like puffs of dust. Walk near the wrong plant, and you can hear them fleeing, thumping off other plants or walls.

And speaking of dust, I had been hoping that if it was going to be in the 100s and dry, maybe it should stay that way long enough to drive them off to Kansas or somewhere. But no, it starts raining. That makes them happy to stay and washes off the Sevin.

I'm no organic zealot, but I try. I used insecticidal soap until my pump-pressing finger wanted to fall off.

And there's some plants that they find less than tasty, like salvia, coreopsis, Russian Sage, hyssop, rosemary and Mexican marigolds. But somebody has to save the pitiful zinnias, and one butterfly bush (another one is untouched in the same yard).

I would have chosen more hopper resistant plants, but these are not normal times.

The ultimate insult, or maybe payback, was the daddy grasshopper that landed on my glasses this weekend. It was massive and just grabbed hold of one lens like it was going to throw me to the ground or something.

Maybe this is all karma. I admit I bought compost this year instead of making it. And remember, my plants are sequestering carbon for the good of the globe. I'll turn my life around. Just free me from this plague.

All in the family

2009-07-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Center for Public Integrity reports Podesta One and Podesta Two are going head on.

Seems John Podesta, formerly known as co-chair of the Obama transition and Clinton chief of staff, is head of the Center for American Progress, and they really don’t like the term “clean coal.” In fact, they accuse the coal industry of using it to mislead in the debate about energy production, greenhouse gases and air pollution.

Then there’s lesser-known but equally well-connected Tony Podesta. The Center for Public Integrity describes him as “one of Washington’s most successful lobbyists." He's also John's brother. One of his clients? The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The coalition paid his Podesta Group lobbying firm $50,000 in the second quarter to make its case during the climate debate in the House.

One of the policy papers by the Center for American Progress lambasts ACCCE as a group of coal and utility companies just stalling on making clean coal mean something. The report says the companies made a combined profit of $57 billion in 2007 but invested only a "paltry" $3.5 billion in clean coal research over several years.

Now I could be wrong, but $3.5 billion isn't extremely paltry in my checkbook, but I get the center's point.

"Meanwhile, atmospheric greenhouse gas levels grow, ice sheets melt, hurricanes become more ferocious, and the day of reckoning for the Earth looms closer," according to the center's paper.

Even the Podestas' gotta make a buck, but there may be a "day of reckoning" in Podestaland if this climate debate thing keeps going.

Water - Showing the money

2009-07-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has won its bet that it could reduce the amount of water use with rebates, even in formerly booming Las Vegas.

The authority’s Web site explains its rather extreme Water Smart Landscapes Rebate program.

Basically they pay people to rip out their lawns and replace them with desert landscaping. For every square foot of grass removed, customers get $1.50 up to 5,000 square feet. Every square foot of conversion saves 55 gallons of water a year, according to the authority. The price goes down to $1 per foot after 5,000 square feet with a maximum payment of $300,000 per property.

They offer landscape designs to help out and a list of Water Smart contractors to do the work if you just can’t bear to do the deed.

In the 10 years the program has run, they claim 130 million square feet of grass have bitten the dust, saving billions of gallons of water. Just in Las Vegas, turning yards back into the desert they started as has reduced water use by 18 percent from 2002 to 2007, a boom time of population growth for the city.

So it can be done, but think of all the tears that would be shed for the immaculate fescue and bluegrass lawns in Amarillo turned back into prairie. And do you think the “our-tax-rate-is-so-low” city commission would foot the bill? (The Nevadans have spent $138 million in 10 years). But our commissioners did get a start with the new rebate program for sensors to keep people from watering when the temperature’s near freezing or better yet when it’s raining.

And yet there are others who are adopting programs that reward yard exterminators like Los Angeles, several communities around San Francisco Bay and Mesa, Ariz.

The Nevadans even have an art contest to teach kids what their parents should embrace. Here's one called "Where's my water gone?"

Poor little goat. At least I think it's a goat.

Amarillo biz to knock NOx

2009-07-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

The press to reduce emissions from diesel vehicles continues, and the Pilot Travel Center in East Amarillo on Interstate 40 will be one of the first in the chain to offer diesel exhaust fluid at the pump.

Pilot will initially equip 24 stations, including the Amarillo one, to dispense the fluid, according to a convenience store industry publication.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been phasing in compliance with regulations to reduce all kinds of bad stuff that diesel engines can spew. Ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel is one way refiners and drivers are complying, reducing sulfur by about 90 percent.

The new deadline approaching next year is for smog-producing nitrogen oxide (NOx). There are a couple of ways to cut that, but the diesel exhaust fluid to be sold at Pilot works with selective catalytic reduction where the injection of the fluid into the exhaust of a diesel engine makes nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and water vapor.

I know, 10 years from now we might find out we’re creating a bigger problem, but that’s the plan for now.

The North American SCR Stakeholders Group is pushing for this technology over the other ones on its Web site.

The trade/government group touts SCR for its performance advantage, saying initial test results show that SCR will increase fuel efficiency by about 3-5 percent.
The group claims the reduction of pollutants includes:
• Nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90%
• Hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by 50-90%
• Particulate matter (PM) emissions by 30-50%

Good silica, bad silica

2009-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

All this green stuff can get a tad confusing. Over here we have researchers trying to replace silica used to make vehicle tires, and over here their counterparts are making rice into silica to use when making cement.

The Oregon State University “wood science” researchers have found cellulose in wood can replace silica as a reinforcing material in tires, decreasing the energy used to make the tire, reducing costs, increasing fuel efficiency and better resisting heat buildup.

The cellulose replaces silica, which is energy intensive to produce, or carbon black, increasingly expensive because it comes from oil.

The full story is here.

Then there’s the concrete. Heat rice hulls up to 1,475 degrees to drive off the carbon and it becomes a fairly pure type of silica, perfect to increase the strength and reduce corrosion of concrete made from cement with rice silica. Making a ton of cement with silica results in one ton of carbon dioxide emission, according to the Discovery Channel Web site.

