There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake. - Al Gore

The rest of today's statement by Gore is available below the fold ...

I get press release type stuff from Paul Gipe and I'm remiss in getting it all out. I'll try to do a better job and this one is important - Jay Inslee is pushing for good stuff on the energy front.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52899

Robert Rapier is viewed as a relentless foe by the ethanol industry, but I don't see him that way. His analysis of the business is detailed and well cited; if this displeases those involved the problem lies in the fundamentals, not in the fact that he takes the time to analyze the economics of the fuel.

Robert recently came across with a very well researched post over at The Oil Drum and it deserves a read by anyone interested in the agriculture or energy markets.

Remember several months back when we presented a plan for anhydrous ammonia production in northwest Iowa with an associated greenhouse operation to make use of the waste heat?

http://strandedwind.org/node/129

The ammonia price at the time was $700/ton and there weren't enough people to fill the positions the greenhouse would create so the plan was shelved ... until this week.

As fate would have it, the Buffalo, New York area is ripe for such a development - if you're creating jobs there you can get $0.0.2/kwh electricity and the ammonia price has almost doubled to $1,200/ton.

Ethanol as we currently do it isn't terribly efficient: put a barrel of oil in and get one and a quarter barrels out. It is more correctly a derivative fuel rather than any sort of "alternative".

There have been food riots in Haiti, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, and there are just the ones I recall off the top of my head. The European powers already have populations that are concerned about palm oil plantation deforestation killing of orangutans and with it starting to affect people in places where we can't stand any more trouble ... well ... look beneath the fold.

I've known Alan Drake from The Oil Drum for a while now and he has mentioned off and on that he has been working on a "T21 model".

We were talking again late last week and he filled me in a bit more about the qualifications and reputation of those at the Millennium Institute, so much so that I spent some time reviewing their site, I downloaded the North American model, and I'm starting to play with it.

I'm beginning to get the picture - if we do one of these I think it'll quantify and validate our various concepts at a very high level.

Cash Crop

Cash crop, won't stop, a farmer from harvesting,

Wind crop, won't flop, for climate change is our destiny,

Farming the earth, farming the wind, what does it really mean,

To extract, an exact, amount of food and energy.

adrianakau2aol.com

This all sounds lovely, the central banks making a sort of heroic stand against ... something. The effect on any currency when that currency's central bank gets involved in this mess will be deflation. Divide $750 trillion in derivatives by $75 trillion in global real estate values and today's dollar will buy you a dime's worth of product after this comes to pass.

Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic are actively engaged in discussions about the feasibility of mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities as a possible solution to the credit crisis.

Such a move would involve the use of public funds to shore up the market in a key financial instrument and restore confidence by ending the current vicious circle of forced sales, falling prices and weakening balance sheets.

Financial Times' coverage of the horrorshow is here

Well now ... Senator Grassley and I were having a little chat after the Estherville Rotary meeting, Michael Tideman captured us together, and wrote a bit about what we do. A very nice bit of visibility, this ...

BruceMcF has written a bit on a subject we'd very much like to take up - the use of rail right of way to construct electric transmission corridors for wind energy and simultaneously electrify the line itself.