by Anonymous

The sustainable energy age has begun. It was recently announced that a company in Florida called Green Flight International (GFI) has plans to construct a $100-million, algae biofuel plant aimed at making fuel for the aviation industry as well as for ground-based transportation.

GFI has also completed the world's first jet-aircraft flight powered by 100% biofuel. GFI president and CEO Douglas Rodante says that "algae-based biofuel would be able to replace petroleum without alterations to engines or infrastructure, and could be used for all sorts of transportation."

The potential of algae biofuel for both vehicles and air travel is so promising that it will play a large role in helping America finally become energy independent. Biofuel from algae completely eliminates the food vs. fuel concerns of other biofuels, and CO2 will be significantly reduced. Algae are the fastest growing plants in the world, and that fact translates into 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre! Soybean, corn, switchgrass and other biofuels cannot even compete.

Since the average diesel engine is 35% more efficient than a gasoline engine, maybe the Big Three auto manufacturers in the US crying for a bailout would be wise to create a nice selection of diesel-hybrids, because only diesel engines can run on biofuels.

In Europe, there already exists the "Volkswagen One-Litre," which is a "two-seater prototype that's been on the roads in Europe, does 237 mpg."It is estimated that by 2010, these cars will be running at 250 mpg. Look at the "VW Lupo" or "Audi A2,"

As an example of innovative green technology, there are several cool diesel motorcycles, such as: "The eCycle Hybrid Motorcycle is a...diesel-electric hybrid...accelerating from 0-60 mph in 6 sec and with fuel consumption at 160 mpg." Diesel motorcycles have been old news throughout Europe for years. 
The use of biofuels in diesel engines has been clearly known for 100 years:

"The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time." - Rudolph Diesel, 1912

by Frederick W. Kagan

This morning, I had the honor of testifying before the House Budget Committee on the situation in Iraq.  The discussion was polite and civilized, and was a reminder that even now it is possible for people who disagree about what to do in Iraq to argue without raised voices and disagreeable language (apart from the Code Pink women, yelling for those who think that shouting opponents down is preferable to arguing with them).

Congressman Brian Baird once again demonstrated that it is possible even for those who bitterly opposed the war to recognize the importance of doing the right thing now--as well as the possibility of crossing the Republican-Democrat sectarian divide on this issue.  One question came up repeatedly in the hearing that deserves more of an answer than it got, however: Why, after all the assistance we've given to Iraq over the past five years, was the first major Iraqi oil deal signed with China and not with an American or even a western company? The answer is, in part, because three Democratic senators intervened in Iraqi domestic politics earlier this year to prevent Iraq from signing short-term agreements with Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, Chevron, and BP.

The Iraqi government was poised to sign no-bid contracts with those firms this summer to help make immediate and needed improvements in Iraq 's oil infrastructure.  The result would have been significant foreign investment in Iraq , an expansion of Iraqi government revenues, and an increase in the global supply of oil.  One would have thought that leading Democratic senators who claim to be interested in finding other sources of funding to replace American dollars in Iraq, in helping Iraq spend its own money on its own people, and in lowering the price of gasoline for American citizens, would have been all for it.  Instead, Senators Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, and Claire McCaskill wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rice asking her "to persuade the GOI [Government of Iraq] to refrain from signing contracts with multinational oil companies until a hydrocarbon law is in effect in Iraq ."
The Bush administration wisely refused to do so, but the resulting media hooraw in Iraq led to the cancellation of the contracts, and helps to explain why Iraq is doing oil deals instead with China .

Senators Schumer, McCaskill, and Kerry claimed to be acting from the purest of motives: "It is our fear that this action by the Iraqi government could further deepen political tensions in Iraq and put our service members in even great danger."  For that reason, presumably, Schumer went so far as to ask the senior vice president of Exxon "if his company would agree to wait until the GOI produced a fair, equitable, and transparent hydrocarbon revenue sharing law before it signed any long-term agreement with the GOI."  Exxon naturally refused, but Schumer managed to get the deal killed anyway.  But the ostensible premise of the senators' objections was false--Iraq may not have a hydrocarbons law, but the central government has been sharing oil revenues equitably and there is no reason at all to imagine that signing the deals would have generated increased violence (and this was certainly not the view of American civilian and military officials on the ground in Iraq at the time). 