There are several biproducts that are used to make cement, but the rice hulls make sense these days because India and China, big consumers of rice, are also big consumers of cement.

A green finale

2009-07-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

So I’m looking at a story from The Associated Press about a green trend involving coffins made from banana leaves or woven bamboo. They take up to two years to decompose and give you a chance to do one last green thing for the planet.

Then I start to feel a little weird and almost guilty because my father-in-law recently died and my father is under hospice care. But their problems have had me thinking a lot harder about what I want when it’s my problem.

So a little research takes me to a Sierra Club Web page that starts a story with “Recycle yourself.”

A link there takes me to an ad for the Ecopod from the Natural Burial Company, made from “sturdy paper-mache made from recycled newspapers and covered in handmade paper of mulberry leaves and recycled silk.” Each one has its own silkscreened design –doves on the blue one, a Celtic cross on the green one, and my favorite, an Aztec sun on the red one.

They say theirs is the pick when “providing for someone’s Last Style Statement.”

Kent Casket Industries offers solid pine coffins and caskets “sourced from sustainable forests” with no stains or “highly toxic glue.” For some reason they also tout no animal products or used, but I’m not going there.

For ease of storage, they are shipped packed as flat panels with easy-to-follow assembly instructions. And don’t forget the rope handles.

But I’m not sure about the NatureBoard™eco coffins from Ecocoffins. They’re “made from a cardboard which contains at least 90% recycled material so if you are looking for an environmentally-friendly funeral ours are accepted at native woodland burial sites, woodland burial sites and traditional graveyards and crematoria. We only use natural starch based glues in assembly.”

No, not cardboard. I played in enough refrigerator boxes as a kid.

This is going to hurt just a little

2009-07-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

GE announced yesterday it is working on home plans for building or retrofitting homes to be net users of zero electricity. The company hopes to debut the plans by 2015.

The keys to making this work are more efficient energy-using products, management of how much energy the home uses, generation of electricity and storage of that energy. Makes sense – light bulbs and appliances that use stingy amounts of power, solar and wind generation on site and making decisions to not use power.

Wait. GE, and others promoting some smart-grid proposals, think an informed consumer will make a conscious decision to cut back on energy use if they just understand how much they are currently using. Are we talking about American consumers?

According to GE, residential housing uses 37 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. Of that usage, appliances, lighting and heating and cooling account for 82 percent.

We already know turning off the blow dryer will cut energy consumption and so will keeping the thermostat set higher during the summer and lower in winter. Has that really changed a lot of lifestyles?

The nifty highly efficient water heaters GE is dreaming up and residential solar and wind sound good, except for the neighbors who will complain about the looks. But it will be really hard for a lot of people to quit being energy hogs.

My pal Pickens

2009-07-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Just got a personal note from T. Boone Pickens about his $10 billion wind farm near Pampa.

Well, I guess the note actually went to all his Pickens Army people who promote the Pickens Plan. See any Pickens Pattern here?

He says the wind farm isn’t cancelled, just postponed to 2013 when the transmission lines are due to be completed in the Panhandle for the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones. That's counter to what many news outlets said recently

Oh yeah, and he’s a victim in this.

“This misreporting is no doubt being fueled by those aggressively trying to convince Congress and the American public that wind and solar power can’t contribute significantly to solving our energy problems. They are wrong,” the note says.

And don't forget all the natural gas he wants to sell drivers for their cars since it won't be needed for electricity. That will cut our gasoline use and teach the Saudis and Chavez a lesson.

The 667 turbines he ordered from GE to be delivered in 2011 for the first phase are still coming, apparently. Pickens told a Bloomberg reporter he might use them for smaller farms or just “put’em in the garage.” That would be some garage, but I guess he could afford to build one before his investment fund crashed harder than my 401K.

And then we get all touchy-feely like Boone always does.

“I cannot ever thank you enough for your continued support for the Pickens Plan.”

A lot of bull

2009-07-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Western Business Roundtable will be offering politicians and the media elite some “cojones” this week.

The business lobbying group will serve Rocky Mountain oysters at its annual Taste of the West event after a hard day of showing off "tomorrow's game-changing technology today." Some kind of clean tech/green tech show and tell.

In a news release, the group calls the bull testicles by prettified names like calf fries, cowboy caviar, and a new one on me, Montana tendergroin. I don't even want to think about that.

But apparently, Capitol Hill staffers love them.

"Although I'm not certain that everyone knows the dish's derivation. A number of Members of Congress from the West come by early just to make sure they can grab some before they are gone," said Jim Sims, President and CEO of the Roundtable. "I can't say that I have seen many news media folks try them, but hope springs eternal in the quest to better educate folks in the Beltway media crowd about life outside the Beltway."

Okay, so what’s the big deal about the media? If the congressional staffers don’t know what they’re eating, how would most members of the media? So if reporters are shying away from the calf fries, and they absolutely shouldn’t, what would be the reason? I think its just the politicians and their helpers hogging the good stuff before anyone else can get some. Would that be hard to imagine?

I really believe we should stay focused on the grand tradition of ridiculing politicians. They’re paid by the public, not Rupert Murdock. And believe me, they make way more than “the media.” And don’t forget, they write and pass the laws that apply to everyone but themselves. So maybe they have a cojones overload and should back away from the table and let somebody else get some.

Making manure green

2009-07-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

Not by feeding too much alfalfa.

Dairy cows are big energy users, but a Texas AgriLife researcher will present a paper at the Texas Animal Manure Management Issues forum in Austin that shows they can pay their energy bills and more.

I’m not sure what will be more fun, barhopping on Sixth Street or the conference.

But I digress. Cady Engler, the researcher, looked at electrical, diesel, gasoline and natural gas usage on dairies for milking, waste management, feeding and watering. He didn’t include the energy to grow crops for feed or transporting the milk to market.

He found a wide variation in usage from one type of dairy to another, but the average was about 3.2 kilowatt hours per day per cow.

Turning manure into energy, either with bacteria to make methane or high heat to make hydrogen or both could make up to 25 kilowatt hours per day per cow.

