Welcome to the June 2008 Green InSight eNewsletter!

Jon Dougal Editor, Green InSight

" climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature`s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." John Muir 1838 – 1914

This insightful and progressive newsletter is concerned with present energy issues and technologies as well as the future of energy. The information is brought to you in living color, on widescreen digital HD format, and sparing paper use with our long shelf-life, greedy little electrons to deliver the latest from the far corners of the alternative and renewable energy empire to foster sustainable development. We exalt your feedback and contributions of your latest experiences and reactions to our content. Sustainability is not just our mission, it is our passion.

Biodiesel From Algae - A Techies Viewpoint

Source: The Oil Drum
Date: May 11, 2007

Green Insight is just a cut above the mundane, mass market energy news-medium. We bring to our faithful various perspectives on energy issues. We try to cut through the headline hype and cut to the core of what's-happenin! Here is a rather technical article that is not for everybody. Muddle or sail through it and get what you get!

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Biofuels from Industrial/Domestic Wastewater

By: Mridul – June 8, 2008
Source: merinews (www.merinews.com)

Using a complex and expensive photosynthetic process, biodiesel and ethanol can be produced, which can further reduce the burden of growing biofuel crops like corn, maize and palm that lead to clearing of vast forest land.

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Company Promoting "Green" Gas Alternative

By: Elizabeth Douglass – June 8, 2008
Source: The Baltimore Sun (www.baltimoresun.com)

A San Diego company says that it can turn algae into oil, producing a green-colored crude that yields ultra-clean versions of gasoline and diesel without the downsides of current biofuels production.

The year-old company, called Sapphire Energy, uses algae, sunlight, carbon dioxide and nonpotable water to make "green crude" that it contends is chemically equivalent to the light, sweet crude oil that fetches more than $130 a barrel.

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Chevron and NREL to Collaborate on Research to Produce Transportation Fuels using Algae:

Joint effort to identify and develop algae strains for feedstock in next-generation biofuels

Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (www.nrel.gov)
Date: October 31, 2007

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced today that they have entered into a collaborative research and development agreement to study and advance technology to produce liquid transportation fuels using algae. 

Chevron and NREL scientists will collaborate to identify and develop algae strains that can be economically harvested and processed into finished transportation fuels such as jet fuel. Chevron Technology Ventures, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., will fund the initiative. 

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Sears Tower Or Bust: My Algae-Powered Car Adventure

By: By Matt Hardigree, Jun 2 2008
Source: Jalopnik

It was when the oil light came on that I started to run through the appropriate next steps in my head...and realized that there aren't any appropriate next steps when warning lights start going off in a 1982 VW Vanagon camper. Particularly one converted to run on a mixture of vegetable oil and algae biodiesel grown and refined by a group of Chicago high school students. As the Sears Tower, our goal, loomed in the distance, a question loomed in my mind: Was our shared belief in the future of petroleum alternatives and, more importantly, in the fuel processing abilities of public school students and their teachers, strong enough to convince us to push further into the knot of congestion forming around the city?

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Planet Green's World Premiere Television Event, Greensburg, Chronicles The Rebirth Of A Kansas Town

13-Part Series, executive produced by Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Films and Television, Inc. & Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way, Premieres June 15

(Silver Spring, Md.) – In May 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was leveled by one of the largest tornados in U.S. history. Very few structures remained in the aftermath of the deadly EF5 tornado, and the town lost everything. Inspired by the desire of the townspeople to rebuild 'green,' Planet Green is chronicling the rebuilding of Greensburg into an environment-conscious town. The epic docu-series is a mixture of compelling human stories and amazing feats of green building and engineering that will give the people of Greensburg a new home and a new town built for the future. GREENSBURG will premiere on Planet Green on Sunday, June 15 at 9:00 PM ET/PT and will air every Sunday for 12 additional weeks.

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Ambit Energy Opens Illinois to Natural Gas customers; Green-e Certified Renewable Energy Program available in Texas and New York

By: Tim Grollimund, eCommerce Manager, GreenMotion
Date: June 11, 2008

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District years ago asked their rate payers to place PV on their roofs and help pay for it on their energy bills to promote more alternative energy. No reduction in their own energy bill, but SMUD made the case for the common good amongst their rate payers. The rate payers went for it in a big way. They also helped fund larger fuel cell generation of electricity.

Ambit energy's incentives will set a precedent for energy companies all over the country to try different ways of getting the customers to help in the common need for energy production at competitive rates, through market based incentives.

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Desiderata

Gentle Readers - In 1927, Max Ehrmann gave us timeless advice in his classic poem "Desiderata," which means "things to be desired":  

In this time of turbulence and heartache at the gas pumps, it is easy if not compelling that we race ever faster in our daily toil to make ends meet, fill our obligations, get to work on time, and deal with loss and lack of hope for the future.   It is easy to fall into practices that you may want to justify as necessary to meet those obligations.   Try to remember that you need to maintain your integrity.   Your role model as an ethical person transcends to your significant other, your colleagues, students, and maybe even your children.  Be a model that YOU can be proud of. This poem is ever more important in the present.

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Interested in sponsoring our next eNewsletter issue? Contact Jon Dougal at (415) 798-1933 or editor@greenmotion.org.