Reducing Emissions
Algae biofuels update
In the nearly two years since we first announced our alliance with Synthetic Genomics Inc. (SGI), we’ve made good progress in our research aimed at developing next-generation biofuels from photosynthetic algae. Basically, we are working to identify and develop strains of algae that could produce refinery feedstocks for the production of transportation fuels. We also need to design and engineer the systems to do this at scale. It’s a big program, and it will take time.
New natural gas possibilities
There’s an interesting story in yesterday’s New York Times about the growing potential for natural gas as a source of power generation, in light of the recent nuclear power incident in Japan. In the coming weeks and months, the discussion will continue – here in the U.S. and in countries around the world – about the decisions and investments that have to be made to meet future needs for reliable, affordable, and safe energy.
U.S. EIA forecasts growing domestic natural gas supplies – and Americans will benefit
When the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2011 last week, growing U.S. shale gas production was the major headline. The upswing of natural gas in general is good news for several reasons: it’s a cleaner-burning fuel for power generation, resulting in up to 60 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than coal; the abundance of domestic gas supplies helps strengthen U.S. energy security; and growing gas production means more jobs and economic activity in states across the U.S. But if you go back only five or 10 years, few would have been talking about these benefits of domestic supplies of natural gas.
Our most powerful energy solution? Efficiency.
It might look like a trivia question, but it’s quite the opposite. As you might have seen, we posed a question on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal: What will make the single biggest contribution to meeting global energy needs in coming decades? The correct answer is not oil. It’s not nuclear, solar or any other energy source. The answer is improved energy efficiency.
Driving for better efficiency, fewer emissions
Today, we posed a question on the front page of the Wall Street Journal: How much of a gallon of gas is lost to heat, friction and other factors in a vehicle instead of actually being used to power the wheels? If you haven’t already seen the answer we gave in the ad, you be might be surprised. Your car only uses 20 percent of each gallon of gasoline to actually get you where you want to go — the other 80 percent is lost due to various sources of inefficiency throughout the car.
Natural gas gets a presidential endorsement
In the wake of the recent election results, President Obama made some interesting comments regarding the future of energy policy in the U.S. “We’ve got, I think, broad agreement that we’ve got terrific natural gas resources in this country,” the president said in response to a question from the White House press gallery. He continued: “Are we doing everything we can to develop those?” We agree with the president about the promise of U.S. natural gas resources, for a number of reasons.
