Link Banana

The Financial Times confirms the good new (assuming of course, that you’re not invested in corn-based ethanol):

Six of the biggest publicly traded US ethanol producers have lost more than $8.7bn in market value since the peak of the boom in mid-2006 and the beginning of this month, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. The boom followed a 2005 law requiring refiners to mix billions of gallons of the biofuel with petrol.

(via Passport)

I’ve liked this idea for a while — it makes more sense to me than trying to derive energy from a dance floor. That said, this makes me wonder if it will ever be sensible:

“It’s a little humbling — a person can make about a penny’s worth of electricity an hour. So it’s not a lot,” said Michael Tagget, president of Henry Works, adding that on his or her own, an individual can create 50 to 100 watts of electricity.

(via Ideas)

Amos pegs it:

Sometimes a good graphic can put the issue into perspective.

Do go have a look at what would, in a perfect world, stop all related arguments cold.

The reality of the price at the pump against the price of a barrel:

Analyses of gasoline economics show that when the price of oil rises, it takes up to four weeks for gas station prices to catch up, with most of the increase taking place within the first two weeks. But when oil prices sink, it takes up to eight weeks for the savings to be passed along to consumers. The phenomenon is known as “asymmetric price adjustment” (PDF) or, more informally, “rockets and feathers.”

It’s a pretty well-understood truth that public perception of the economy’s welfare is disproportionately focused on the price we pay to fuel our cars. Dan Ariely’s recent op-ed explores why:

For the several minutes that I stand at the pump, all I do is stare at the growing total on the meter — there is nothing else to do. And I have time to remember how much it cost a year ago, two years ago and even six years ago.

Yet I have no such memory about the prices of items in any other category. I have no idea how much milk was six years ago, how much bread was three years ago or how much yogurt was a week ago. But I suspect that if I stood next to the yogurt case in the supermarket for five minutes every week with nothing to do but stare at the price, I would also know how much it has gone up — and I might become outraged when yogurt passed the $2 mark.

Another odd thing about the way we buy gasoline is that we usually buy multiple units. I just bought 13 gallons for a little more than $55. The sticker shock isn’t as intense when I see the price per gallon as it is when I’m faced with the total cost. Fifty-five dollars! I remember when I filled my tank for $20 and $25 and $30! Maybe if we bought 13 loaves of bread at a time or 15 gallons of milk we might become just as sensitive to how much we spend on those items.

Fifty things — some thoroughly reasonable, some a tad odd — that are being blamed on the high price of oil. My personal favorites:

22. Bacon and ham could get more expensive. (WSJ)
28. Demand for wine is weakening. (Portland Business Journal)
32. One Virginia library mulls bringing back the bookmobile. (Daily Times, Maryland)

(via kottke)

This rerun is a great reason to love The Onion.

In pure combustion terms, propane always wins. If you add enough other factors, you may be able to excuse your preference for the taste of charcoal.

…because the substance is made from trees, it can actually be carbon neutral in the end. They contend that the harvested trees, if taken from well-managed timberlands, are presumably replanted. So, while the felled trees are emitting carbon on barbecues nationwide, the new trees are sucking that carbon right back up. Gas, on the other hand, can’t be replenished—or at least not for the millions of years it takes for organic matter to break down into fossil fuels.

Sometimes interesting things come consecutively from an interesting site with an unlikely theme. This is one of those times.

• Israeli scientist grew a tree from a 2000 year old seed. Alexis Madrigal wonders if such a tree could be a “native plant” or if it’s actually a seed without a country. (Yes, I do think it’s rather fitting that Israeli scientist conjured the thought of someone “without a country.”)
• Also, a solar-thermal demo plant has been completed in Israel. I’m a little surprised. I thought such things would forever exist only in memory.

Pictures of abandoned filling stations.

Nothing in this table about the cost of driving different vehicles should surprise you, but the presentation’s rather clever.

In a thorough summary of the basics of hybrid auto technology, The Economist’s Tech.view column sees a future that may favor less-efficient (but cheaper) mild hybrids over “stronger” ones like the Prius.

The complexity and cost of such drive-trains has made many in the industry think twice about strong hybrids. Mild hybrids like Honda’s may offer only modest fuel savings, but they are considerably cheaper to make. Selling for less than a Toyota Prius, the new mild-hybrid version of the Chevrolet Malibu has been a runaway success, despite having only 2mpg better fuel economy than a conventional Malibu.

Though I have no idea where this falls is proportion to America’s total consumption, it’s interesting to see that wind dominates among currently planned methods of power generation.

In case you’re not sold on the idea that there are upsides to high gasoline prices, I recommend this article.

(via GOOD)

The Economist offers two charts about interesting aspects of modern energy:

• The Price of Oil. Looking at this graph makes it at least seem reasonable that oil could actually get to $200 a gallon.
• Energy Efficiency. Though America’s use of energy per dollar of GDP has dropped in recent years, it remains the least efficient country in the world. This data was also used is a story in the magazine.

This is cool. Also available in slow-motion. If you’re curious, it’s brakes failed and engineers couldn’t figure out how to save it.

(via MetaFilter)

Salon’s Pablo Päster makes clear that the United States could never manage to get all it’s power needs satisfied by solar alone. It seems obvious, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d wondered.

At 12,000 kWh per capita, electricity demand is roughly 3.6 trillion kWh, or the equivalent of 1,200 coal-fired power plants running full-time. To generate 3.6 trillion kWh per year, we would need to install about 1.5 billion square meters of solar panels, or around 586 square miles. This is clearly a lot higher than the number that you had heard and equivalent to one-third of Rhode Island.

For The American, Laura Vanderkam reviews what seems a pretty interesting (and controversial) book.

There’s just one problem, says Robert Bryce: “Energy independence is hogwash.” In his new book, Gusher of Lies, Bryce challenges the notion that America can ever be totally “independent” of the global energy market. It is neither practical nor desirable, he argues. Repeated ad nauseam as a campaign slogan, the concept of energy independence keeps us from having an honest discussion about globalization, economics, and foreign policy. Americans will be best served by embracing global interdependence, and getting government out of the energy business as much as possible.