Biofuel

Bioenergy - Turning BC Forests Into Fuel

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Biofuelby Rob Wiltzen

A combination of federal government subsidies, changes in the pulp and paper market and questionable energy policies threaten British Columbia forests as they come to be viewed as bioenergy.

Tough times for the pulp and paper industry have called for change, and the industry appears to have diversified to energy production. Pulp mills already have the facilities for energy production, they have been given $1 billion in federal funding for the capital upgrades required, and they have a willing partner with BC Hydro offering lucrative power purchasing agreements. [See "BC's Bio Boondoogle," Watershed Sentinel.] Further, there's a profitable future in saleable carbon credits.

The entire scenario is founded on the use of ‘biomass' as renewable energy and it's become a bit of a gold rush.

Waste-to-Energy Part 3 - Incineration

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(excerpt)

by Joyce Nelson

Preferential Treatment

In Canada, the federal government has been doling out funding to the waste-to-energy (WTE) sector, with billions of dollars available both for WTE companies and for municipalities to invest in WTE incineration via P3s.

For years, the point-man on the WTE incineration issue

Waste-To-Energy, Part 2 - Covanta

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by Joyce Nelson

With the November 2009 release of Metro Vancouver's draft "Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan," the Greater Vancouver Region is formally on the path to building one or more waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators by 2015.

Incinerators - Waste-to-Energy Proposals

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by Joyce Nelson

Across Canada, the US, the UK, Europe, and Asia, communities are facing an unprecedented onslaught of proposals for new incinerators. In July 2008, Friends of the Earth released a map showing dozens of planned new incinerator sites across the UK. The British government has committed billions to new incineration, while cutting budgets for recycling by 30 per cent.

Germany, which already has such an over-capacity of incineration that it imports millions of tonnes of

Going Up to the Landfill in the Sky

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by Delores Broten

Its proponents call it “Waste to Energy” or WTE, but recycling advocates call it “The Landfill in the Sky.” The great incineration debate, which the environmental movement had pretty well won across North America, is back with a vengeance. Metro Vancouver is considering several incinerators as a solution to its municipal solid waste (MSW) garbage problem.

Right now, BC leads North America in responsible actions around waste.

The Biodiesel Project: Fuelling the Eco-Revolution

by Martin Fournier

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

In 1893, German inventor and scientist Rudolph Diesel published a paper entitled "The Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine." His theory described a new kind of combustion engine, which he later patented as the Diesel engine (1895). And the rest is history.

Adoption of Biofuels - Humanitarian and Environmental Disaster

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by George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, November 22, 2004. Reprinted with permission.

If human beings were without sin, we would still live in an imperfect world. Adam Smith’s notion that by pursuing his own interest a man “frequently promotes that of … society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it” and Karl Marx’s picture of a society in which “the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all” are both mocked by one obvious constraint. The world is finite.

The Growth in Biofuel Production

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Compiled by Delores Broten

The growth in biofuel projects around the world has been
explosive since 2001, but not all biofuels are equal.

In Victoria BC, like many cities, the gases burped out in the landfi ll as materials rot are collected and burned in a fl agship project to make electricity. 

In Ottawa, the wastewater treatment plant puts the sludge through an anaerobic compost system and

Repeating History? Quinsam Coal Mine on Vancouver Island

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by Quentin Dodd 

There is a saying along the lines that those who do not learn from history and past mistakes are destined to repeat them. 

A strong parellel to the proposed Comox Joint Venture (under the Compliance Energy partnership) coal mine in the Cowie Creek watershed near Fanny Bay, to find a strong parallel on Vancouver Island

BC's Bio Boondoggle

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bc biomassby Arthur Caldicott

Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals' energy legacy is a boondoggle of policies, subsidies, and fantastical claims. The 2010 Clean Energy Act brought together a decade of energy initiatives in a single legislative dog's breakfast - delivering blows to the environment, the economy, and the credibility of government.

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"This is it. It's done!" was the message in Alaska in 2008, 19 years after the Exxon Valdes oil spill.  Dave Janka, who runs Auklet Charters in Prince William Sound, ran his boat over to Smith Island to snap this photo.  Dave says, "It's far from done!"

W.L.M. (Bill) Wilson writes: 'Attached is my rewrite of Anne Feeney’s “Have You Been To Jail for Justice”. Anne granted permission to do non-profit performances of this Enbridge version.' Video by Ester Strijbos.