Free Republic

UYUNI, Bolivia: In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: almost half of the world's lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found here in Bolivia - a country that may not be willing to surrender it so easily. Japanese and European companies are busily trying to strike deals to tap the resource, but a nationalist sentiment is building quickly in the government of President Evo Morales, an ardent critic of the United States who has already...

Shortly after I became a daily visitor to the internet, I discovered Steven Den Beste.  To this day, I stand in awe of his intelligence.  Steven was one of the most widely read writers, at that time, blogging prolifically on science, politics, warfare, engineering and anything else that crossed his mind.  A phenomenally analytic and literate mind possessing the ability to reduce the complex to the simple and expose the complexities of apparently simple subjects. Den Beste impressed a wide variety of people and drew enormous attention to his website, USS Clueless.  As one would expect, he also drew the ire and contempt...

Eastman marks 25 years in coal gasification Published 06/14/2008 By Sharon Caskey Hayes KINGSPORT — In the 1970s, scientists, researchers and engineers at Eastman Kodak Co. started searching for ways to offset rising energy prices. The company’s operating costs were on the increase due to escalating oil and natural gas prices exacerbated by the oil embargo. Indeed, crude oil had jumped in price from $3 a barrel in 1972 to a whopping $12 a barrel by the end of 1974. Eastman researchers began exploring other potential sources of raw materials to fill the company’s growing needs. And they didn’t have...

What began a few months ago as a 12-year-old's bright idea may very well become one of Windham High School's [NH] most prominent features. David Hutchings, a home-schooled town resident, has proposed incorporating wind and solar energy into the $44 million school, slated to open in fall 2009. "I started this as a science project with friends ... and now it's turned into a huge project," he said with a shrug and a grin, sitting around a table yesterday at Lavallee Brensinger Architects in Manchester's Millyard. David was with a dozen adults -- one of them his mother -- at...

The average price of a pint of bitter in Britain's pubs could increase from around £2.20 to as much as £4 next year, the industry has warned. The massive hike, which is also expected to affect cans bought from off licences, is due largely to increased prices of key ingredients barley and hops - in part because farmland is being turned over to environment-friendly biofuels. But brewers are also suffering from rises in fuel costs and the price of the metals used to produce kegs and cans. Kegs are now so valuable that they have become a target for thieves,...

—Dr. Robert Peltier, PE Editor-in-Chief Fueling Around Europeans didn't know that corn existed before Columbus "discovered" America. It had been cultivated by indigenous North Americans for thousands of years before the Italian brought home what was to become a favorite food for many. The more adventuresome even figured out how to distill corn into something more to their liking. Fast-forward five hundred years, and those yellow kernels are embroiled in a political food fight. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is being served up as a way to slake our thirst for foreign oil. Ethanol is even on the menu of...

A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., USA -- A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock...

TIFTON, Ga. - Part-time farmer Jimmy Griner hopes his ever-so-fragrant, crystal-clear, 180-proof moonshine can help solve the nation's energy problems. Griner arrived at the Georgia Bioenergy Conference this week carrying of quart of the stuff in a Mason jar. He's licensed to make 10,000 gallons a year of the high-octane elixir that's distilled from fermented Georgia-grown wheat. Sponsored by the University of Georgia, the three-day conference attracted about 500 farmers, scientists, engineers and politicians. Speakers from across the nation and at least one foreign country, Brazil, discussed the future of global energy supplies, the economics of biofuels, energy legislation and...

"America has no shortage of oil... Washington, DC has a shortage of the political will required to let American workers go get it." -- Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) With oil prices reaching record levels, the left is up to its old tricks, blaming the President and calling for lots of expensive big government “solutions”. As part of this push, they argue that we're running out of oil. But clearly, this argument is not new -- and it's dead wrong. In 1874, Pennsylvania's state geologist fretted that America had only a four-year supply of oil left. He was wrong. In 1914,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. OSLO, Norway (AP) - A windblown island off Norway is being used to test ways of overcoming a big drawback of alternative energy: How to store it. Such renewable energy sources as wind, waves and solar power provide a clean alternative to climate damaging fossil fuels and potentially dangerous nuclear power. But sometimes the wind dies, the sea calms, and the sun doesn't shine, leaving those who depend on them for power facing a blackout unless they have a backup supply. Oslo-based Norsk Hydro ASA on Tuesday presented its project to...

Ever since the dawn of powered flight, it has been necessary for all aircraft to carry onboard fuel - whether in the form of batteries, fuel, solar cells, or even a human "engine" - in order to stay aloft. But a team of researchers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., and the University of Alabama in Huntsville is trying to change that. They have now chalked up a major accomplishment... and a "first." The team has developed and demonstrated a small-scale aircraft that flies solely by means of propulsive...

OSLO (Reuters) - Homes on the Arctic tip of Norway started getting power from the moon on Saturday via a unique subsea power station driven by the rise and fall of the tide. A tidal current in a sea channel near the town of Hammerfest, caused by the gravitational tug of the moon on the earth, started turning the 10-meter (33 ft) blades of a turbine bolted to the seabed to generate electricity for the local grid. The prototype looks like an underwater windmill and is expected to generate about 700,000 kilowatt hours of non-polluting energy a year, or...