The processes can not only make energy, in the form of heat or electricity, but also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the manure. They also reduce the volume of “nutrients” left to be disposed of. In ag researcher talk that means there’s less poop to spread on farm fields - up to 80 percent less.

And in places where it rains (that leaves most of the Panhandle out) and there's hills (out again) that would mean less threat of said "nutrients" ending up in a creek, then a river, then a lake, then your house. But you already got that.

2009-07-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

I've never really believed confession is good for the soul in every case. Carrying unspoken guilt can build character. But here we go.

After starting way too many plants from seeds in the chill of winter and buying way more than enough clearance plants at Irwin's wholesale greenhouse blowout clearance, the evenings have been filled with careful, gentle watering of said plants. But time, sun, heat and wind never let me get ahead so that it didn't have to be every day. But running a sprinkler to throw the water to the wind was not an option and the need to not wash them away meant no flooding.

So I finally got the landscape fabric and soaker hoses laid out. You remember, the stuff purchased months ago. Anyway, I happily turned on the water-saving helpers last week and walked away. Know what? They're great for not having to be tended - unless you just forget them.

This won't be the first time I left the water running all night, but they did a great job, so I'm not too disappointed. And at least they were just dripping along instead of spraying. Now the beds are fully soaked and the plants are very happy instead of droopy.

One consequence is the grass around the beds is also very happy since the soaking moved out into the yard in irregular blobs. Mowing in July, can't beat that for fun.

But if you want to do a good watering and get the most out of your water, I love those leaky hoses that just weep the water. But don't forget them. Maybe I need a post-it on my forehead.

Do it or else

2009-07-01T10:18:00.001-07:00

In San Francisco, it will soon be a crime not to compost.

Residents and restaurants will have to compost food scraps or face fines up to $500 for not separating trash into recyclables, compostables and plain old trash, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

The current voluntary program provides compost to farms and vineyards in the Bay area. More than 1,000 restaurants already participate because the charge for hauling off compostable material is less than for standard waste, according to the contractor who runs the city’s service.
It’s all part of a plan to divert 75 percent of the city’s waste from landfills by 2010 and to hit a zero-waste goal by 2020.

What would happen in Panhandle cities if someone proposed that? The mind boggles.
The regional recycling program headed by the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission continues to expand slowly, and Amarillo’s committee to advise on green issues is meeting Tuesday to discuss an educational presence on the city’s Web site.

But not sorting a crime?

Yikes! I can just see a city of Yosemite Sams bouncing furiously up and down with pistols drawn and puffs of smoke coming out their ears. Yikes again.

Burp control for a cooler planet

2009-06-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

Short of using a cork, there have been few answers to how to control the methane emissions from cows, but there may be at least a partial answer.

Stonyfield Farm, a supplier of organic dairy products, says it is having success developing a "Greener Cow." The idea is to alter the bovines' diets to reduce their burps which would mean less methane and less global warming, they say.

The company began feeding cows diets high in natural omega-3 sources like flax last year at Vermont dairies that supply milk to it. This supposedly "re-balances" the cows' main stomachs resulting in not only less methane, as much as 18 percent less, but less saturated fat in their milk.

So the process is good for the planet and good for you. That's right, a win/win. We love win/wins. And if it keeps the EPA off your back, it's a win/win/win. Wow.

To plow or not to plow

2009-06-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

Experts are trying to help landowners in the Panhandle find ways to keep grass growing on Conservation Reserve Program land instead of plowing up the soil that got in the program because it's considered more prone to erosion than other land.

The scientists are talking more about this because increasing numbers of CRP contracts are starting to expire, and once they do the payments stop and the landowners have to decide how to replace that income.

Ted McCollum, the Texas AgriLife Extension beef cattle specialist based in Amarillo, says grazing the grass planted to hold the soil in place won't make as much money as the government payments, but it's still a good option.

“I think we need to keep most of this land in rangeland,” he said.

By the end of 2010, 740,384 acres in the Panhandle could go from conservation to farm production. With expiring contracts on the South Plains thrown in, the total goes to 1.26 million acres. And a lot of that has been in the program for 20 years so there's a good bit at stake.

The landowners who planted Old World bluestem and weeping love grass on the CRP land in the Panhandle will be ahead on the possibility of making more money than on native rangeland, McCollum said. But first the land has to be renovated.

If you want to know the details of McCollum's suggestions, go to this site.

Wait a minute

2009-06-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

Some guy from North Chili, N.Y., is trying to get everyone to lighten their load by putting stuff out on their curb on Oct. 24 to let other people pick through it.

Okay, first, what’s a New York town calling itself Chili for? Second, this is supposed to let you get rid of useable stuff you don’t really use. Sounds good. But what happens when you go digging through your neighbors stuff and go home with more stuff? You get nowhere or go backwards on the too-much-stuff treadmill.

I’m going to have to think about this one. I know reuse is right in there with recycle, but I’m not sure how this plan would play out in the real world.

Check out the Web site and see what you think. But like supporters of Curb Day say, “What’s rusting in your garage?”

Greenerrific

2009-06-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Packed with product

there's never too much green

Who'd of thunk Office Depot, seller of murdered trees by the ream, would be flexing its green muscles?

The company has redesigned its environmental Web site to better shout its credentials. It sports the Depot "global environmental vision" to "Buy Green, Be Green and Sell Green."

Greened out yet? Impossible.

How about the Green Book catalog with 2,200 of Office Depot's greenest products and tips? How about green rankings of its products from light green for refillable pens to dark green for 100 percent recycled content file folders? Well, how about the Greener Office Guide to going from "green starter" to "green leader?"

But check it out. The company's done a lot of work to communicate its position and make a little money to add to its $14.5 billion sales every year.

Slimy, green and good for you

2009-06-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

The online newsletter RenewableEnergyWorld has a nice overview of efforts to turn that slimy green stuff that grows on the sides of your pool into transportation fuels for everything from trucks to jets.

