By: Luis Andres Henao

August 30, 2010-- Reuters

An Argentine company opened Friday the country's first factory to make biodiesel from algae, hoping to use pond scum as a replacement for soy in making biodiesel as part of a push for renewable energy.

Argentina is the world's top exporter of soyoil, but using the edible oil to make fuel is controversial because it cuts into food supplies.

Oil extracted from algae is also seen as an attractive alternative to soyoil and other vegetable oils because it does not use land that could be used for food crops and can absorb carbon dioxide from power plants or factories.

The oil-extraction process also produces a protein-rich paste, which is edible.

"We're not competing with the food supply but generating food, at a low cost and helping the environment because algae grow fast and trap carbon dioxide," said Jorge Kaloustian, president of Oilfox S.A., the company that owns the plant northeast of Buenos Aires.

By: Darren Samuelsohn

By Marita Noon
Guest columnist
Published Friday, August 6, 2010 9:48 AM MDT

Arizona has been discouraged from following through with a state-enforced immigration law; yet New Mexico thinks it can push through its own carbon cap regulations in defiance of federal example.

Arizona enacted the immigration law out of frustration regarding the lack of federal enforcement for existing immigration laws. In New Mexico, those who believe greenhouse gases must be stopped are hoping to implement their own rules out of frustration that nothing is being done on the federal level a frustration made all too real with Harry Reid's announcement that Senate Democrats are officially abandoning their seven-year effort to pass cap and trade.

In Arizona - whether one agrees or disagrees with the legislation - there are borders that can be secured. Fences can be built, personnel can physically guard against the flow of immigrants that come into the country illegally, and the “flow” is tangible - lawbreakers can be handcuffed and taken back across the border.

By: Editor

The companies are responding in a correct way, redesign, reinvest andcorrect the problems experienced in this situation.  The loss of 100,000 jobs by the moratorium is a poor response.  We must begin to solve problems in a way that continues to produce jobs.

Thirty years ago the government decided to kill expansion in nuclear energy in response to a problem in which the nuclear plant shut down properly to avoid a meltdown. The jobs have never come back.  We cannot have a government that responds by killing jobs.  We need a government that will help alleviate poor designs and make sure American jobs survive.

An oil and natural gas industry consortium to design, build and operate an “oil spill rapid-response system” to contain oil flow in the event of a potential future underwater blowout.  You likely read about it in the papers last week:   

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704684604575381422950478384.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/business/energy-environment/22response.html.

By: Administrator

 Other Offshore Producing Nations Do Not Fall In Line With U.S. Drilling Ban

China and Russia are drilling within 50 miles of Florida

 The Administration asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to reinstate its politically driven moratorium on deepwater petroleum drilling (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704178004575351361032082760.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories).   However, Gulf Coast residents are saying “Stop the oil, not job creation”:  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39433.html.  Some salient points from the Politico article:

By: Administrator

 Utilities-Only Light Switch Tax Will Send More Manufacturing Jobs Overseas 

 House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman was quoted yesterday (Calif.) saying that  he would “absolutely” seek to keep greenhouse gas limits alive in a House-Senate conference if the Senate approves energy legislation this summer that omits carbon provisions. “It would be open in conference to consider because our bill has it,” Waxman told The Hill Wednesday.  (http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/106515-waxman-to-push-carbon-limits-in-conference-if-senate-falls-short).

Will those greenhouse gas limits be in the form of a utility-only carbon cap? A light switch tax?  E&E reports that this won’t likely be good for manufacturing: http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/2010/07/02/2/ .  Following are some highlights from the story.

By: Dick Morris

Published on TheHill.com on June 29, 2010

Impacts of

President Obama’s Order Halting Work on 33 Exploratory Wells

in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico

The Presidential Order does not affect the 4,515 shallow-water wells, and it does not affect 591 producing deepwater Gulf wells.

Roughly 33% of nation’s domestically produced oil comes from the Gulf of Mexico, and 10% of the nation’s natural gas.

 80% of the Gulf’s oil, and 45% of its natural gas comes from operations in more than 1000 feet of water – the deepwater (2009 data).

Suspension of operations means roughly 33 floating drilling rigs – typically leased for hundreds of thousands of dollars per day – will be idled for six months or longer.

     $250,000 to $500,000 per day, per rig – results in roughly $8,250,000 to $16,500,000 per day in costs for idle rigs;

      Secondary impacts include:

  
The whole world watches in shock the events with the drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Our prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones in the tragedy.  And our prayers go out to all who will be impacted by the damage along the coastlines of our southern US and the Gulf of Mexico.  It will take years to assess the damage and lifetimes to deal with the pain of loss of loved ones.