Author Archive for: Arctic Leaf
Entries by Arctic Leaf
President Obama, DOE boost alternate fuels
President Obama burnished his legacy as an environmentalist last week by mandating a huge cut in greenhouse gas emissions among federal vehicles. The aim is to cut emissions for 40 percent by the year 2025. The executive order will increase the percentage of the government’s 636,000 vehicles that run on alternative fuels. Improved gas mileage […]
Toyota, California go for hydrogen
California, the home of Elon Musk and his Tesla venture, is about to embark on another technological initiative as well — a car driven entirely by hydrogen. In late February Toyota began producing and selling the Mirai (the name means “future”), a hydrogen-powered vehicle that will be available in Tokyo this year and go on […]
Fake and real news: Links between GHG reduction and alternative fuels
Turn on your local news every night and you’ll need a sleeping pill to get some rest. The format and content is the same around the country: a lot of tragic crime — ranging from sexual harassment, robbery and shootings — for about ten minutes; local sports for about 5 minutes; what seems like ten minutes […]
Ethanol has outgrown the Renewable Fuel Standard
Everybody knows that investing in ethanol right now is a bad bet. The logic is simple: The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.45 on Thursday, down about 30 percent from this time last year. Ethanol prices have dropped as well. On top of that, you have the uncertainty of whether […]
Ethanol at the crossroads
During an 18-month stretch, from June 2013 to December 2014, American-made ethanol was riding high. The industry produced 13.9 billion gallons and was making 63 cents per gallon, for an annual profit of $8.8 billion. Then oil prices collapsed. The results have not been good for ethanol. Sales have been squeezed and profit margins have […]
Can exports rescue ethanol?
As the Renewable Fuels Association’s National Ethanol Conference convened in Dallas last month, the outlook for ethanol appeared grim. The Environmental Protection Agency still hasn’t issued set the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2014, and ethanol manufacturers have been left in limbo. On top of that, ethanol producers still are dealing with the months-long drop in […]
What does loving America have to do with the whims and opportunity costing of the oil industry?
The Greeks are going broke…slowly! The Russians are bipolar with respect to Ukraine! Rudy Giuliani has asked the columnist Ann Landers (she was once a distant relative of the author) about the meaning of love! President Obama, understandably, finds more pleasure in the holes on a golf course than the deep political holes he must […]