It addresses the methods to grow algae, harvest its oil for refining and what to do with what's left, the ever confusing "co-products." I started hearing that term when interviewing people about ethanol. "Don't call it byproduct, it's a co-product," they all said. That seems a lot like the military insisting Iraq is in Southwest Asia, not the Middle East.

Regardless, the article says 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas production comes from people trying to get from one place to another so new fuels could help cut production.

It also says algae produce 100 times the oil soybeans, the current choice to make biodiesel, can. Also, growing algae only takes sun, water and carbon dioxide. That doesn't sound as fun as driving a big ol' tractor all day, but if it works...

Getting ready to plug and play

2009-06-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

Now there's a plan, kind of, that puts dates to the completion of transmission lines for wind power in the Panhandle.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has submitted to the Public Utilities Commission proposed construction completion dates.

Here comes the alphabet soup.

ERCOT's plan is based on the PUC's goal of having all the lines to make the wind farms in Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) hooked up and pumping power to Dallas and such by the end of 2013.

The first line in the Panhandle will come up from the south through Briscoe, Swisher and Castro counties to Randall County by Sept. 30, 2012. One problem, it won't get hooked to the grid until Dec. 31, 2012. Next comes the line through Childress to Donley, Gray and Carson counties, across the Palo Duro Canyon (that should be fun) in Armstrong County to Randall County. That is supposed to happen by March 31, 2013.

Those plans will give access to large wind farms planned by Shell (Briscoe County), E.ON (Carson and Gray) and Mesa (Gray and Roberts) and a too many smaller outfits to count. Besides, these wind companies are pretty secretive about their operations, with their landmen trying to sign up landowners to contracts that promise the signer's torture and perhaps more if they disclose any terms.

Then there's the newest entry. A Danish outfit and a Norwegian one are teaming with a Parmer County company to tempt more than 200 landowners to sign up about 204,000 acres for a wind farm that is bigger than any of the others. Right now they think they can do 3,000 megawatts, but the goal is 5,000 megawatts. That's enough for 1.75 million average homes.

Then there's the rubs. The developers will have to find a sugar daddy to pay for it all, and there's no transmission planned in the area. But Jim Swafford, CEO of Scandia Wind Southwest, the Parmer County company, says if they build it big enough, the transmission will follow.

Too much Huh?

2009-06-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, this green stuff is clear as mud. Now I know that's of the Earth, but when something hits the Huh? button too hard, it makes my head hurt.

Sample No. 1 from a recent speech by John Podesta, president and CEO of Center for American Progress in which he proposes the concept of Carbon Cap Equivalents:
"This would entail adding up the full range of supplemental and complimentary proposals to each country’s carbon cap, and converting this into one comparable figure of what these emissions reductions would effectively amount to if they had been the result of a carbon cap alone. While the modeling will be complex, the hoped for Copenhagen treaty needs to create the mechanism through measureable, verifiable, and reportable carbon cap equivalents – representing the full range of their policy profile to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – above and beyond their formal cap."

Sounds simple, Huh?

Sample No. 2 from an e-mailed news release for a product that lets your horse leave lighter hoofprints on the Earth:
Alltech and California-based O.H. Kruse have launched Green Feed, "the animal health and nutrition industry’s first environmentally-friendly equine feed."
"From its bag to its formulation, Green Feed was designed to enable horses to perform at their peak naturally and with less impact on the land they call home:
The bag is made of recyclable materials and is printed with soy-based ink.
Green Feed includes a variety of proven, natural technologies to ensure digestive health, boost immune function, and provide optimal mineral balances.
The formula includes just the right amount of supplements to decrease the nutrient content wasted into the manure and thereby reduce the risk of ground water contamination.
It was also formulated keeping the local availability of ingredients in mind so the carbon footprint and energy waste of transportation is minimized. Grain products are kept to a minimum in the Green Feed to avoid affecting the supply for a hungry world."

Do you think that makes those horses feel a lot better about themselves?

But seriously, they aren't bad ideas. There's just a Huh? factor to reading these descriptions of them.

It's not unusual

2009-06-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, smarmy-but-sexy Tom Jones (and Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins for balance) and now this. The tiny nation of Wales will share some of its native riches at a conference this summer on getting rid of all carbon emissions.

This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., will host experts discussing the buildings, food and energy use of the future at the Convergence on Zero event. It will be on June 25 and 26.

The Smithsonian is focusing on Welsh cultural traditions at the Folklife Festival, so it makes sense the country will be given a chance to show off a traditional roundhouse that is powered by the sun. Also, Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan will speak at the conference. He recently announced a plan to reduce fossil fuel use in his country by 90 percent.

The conference is supposed to host leading environmental thinkers and doers from the nation of Wales who will share their sustainability ideas and actions with the United States.

“This conference will build bridges between two countries, so different in scale yet both affected by the same challenges: climate security, energy security and economic security,” according to the Centre for Alternative Technology, which is coordinating the event.

It will be free and open to the public.

And check out the Folklife Festival site if you’re interested in all the other doings at the 2009 Wales Washington Cymru.

When dyin' ain't enough

2009-06-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I like to read the snarky comments on the Nutrition Action Healthletter put out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. My favorite feature is the Right Stuff versus Food Porn that praises or shames food products or restaurant menu items.

Here's part of the description of Bertolli Oven Bake Meals. If you can't guess, it's the Porn side of the page.

"No more frozen dinners that you just pop in the microwave and eat. Now you get to use (and wash!) your own baking dish and sprinkle your own cheese. Odds are, you haven't had so much cooking fun since you baked a cake with the heat of a light bulb in your Easy-Bake Overn."

After an hour of baking, you end up with two servings that have 630 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and a lot of salt in each serving.

I get it, but inside the issue the drama is a tad much. Speaking about the "long shadow" of livestock, cue the scary Clint-Eastwood spaghetti-western music, the executive director of the center starts his column with this.

Citing a study released recently by the National Cancer Institute, Michael Jacobson says the more red and processed meat you eat, the greater the risk of dying. Not a new or particularly effective argument given the diet of a lot of people.

But wait, there's more. And I'm not talking shamwows. This is important.

