Posted on 06/13/2007 6:10:46 AM PDT by libertarianPA
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a further greening of the Big Apple, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday the city will incorporate biofuel made from corn and soybeans into oil used to heat city buildings starting in 2008.
The plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, improve air quality and support small, family farmers, Bloomberg said.
Earlier this year, the mayor announced the goal of reducing New York's carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030 and has gradually unveiled more detailed proposals, including a plan to convert the city's yellow taxi fleet to hybrid fuel vehicles.
Starting in July 2008, one-third of the heating oil bought by the city must contain 5 percent biofuel, the mayor said. The proportion will rise in stages to 20 percent biofuel in 2012.
Biofuels -- energy squeezed from organic matter such as sugar, corn or rapeseed oil -- burn cleaner and are fast gaining popularity around the world amid high oil prices and a battle against global warming.
Using financial year 2007 figures, 30 percent of the city's heating oil purchases would equal about 13 million gallons -- the equivalent of over 600,000 gallons of pure biofuel.
Bloomberg, who will leave office in 2008, said he will work with New York City Council to ensure that the biofuel goal is made binding.
“Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | 6/13/07 | Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a further greening of the Big Apple, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday the city will incorporate biofuel made from corn and soybeans into oil used to heat city buildings starting in 2008. The plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, improve air quality and support small, family farmers, “
Hey Bloom-Ass.
How will burning a substitute substance which you have to burn more of to get the same amount of energy reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
This won’t help small farmers either, but it will make your ADM stock go up.
They’d do way better to build a gasifier and feed it the city’s garbage. Use the syngas to generate electricity and get rid of the garbage at the same time. I’m sure New York’s average daily amount of garbage is enough to feed a gasifier. If not, supplement with coal.
Back during the Great Depression, there was a move to use corn grain for fuel to heat homes. The price of corn was so low then farmers couldn’t afford to ship it to markets.
Corn grain burns directly, and corncobs are great kindling to get a fire started if dipped in kerosene first. A whole industry on the conversion of potbellied stoves to burning corn grew up in the Midwest.
And rather than going through all the industrial processing, the corn could be used directly as fuel. Of course, only the ash was left, but if the only purpose is generation of BTU’s of energy, then direct combustion of the grain is probably as efficient as coal, and with a CARBON-NEUTRAL output.
The process could be made even more efficient with a spray of water on the hot embers. When water hits incandescent carbon at about 1,000 degrees or so, there is a conversion of the carbon and water to form free H2 gas and CO, carbon monoxide. Both of these molecules reburn, hotter than the original flame, and the carbon is totally consumed. Virtually NO ash remains, that mostly minerals like potassium and phosphate, both excellent fertilizers.
And how about New York City go to urban farming, in vacated skyscrapers, using hydroponics? That would solve a lot of the problems with transporting foodstuffs in, and reusing some of the converted sewage waste as fertilizer for these same hydroponics farms.
Talk about sustainable agriculture. This is their opportunity to practice what they preach for everybody else.
Manhattan Island. Totally self-sufficient at last.
How does substituting biofuel for petroleum reduce the carbon footprint?
Bet there’ll be a sharp rise in fires in city office areas. Space heaters plus mountains of files in cardboard boxes should prove interesting. City’s electric bills will skyrocket as well.
New York’s garbage production stands at some 13,000 tons a day.
The carbon released to the environment could be less with biofuel as each year the growing of the crop recaptures carbon and sends it through the cycle again. Carbon from oil or coal is released from below ground and more is released each year. Of course the biofuel claim is dependent on not releasing more carbon in the planting, harvesting, processing and transportation than is captured in the plant.
There is an option, which I am surprised hasn’t been offered...that of using the ocean waters, piped in to heat and cool the center core of the city....
“Theyd do way better to build a gasifier and feed it the citys garbage. Use the syngas to generate electricity and get rid of the garbage at the same time. Im sure New Yorks average daily amount of garbage is enough to feed a gasifier. If not, supplement with coal.”
I remember St. Louis MO. doing something similar way back in the fifties. They burned the waste paper, etc. and generated steam which was piped into downtown office buildings/stores.
I don’t know about the present day status.
My wife is a Director level Environmental Scientist with the City. She attended a 2030 planning session yesterday and came home with a 250 page book that details Bloomberg’s vision. It is remarkably ambitious in every area from transportaion to housing to parks and frankly, a lot of it makes sense but will prove un-doable. We are using the plan as a guide to where we should buy real estate.
Food for thought, but a marginal effect at best in the quest for a 30% reduction.
Believe a fair amount goes to pennsylvania
Your dillema is caused by applying logic to the situation. That never works with environmental issues. ;-)
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