Clinton asks Energy Secretary Richardson for 60 day energy conversion study

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Sounds like long term fuel problems are anticipated which leads me to believe Y2K has had a very large impact on the oil industry.

Berkshire Eagle Statehouse Bureau By Eileen E. Flynn www.berkshireeagle.com

Northeast Heating Oil Summit produces few anwers

Excerpt

The president is also calling on Richardson to conduct a 60-day study on converting factories and major users from oil to other fuels, which would free oil supplies for use in heating homes.

-- Jeanette Thomas (ou_2000@berkshire.net), February 19, 2000

Answers

It would be nice if he sugggested offering rebates to homeowners who wanted to convert to renewable energy.

-- K. Nolan (infosurf@yahoo.com), February 19, 2000.

I forgot to date this article. It is 2/17/00

another excerpt from the same article

Gov. Paul Cellucci (MASS) charged that the region faced a risky situation this month, having less than a two-week supply (oil) on Feb. 4. "This margin of sfety is too small," he said, adding that some of the state's most vulnerable citizens had to choose between "eating and heating."

-- Jeanette Thomas (ou_2000@berkshire.net), February 19, 2000.


Here's an alternate fuel that Richardson should consider: Pond scum.

Don't laugh, heh heh. This is legit! See the article at http://cgi.canoe.ca/WorldTicker/CANOE-wire.SCIENCE- Hydrogen-Fuel.html

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), February 23, 2000.


Agh, they moved the "Pond scum" article. Here's my shortened version. Sysops, if you consider this off-topic, go ahead and delete it.

February 21, 2000

Pond scum may give cheap, limitless supply of hydrogen fuel, experts say

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hydrogen may be an ideal fuel when the supply of oil and natural gas runs out, but the problem has been finding a way to produce it cheaply. Scientists now say the answer may be an ordinary pond scum.

Green algae, a simple plant that grows all over the world, has the unique ability to convert water and sunlight into hydrogen gas, researchers said Monday at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Now scientists have found a new way to force the algae to make hydrogen gas on demand, a process that could lead to an almost limitless supply of fuel that burns without pollution and produces only water as a waste product. ......

Margaret K. Mann of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a federal facility in Golden, Colo., said that auto makers are already developing fuel cells to drive automobiles. Other researchers, she said, are studying ways of changing the nation's energy infrastructure -- pipelines, fuel transports and service stations -- to make use of hydrogen.

She said it will be at least 20 years before hydrogen becomes a major part of the energy picture, but the gas could eventually power the nation, providing a renewable fuel source for both transportation and electrical generation.

Right now, hydrogen is most commonly separated from natural gas. This makes hydrogen a negative in the energy equation, since natural gas is a cheaper, more efficient fuel.

Hydrogen may come into its own for environmental reasons, said Mann.

Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, many believe. The only waste generated from hydrogen fuel is pure water, a resource that theoretically can be recycled to produce more hydrogen.

http://cgi.canoe.ca/WorldTicker/CANOE-wire.SCIENCE-Hydrogen-Fuel.html (article moved)

-- Lee Maloney (leemaloney@hotmail.com), February 23, 2000.


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