"If avoiding an early death doesn't persuade you to eat much less (or no) beef and pork, you might be moved by the environmental consequences of raising cattle and hogs," Jacobson writes.

All the cow burps and farts, fertilizer and pesticide for livestock feed make this a big ole disaster, contributing 18 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions each year. I would like to see somebody prove it. And don't tell Oprah on me for saying that.

By the end of his column, Jacobson is asking for somebody to "please pass me a veggie burger." I can hear the sobs.

Get all the smog-spewing cars and trucks off the Houston Loop (now that's a scary place at rush hour), and I'll think about eating more chicken.

More sobs ensue.

No Saudia Arabia of Solar

2009-06-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

State Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, is fond of calling the Panhandle the Saudia Arabia of wind for its potential to pump out the power. However, his bills to promote solar energy died this legislative session as did a companion bill in the Senate.

It's not as big as not renewing transportation department (sure to be revisited), but the legislators never put the solar bills up for final votes.

Swinford proposed in one bill to create a fund for rebates to homeowners installing solar by charging electric customers a small fee. The other bill would have set mandates for developing "emerging renewable energy." That means anything other than utility-scale wind farms. The mandate called for adding 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. That would have been enough to power about one million average homes.

His bills join the ban on trans fat in restaurants on the dead bill list. They just couldn't get the votes the successful bill to require training and certification of laser hair-removal technicians.

Look what the wind blew in

2009-06-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

It's the BBC in our 'hood.

They're taking a British look at Oldham County. The network came to see which way the wind blows in the Panhandle, making the point that support for the renewable energy source crosses political lines. It’s really more about the money. Yeah, there are a lot of landowners excited about getting turbines on their land and a lot of economic development people abuzz about support businesses for the industry setting up here.

And the counties and schools that depend on taxes for life are making deals left and right for tax abatements to get developers to plant turbines in their areas. Even forgiving taxes have made Oldham and its schools richer with payments in lieu of taxes from Edison Mission, a California energy giant operating in the county.

The BBC story focuses on the land, Mike Baca’s in particular. He’s got some of the Wildorado Wind Ranch on his place and couldn’t be happier.

Here’s an excerpt from Baca. He's the one with the poodle:
"From the porch of his ranch-house - Tuscan with a Texan twist - at the floor of a verdant canyon he can sip bourbon and watch the giant blades turning a perpetual profit.
"I like them. And I like the cheque that comes with them,’ he says. ‘I could do with a few more of them. We have to be concerned about what the world will be like for our grandchildren. If the turbines get noisy I can just switch on the fountain."

Oldham County Judge Donny Allred remains strong in his support of wind while awaiting the expansion of the wind ranch by Cielo Wind and Edison Mission. That will mean a whole lot more revenue for the wide-open county that has more cattle than people.

And that’s not a bad thing. I live there so I can testify. But it’s kind of funny to see the BBC cameraman’s fascination with cattle, down to the slightly snotty nose on one. Watch the video at the bottom of this post.

Another excerpt, this time from Allred:
"This is the most perfect marriage of two industries - wind and cattle ranching," he says. "They were made for each other."

You can barely see the turbine in the background in the photo at the left.

Food, fun and a little freaky

2009-05-29T10:08:00.000-07:00

There will be some interesting, sometimes even in a good way, stuff in Chicago at three food trade shows June 16-18.

Now, Chicago is a food town deluxe, from that pizza to Mexican, yes Mexican. But the shows, All Things Organic, Expo Comida Latina and All Asia will be showing off everything from hardware to foods that don’t necessarily fit the every-day shopping list.

How about dinnerware made of residue from sugar cane processing or Hawaiian Health’s Ohana-Lavender Noni Lotion for Pets? It’s supposed to be for fungal and bacterial infections, cuts, muscle strains and more. Sounds like what I need for those gardening days gone wild.

And don’t forget the fun. There will be jigsaw puzzles that bring a new meaning to Greenpeace (green pieces, get it?). TDK Games’ Greenpieces puzzles are printed on paper embedded with wildflower seeds. After you finish the puzzle, take it apart, plant and water the pieces for flowers if you’re not embarrassed to be seen planting puzzle pieces.

But the food – everything from purple carrot juice to fruit pastes made with grape skin extract.
Carmelized flax seed, blueberries and basil packed together to top salads, organic and biodynamic wine, green tea beer and a full range of organic spirits, will be on display, according to the shows’ Web sites.

But I’m drawing the line at beer made from green tea, at least until I have a couple of boring beers.

Making Green Sausage

2009-05-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

You may not want to look too closely at this because the making of legislation or sausage can make you queasy.

Up in D.C., they're working on a greenhouse gas bill to curb the production of carbon dioxide, and there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. In the first quarter of 2009, 140 businesses or interest groups have put lobbyists into action to represent them in the creation of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. That makes a total of 880 firms or groups with lobbyists involved, according to the Center for Public Integrity.

Of course, the power companies and oil and gas interests make up more than half of those. But what the heck? There's also Google, Nike and Starbucks, to name a few of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there's the American Meat Institute ("don't outlaw cow burps"), Levi Strauss and the maker of Segways (transportation without the tailpipes).

Too much?

They would probably say never enough.

There's a lot of money involved when you start talking about selling permits to pollute, better known as cap and trade, or keeping you're friends employed in Washington. The center reports the lobbyists have multiple clients. For example, 10 lobbyist firms represent 100 businesses. That's a lot of former government officials and Capital Hill staffers at work to keep the Earth from getting all crispy.

Dumas shows the money

2009-05-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

Wind developers are working in the Dumas area. There are numerous small John Deere wind farms in the Dumas area and Valero is building 35 turbines nearby at Sunray, but someone needs to make sure they keep running.

That's why the Dumas Economic Development Corp. is planning to give Amarillo College $69,000 to offer classes for people wanting to be wind turbine technicians. Of course it's not just about working around Dumas, but there will be a need there and throughout the Panhandle as transmission lines connect the area to larger cities and really large wind farms spring up.

AC already offers the classes at its main campus, and Clarendon College has a similar program at its Childress campus.

