Washington State UniversityWorld Class. Face to Face.
WSU Energy Program
 

Weekly Energy Newsbriefs

Articles for August 24, 2009


ENERGY NEWSBRIEFS is a weekly current awareness service provided by the Washington State University Extension Energy Program Library and written by Angela Santamaria, WSU Energy Library Manager, to assist users in tracking developments in the energy field. To view past issues or to subscribe to receive an email notification of the publication of a new issue, go to Energy Newsbriefs archives at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.


Please be aware that although every URL is checked for accuracy prior to the publication of Energy Newsbriefs, URLs are, for various reasons, subject to change. Further, servers sometimes fail to connect to working URLs.



BIOMASS

In attempting to reduce carbon footprints, complexities abound. The first two of the following articles address those complexities in the context of exploiting biomass for an energy resource to replace fossil fuels; the third article illustrates how necessary it may be to use biomass to balance other things including a state's energy independence and its green energy requirements:

  1. "Balancing Act" is an article by Lisa Gibson, Associate Editor, Biomass Magazine. It touches on many of the difficulties involved with securing a large enough supply of forest biomass that does not endanger those forests and yields, at costs that commercial foresters can absorb, a reasonable amount of potential energy. See this article in Biomass Magazine, July 2008, at http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2814&q=&page=all.

  2. "Terrestrial CO2 Economically Important in Greenhouse Gas Control: Policies Protecting Forests Could Lower Costs of Cutting Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Science Article Says" is a one-web-page piece. It nicely describes the research, based on modeling, that indicates uncontrolled forest and agricultural practices will erase any gains in carbon reductions from the replacement of fossil fuels with biomass-based energy. See this web posting in Atmospheric Sciences & Global Change Division Research Highlights, June 2009, at http://www.pnl.gov/science/highlights/highlight.asp?id=631.

  3. "Wood Energy in Washington: Imperatives, Opportunities and Obstacles to Progress" is a report to the Washington State Legislature, written by C. Larry Mason et al. at the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington and published in June 2009. It calls for large-scale biofuel refineries over small scale ones and urges biofuels be used for fuel rather than power generation. It agrees with an earlier report, also produced for the Washington State Legislature, by Washington State University researchers that a carbon tax would be the most desirable way to rein in emissions. See this report at http://www.ruraltech.org/pubs/reports/2009/wood_to_energy/index.asp where there are links to the full text of the report, to brief and full executive summaries, and to a summary of findings and recommendations. (The WSU report is also freely available on the Web. See Biofuel Economics and Policy for Washington State: Report to the Legislature written by Jonathan Yoder et al. at the Washington State University School of Economic Sciences, published 2008, at http://www.ses.wsu.edu/research/EnergyEcon.htm .)


BIOMIMICRY

Biomimicry can have a great impact on energy use. The following two articles address the topic of biomimicry in somewhat different ways although there is a fair amount of overlap between them:

  1. "Evolution Meets Creation," by Sara Stroud, Bay Area Correspondent, Sustainable Industries, shows the influence of natural phenomena on design engineering. Companies and individuals engaged in an imitation of successful evolutionary adaptations in their products (biomimicry) are highlighted. The author also stresses the importance of the study and mimicry of biosystems to inspire a broader approach than simply attending to the development of individual products based on nature. See this article in Sustainable Industries, August 2009, at http://www.sustainableindustries.com/technology/51788452.html?viewAll=y.

  2. "Inviting Nature In: Biomimicry Can Lead Us to More Innovative, Sustainable Interior Spaces" was written by Mary Ann Lazarus, LEED AP, Sustainable Design Director, HOK. In this article, the author tries to bring the biomimicry message indoors to apply, as in the case of daylighting, to the interiors of buildings. See this installment of the EnvironDesign Notebook column in Interiors & Sources, July/August 2009, at http://www.isdesignet.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/3339/ArticleID/8664/Default.aspx.


CLIMATE CHANGE

"Climate Plan Calls for Forest Expansion," by Traci Watson, USA Today, discusses the climate change bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2009. The bill calls for a tree-planting program even larger than the one associated with the New Deal in the 1930s and early 1940s that was developed under the Civilian Conservation Corps. The increase in forests would counter the millions of forest acres lost to development in the 1990s. See this article in USA Today, August 19, 2009, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-08-19-forest_N.htm.


EMISSIONS

"Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions Projected to Drop 5% in 2009" is a two-paragraph summary of the recently released Short-Term Energy Outlook, a document from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. See the summary in EERE Network News, August 12, 2009, at http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/news_detail.cfm/news_id=12714. To go directly to the Short-Term Energy Outlook, select http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html.


FLEETS

"10 Ways to Cut Fuel Costs," by Jack Lee, CEO, 4Refuel Ltd., includes descriptions of each cost-cutting measure and how it saves fuel. The measures include driver training, slower start-ups, slower cruising speeds, fleet tune ups and upgrades, and more. See this article in Biodiesel Magazine, June 2009, at http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=3479.


LIGHTING

"DOE Changes Efficiency Standards," by staff, is a six-paragraph piece that highlights recent changes in lighting rules and refers to a Department of Energy (DOE) web page for more information; here is the link to the DOE web page: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/residential/incandescent_lamps.html. See the six paragraphs at the top of page one in Lighting Design Lab News, Fall 2009, at http://www.lightingdesignlab.com/ldlnews/2009_fall_ldlnews.pdf.


WORKFORCE

"The Engineering Dropout Myth" was authored by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed. Data on engineering students have been collected and stored in the Multiple-Institution Database for Investigating Engineering Development, managed by an engineering professor at Purdue. The work of two research teams using these data suggests that recruitment for engineering degree programs, not low retention of engineering students, may fall short of the mark. It appears that retention rates in the programs may not be any lower than in other majors so that retention may not be the important issue it once was considered to be. [It should be noted that positions for engineers can be difficult to fill, a potentially serious problem in energy and related fields.] See this article in Inside Higher Ed, August 5, 2009, at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/05/engineer#Comments.

"Laid-Off Workers Hope Turbine Careers Take Flight" was written by Libby Tucker. It describes the wind turbine training that the Northwest Renewable Energy Institute in Vancouver, Washington, is offering workers, who, in many cases, have been laid off from other struggling industries. See this article in the Columbian, August 18, 2009, at http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090818/BIZ/708189951/-1/RSS03.

Past issues of Energy Newsbriefs are available at http://www.energy.wsu.edu/library/newsbriefs.cfm.

Generally, subscription information for the journals cited above can be found at the home page of their web sites.

© 2009 Washington State University Extension Energy Program. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted, provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, and that each is referenced by title with credit to the Washington State University Extension Energy Program. Copying, reprinting or dissemination, electronic or otherwise, for any other use requires prior written permission from the Washington State University Extension Energy Program.