It is certain that killing the deals has delayed the maturation of Iraq 's oil industry without producing the desired hydrocarbons legislation.  Nor is it entirely clear what the senators' motivations were.

Their release (available along with their letter to Secretary Rice at the New York Observer quoted Senator McCaskill as follows: "'It's bad enough that we have no-bid contracts being awarded for work in Iraq. It's bad enough that the big oil companies continue to receive government handouts while they post record breaking profits. But now the most profitable companies in the universe--America's biggest oil companies--stand to reap the rewards of this no-bid contract on top of it all,' McCaskill said. 'It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect these dots--big oil is running Washington and now they're running Baghdad . There is no reason under the sun not to halt these agreements until we get revenue sharing in place,' McCaskill said." So was this about what's best for Iraq and American interests there or about nailing "big oil" in an election year?  

Either way, like Barack Obama's asking the Iraqi foreign minister to hold off on a strategic framework agreement until after the American election, it was nothing but harmful to American interests and our prospects in Iraq.

{I guess Obama will keep the lights on and the economy humming by his brillance - or maybe all the change he is going to effect will somehow generate electrical fields.  Of course, he has no concern about keeping the lights on in the White House - you can be sure that the last amp flowing anywhere in the country will be directed to the White House with the peons paying for it while they shiver in the dark.

"What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there," Obama said in a Jan. 17 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that was made public today on the Web site newsbusters.org, which calls itself "the leader in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias."    MORE..

{We publish from time to time things that are of historical and patriotic interest.  Oil is an invaluable resource and endemic to our national sovereignty. Snopes reports that this is a work in Progress.  The article is presented as received - Ed.}

by Anonymous

Like you, I've been absolutely blown away by what  has happened to the price of a gallon of gas.  More like just plain MAD!  But it's time (way past time, obviously) for all of us to put up, or  shut up. And by that I mean quit belly-aching to one another (trust me - I  do it as well - so I'm talking to myself, too, here!) ... and DO SOMETHING.  And trust me .. not buying gas from one or two of the 'Big  Boys' for a month, or electing to not buy gas on a given day. is not the  answer. The answer is one I know you know, and have heard many times  before from people a lot more well-versed in this than me: LESSENING our  dependence on foreign oil.  

Just poking around the Internet recently, I  simply "Googled" the search "Untapped U.S. Oil Reserves," and the result (like  the current price of a gallon of gas - BLEW ME AWAY!  Go ahead, take a  minute and see for youself!  Never mind, I'll share some of the highlights  I found.  

Ever heard of the Bakken Formation?

The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April ('08) that only scientists and oilmen knew was coming. It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since '95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota and extreme eastern Montana. 

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska 's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion. "When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea" says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.   

"This sizeable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the "Bakken." And it stretches from Northern Montana through North Dakota and into Canada .  For years, U.S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the "Big Oil" companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken's massive reserves... and we now have access of up to 500 billion  barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL! 

That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight. 

"U.S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!" Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006.  Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world - more  than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its  extraction. 

* 18 times as much oil as Iraq
* 21 times as much oil as Kuwait
* 22 times as much oil as Iran
* 500 times as much oil as Yemen - and it's  all right here in the Western United States.    
* 8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

HOW can this be? HOW can we NOT be extracting this?  Because we've not D E M A N D E D legislation to come out of Washington allowing its extraction, that's why!

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study, says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East - more than 2 TRILLION barrels. Untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.  
Don't think "Big Oil" will drop its price - even with this find? Think again!  It's all about the competitive marketplace, and if they can extract it (here) for less, they can afford to sell it for less - and if they DON'T, others will.  It will come down - it has  to.   

Take 5-10 minutes and compose an e-mail, fax or good old-fashioned letter to our elected officials in Washington ... and their respected leaders. Send them an e-mail/fax, DEMANDING an immediate Legislation/Energy Plan that calls for tapping into these (OUR OWN!) reserves, as well as allowing for the offshore drilling for OUR oil, in OUR offshore waters and inter-continental shelf ... not to mention Alaska. Technology ain't what it used to be, people (ever had arthoscopic surgery?) 

They can surgically extract OUR oil, and get us on the way to at least some measure of Energy independence, and accomplish it in an environmentally-friendly manner. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices ..  because by doing NOTHING, you've forfeited any right to complain.