There will be a check-presentation ceremony in Dumas at 4:30 p.m. on May 26 at the main entrance to the AC Moore County Campus, 1220 E. First Street. The money will help establish the Renewable Energy/Wind Technician Program aimed at giving students either academic or continuing education credits.

Courses will begin in the fall and registration has already started.

Computer-headed farmers

2009-05-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

They're misunderstood, but that's about to change - maybe.

I got a packet today from a group called The Hand That Feeds Us, and they just want to talk about it. The fact that the declining piece of the federal budget for agriculture is now down to one quater of one percent. The fact that more than 70 percent of the USDA budget goes to nutritional programs. And the fact that anti-farming groups have been manipulating the media.

See, we're all so out of touch with our farmness, we're easily swayed by those who want to take away all federal ag funding. That's actually probably true, but the Hand That Feeds Us wants to quit getting bitten.

They're going to accomplish their goals by building "long-lasting relationships with journalists and show them family owned and operated farms, not giant agribusinesses, are the true face of agriculture," said Steve Verett, a Lubbock-area cotton, wheat, grain sorghum and sunflower farmer who is also executive vice president of Plains Cotton Growers.

I've talked to him and he's a good guy.

PCG is an advocacy and education group for cotton farmers, so it's not really the face of agriculture The Hands That Feed Us has in mind, even if its maybe made up of a lot of the "real" faces of agriculture. It's more of an industry lobby group a lot of the time.

Anyway.

These people really want the government and the American people to give them some love. They even got two senior U.S. senators to write a letter for the packet that says "food and clothing are basic human needs. The establishment of governmental policies, just as essential, if not a little more complicated, ensures that these needs are met."

I can eat a squash, but not a policy, so I vote for food being more necessary.

But the best part is this. In the packet was an incentive for us media types to wake up to the truth we've all been blinded to. Wow, Farmer Brown is really a USB stick. He keeps the connection under his hat. Well, actually under his head. I'm convinced there's more to these farmers (and I really do like most of them a lot) than the old stereotype.

Sorry you're feeling so bad guys and gals. Good luck with those "long-lasting relationships" in New York City.

Yum o' licious but no cows allowed

2009-05-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Not to change the subject too soon from yesterday’s entry, another biggie is making the food world better.

Seems Dow Chemical contributed a substance for Chinese researchers to use in elevating the quality of whipped cream. No, it’s not better cream. That would be too easy.

The substance was hydrocolloid hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, and according to a Web site devoted to food and drink makers, the alleged whipped cream was really made with phosphate, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, xanthan gum, sucrose ester, and corn oil.

Sounds a lot tastier than cream and less fat as a bonus!

The scientists were looking to affect the texture of the whatever that mixture was. The substance worked great, they reported. Look for it in your dairy case any day now.

Try not to think about it

2009-05-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Some things are just better left in the dark, and don't forget Mom said the Internet can be an icky place.

Looking for blog fodder, I went a food insider Web sit to do a little trend shopping. The content ranged from interesting, FDA rules Cheerios cereal is a new drug due to health claims it makes, to blah.

But the ads made me want to quit my label reading, which would please my wife, and just accept whatever food makers send my way.

Who needs to know about freeze-dried coconut water? And I'm not really in the market for carmel food color, so a free liquid or powder Carmel Color Library is out, even if the company's been in the biz since 1880.

But leave it to the big boys to really stand out. How about "Cargill Texturizing Solutions - Thoughts For Food." It starts out innocently enough with the question of whether you're a fan of "naturally, high-quality chocolates." Well, who isn't except enemies of the state?

Then we go to the question of whether we are looking for a lecithin that isn't genetically manipulated - huh?

So many questions, but, of course, the answer is Cargill's Topcithin from sunflowers. The natural solution that really needs to stay behind the curtain.

Isn't the recipe really supposed to be a little chocolate, a little cream, a dollop of love?

Making a case for conservation

2009-05-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

There are all sorts of arguments for conserving natural resources. You can save the world for your grandchildren or something more practical like paying less for energy. But the main point is it's not just for those nasty granola-gobbling hippies anymore.

My e-mail is regularly jammed with messages about conservation and right now especially about curbing carbon emissions which mostly comes from using less gas, coal and such.

But not to forget injecting carbon dioxide into the ground to keep it out of the atmosphere. I just wonder about the consequences of that. What happens if you drink too much beer but can't burp?

Then there's the taxing or trading of carbon credits. Another government agency or Wall Street wannabe to help things out. That should make you warm inside.

Anyway, here are some recent takes on why conservation might be a good idea.

Apparently, it's going to be a Google world or maybe even universe. The giant search, mapping and street scene company is moving into the energy monitoring business. It hopes to roll out its Google PowerMeter by the end of the year. The device would tell homeowners or business people how much electricity they are using at any time.

Of course, it is trying to figure out how to get more of the Obama stimulus money for that because, as just a struggling little outfit, it needs some corporate welfare. Right now grants for such projects are capped at $20 million, and Google thinks that's not enough.

But the company touts the benefits of the PowerMeter through its workers who are testing early versions. According to testers, they found they were using too much energy for everything from refrigerators to pool pumps, not to mention using an electric oven to toast bread instead of a toaster. One reported saving $3,000 in electric costs on one year after using the PowerMeter to measure usage and make adjustments to his lifestyle.

That's a good argument, but, like the Ginzu knives, there's more. Google also claims that six households reducing electric usage by 10 percent would be the equivalent in carbon savings of taking one auto off the road.

In the water world, the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District released its annual measurements of the Ogallala's decline recently. The average decline in the 1,196 private wells it monitors was 1.18 feet for 2008.

That makes the 10-year average drop .72 feet per year. The district attributes the decline last year to increased irrigation pumping due to sparse rainfall. Think about an average of .72 feet per year and how long it will take before shallower wells go dry and farmers can't afford to pump from deeper wells. Maybe conservation, by farmers and civilians, might be something attractive.

The city of Amarillo will be rolling out this year's Every Drop Counts conservation campaign very shortly. It might pay for us to embrace the effort.

Hot Flash

2009-05-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

Those slightly crazy folks at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute, "where spiciness is a religion," have teamed up with CaJohn's Fiery Foods to bottle fire.

Holy Jolokia! pepper sauce has an exclamation mark at the end of its name for good reason. The Bhut Jolokia pepper used to make it comes from India and checks in with 1 million Scoville Heat Units. That ranks as insanely hot up against the girlie man bell pepper at 0 units, the wanna be jalapeno at 4,000 to 50,000 and the orange, so-called hot, habanero at 210,000, according to the institute.

Maybe this would give some context. CaJohn's is also coming out with a Jolokia smoked sausage, and the ingredient label says it contains 2 percent of the pepper. That ain't much, but it's supposed to pack a punch.

Now I like things spicier than most of my family and friends, but the thought of even handling something with Jolokia kind of scares me. If you're not afraid, a portion of the price for a bottle will go back to the institute for research and education.

It's supposed to be available from the company's Web site in a "couple of days".

There goes the neighborhood

2009-05-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

This photo from the Industrial Wind Action Group says it all. What could possibly be right about it? The middle of a pasture is one thing, but....

Organic still a sprout but growing

2009-05-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sales of all things organic in the U.S. grew by 17 percent in 2008, bringing in $24.6 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association in a news release today.

Of course, conventional food sales still dwarf the organic food trade which only has about 3.5 percent of the market. Organic food sales grew by 15.8 percent to $22.9 billion. Non-food sales rocketed up 39.4 percent to $2.65 billion. The non-food category includes products like fibers, soaps and pet food.

Partly cloudy for solar?

2009-05-01T08:32:00.002-07:00

Sorry it's been a few days since the last post. I've been suffering from the disease formerly known as the swine flu. No, I don't have it, but I've been sidelined by having to help figure out and report what's going on.

But back to more pleasant business while the disease continues under the cover of the public health system's caution.

The bill to give people incentives to install solar energy equipment is shining fairly brightly after passing the state Senate. On Tuesday, it went to the House Energy Resources Committee.

It provides for funding the incentives through a charge to electric customers - 20 cents monthly for residential users, $2 for commercial and $20 from industrial. It also calls for electricity providers to purchase any excess power generated by the solar outfits.

The bill also says up to 70 percent of the funding could be used for a utility-scale installation if the Public Utilities Commission says that would be more cost effective or a greater benefit to the grid.

Because of the wording, it is unclear just what impact the law would have up here on the tundra. And there's all those bureaucratic rules to be written if the bill passes that could have a big impact on implementation.

On the not-so-bright side, State Rep. David Swinford's bill to encourage more sustainable energy than just wind got slapped down by the House State Affairs committee when it didn't get enough votes to move on. He wants to establish a renewable energy standard that mandates utilities get solar energy into the electricity mix.

The Austin American-Statesman reports it may get another life next week if the committee chooses to vote again.

Pokes choke again?

2009-04-28T16:52:00.001-07:00

The Dallas Business Journal reports the Dallas Cowboy's $1.2 billion stadium just missed out on being the first sports venue to be part of the EPA's sustainable building program.

Kind of like pushing through the distractions of thug players and bad breaks to make it to the wild card game and, well, you know the rest.

The agency shut the National Environmental Performance Track down about one month ago after running it since 2000.

Compared to typical stadiums, the Cowboys are trying to reduce solid waste by 25 percent and save 1 million gallons of water a year, according to the Journal.

But I wonder, can a 3 million square foot building really be green enough to not leave a big ole footprint on Mother Nature?

Big money for big wind

2009-04-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

They may not be pretty, but they're expensive. The towers that will take wind power to the rest of the state will run about 500 miles through the Panhandle, spaced every 1,000 to 1,200 feet (see the towers in the background at left).

At an Amarillo seminar today, wind transmission developers firmed up some of what they are planning for the $1 billion construction project that will eventually hit the Panhandle.

Sharyland will build at least 253 miles of line in the south central Panhandle, stretching into the South Plains. However, it could total more because the estimate is based on straight lines. The reality will be "meandering lines going around cemeteries, following county roads," said Mark Caskey, vice president of operations.

Cameron Fredkin, director of project development for Cross Texas Transmission reported his company will build about 230 miles of line from south of Childress to the Pampa area then to the Carson/Armstrong line south of Panhandle. A second line would go from south of Childress to western Briscoe County.

The construction probably won't start until late 2010 and wrap up in late 2013.

A fresh breeze

2009-04-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

We're still waiting for someone to plug us into the rest of Texas with transmission lines, but local students got the benefit of wind power Saturday even before the big construction push starts.

Cielo Wind Power, of Austin, held its annual Earth Day Wind Ball in Vega on April 13 and awarded scholarships to students from around the area. To qualify, students wrote an essay about being stewards of the Earth and how they will continue to pursue that role.

Panhandle scholarship recipients include Shelley Fangman of Vega High School, Anna Rebecca Johnson of Adrian High School, Amelia Taylor of Clarendon High School, Trent Daniel Britten of Groom High School, Skyler Michele Conatser of Hedley High School, Chase Bohler of McLean School, Keslie Satterwhite of Panhandle High School and Tim Poland and Thomas Rapstine of White Deer High School.

Rory Schepisi, owner of Boot Hill Saloon in Vega and a former finalist on Next Food Network Star, provided a suitably Earth-friendly meal of organic beef tenderloin, and guests picked up ponderosa pine seedlings to plant. (Never discount a free tree in the Panhandle.)

Cielo is a privately held company that develops, owns and operates wind power facilities in the Southwest. Its latest local venture was the Wildorado Wind Ranch, right on the way to Vega from Amarillo. It sold a large interest in the venture to Edison Mission, of California, but the companies are working on the second phase that should stretch from Wildorado to just over the Potter County line along the Canadian River Breaks.

Rush a traitor?

2009-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Oops, those cattle raisers are really not happy with their compadre Rush Limbaugh. Apparently he cut two public service announcements criticizing animal abuse that the Humane Society of the United States is sending to media outlets and posting on the Web.

Bad idea - at least if you don't want to start a stampede of hacked off cowboys.

A gentle rebuke comes from CR Jolley, a columnist at agnetwork.com. Jolley suggests Rushbo rethink his move because he has stuck his "well-polished Gucci boot directly into a steaming, fresh cow patty."

Cow guys are nothing if not graphic.

Anyway, more toward the jumping-up-and-down end of the spectrum, like Yosemite Sam jumping, is the Texas Cattle Feeders Association. In their last newsletter, the association provides a comment to send to soulmate Rush where you only have to fill in your name.

"Rush,

Because we share many of the same conservative beliefs, I am very saddened to learn of your support for an organization that is working hard to put all cattlemen, including me, out of business. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has long pursued a goal of putting an end to all animal agriculture.

I know you believe in doing solid research. If you really check into what HSUS is up to, you will find that – despite having $200 million in assets – HSUS does not operate a single animal shelter nor provide financial support for local humane societies or shelters. HSUS is nothing other than a radical political organization determined to force all Americans to eat a vegan diet and forfeit the unique nutritional properties of beef.

Many well-intentioned people have been duped into donating their hard-earned dollars to HSUS because the drive-by media refuses to expose the truth about HSUS. I hope your show will become a place where people can get the facts about this organization's real agenda.

Sincerely,"

Cattle raisers can also be dramatic, but they've had years of provocation by the "drive-by media."

Earth Day Puree

2009-04-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's the greenest day of the year so here's the serious and sublime news of the day.

The serious is Amarillo's own State Sen. Kel Seliger's carbon capture and storage bill just passed the Senate but awaits action in the House. It would create a regulatory system for storing carbon dioxide created by man. The storage could happen underground to push out more oil and natural gas. Well, Seliger does also represent the Midland/Odessa oil patch. Or the storage could be in salty waters trapped underground - kind of a salty soda thing.

I'm working on getting more details for Friday's paper.

But now the sublime. It's almost chaotic over at greendaily.com where they can't decide who is the least green celebrity. The most green are easy. People like Ed Begley Jr., Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad, your-wife-scares-me, Pitt.

On the bad side are people like Mariah Carey who flies her personal trainer from St. Barts to New York City every day, according to the Web site. And what about Brad's ex? Maybe seeing Angelina at the supermarket checkout magazine stand every week pushed her over the edge.

First, the Web site says she is one of the un-greenest, kind of like the undead, for pitching Glaceau's SmartWater. It's made by boiling water, capturing the steam and adding the bonus of electrolytes. The company then pumps the potion into the plastic bottle the water is sold in.

Then comes this word. Jen's going over the top to get on the right side. According to the Web site, "her Malibu mansion recently got $15M worth of energy-conscious updates including solar panels, reflective roofing, and drought-resistant plants. She also traded in the Range Rover for a Prius."

The guilt got to be too much - I guess.

From the Ground Up

2009-04-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

What's a shopper to do?

Seems like the marketplace is awash with greenwashing. You know, like whitewashing only renewable. Businesses try to paint their products as green, and the shopper has to figure out how much to believe.

The claims companies make for how nice their products are for the environment came under the scrutiny of Canadian research firm TerraChoice recently, and Joel Makower has an interesting take on the result.

Basically he starts with the question "Is everybody lying?" because the firm looked at more than 2,200 products making environmental claims in big box stores and found 98 percent to be sinners who make misleading or false claims. The problem is TerraChoice doesn't name names and may be lumping companies who let their marketing people get carried away in with companies that don't have a problem lying for a dollar.

"More sloppy than sinister," Makower describes the companies that might not deserved to be cast into eco-hell.

Is a poisonous product labeled "green" as big a sin as a product that truly is made of recycled waste but carries the claim "the greenest ever?"

Check it out.

From the Ground Up

2009-04-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

A mixed bag

Putting these bits together may seem odd, but it's more efficient, meaning less random electrons spewed into the atmosphere or something. Plus, it looks like I did a lot of work. Anyway, here goes the mix.

Local events
This weekend is filling up with envirotainment just before Earth Day on next Wednesday. Keep Amarillo Beautiful is hosting the 2009 Recycling Day on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Allied Waste Recyclery on South Garfield just north of S.E. 10th Avenue. The idea is to bring things to recycle like the common newsprint, aluminum cans and rinsed plastic containers without lids or plastic bags but also things to reuse like eyeglasses, cell phones, clothing and household appliances. The reusable items will go to local organizations. Recycle/reuse, you still leave room in the landfill for the yucky stuff.

On the other side of town, Wildcat Bluff on Soncy Road north of I-40, is having an event Saturday that promises to provide education frosted with fun. You can drop off recycleables there that day, too. I blogged this before, but take a look here for details.

From deep in the ground up
Potter County commissioners voted Monday to reduce their earthquake insurance to save on premiums. They were carrying $25 million in coverage but are down to $10 million now. By dropping that and their flood coverage, they'll save $9,000 per year. Do you think you could rest easily knowing an earthquake could wipe us out and we only have $10 million in insurance? County Judge Arthur Ware may be wondering. "I have a yellow streak down my back," he said in reference to the possibility, but he voted on it anyway.

The American way - ecomarketplace
Green, clean, sustainable, whatever you call it, the American business sector has latched on. They're having a weeklong conference in NYC in May with lots of speakers from companies like Unilever and Kraft to talk about marketing sustainability, and oh yeah, there's the open bars like any convention. It's not a crime to make money off of green products, but I don't want as many press releases like "What's tappening" about replacing bottled water with tap water.

Anyway, here's one that arrived recently. There's a company out there telling us it's better to do your laundry on the kitchen counter than in your washer/dryer. I get the energy savings, and they talk about preserving your septic tank (if you have one, you know the fear of that malfunction. I do).

The washer they tout allegedly uses 90 percent less water and detergent, turning your clothes a green clean in one to two minutes. Really? And the dryer looks kind of like a hopped up salad spinner. Maybe it all works. The threat of laundry lint doing in the septic tank makes you hope so.