The Distance Project

T Boone Pickens, Wind Power, And National Security.

Posted on July 14th, 2008 by Zach.
Categories: General, Industry, Renewable Energy, Systems of the World.

Does this look like the traditional face of an environmentalist? Take a look at this interview with T. Boone Pickens about why he is investing in Wind Power in West Texas:

Pickens Article on Investing in Wind

The concept of viewing our dependence on foreign oil as a historically massive transfer of wealth is excellent. It allows people on every side of the energy debate to frame it in a way that shows what is critically important about our dependence on oil.

I am a fan of locally produced energy. Even when we mine and burn coal, at least as a country we see the impact on our soil. Divorcing ourselves from our consumption (and consumption of anything, not just oil) is one of the first mistakes we need to rectify, and in a hurry.
I am a firm believer that once you frame consumption, reduction becomes a set of quantifiable goals. If you don’t have that frame, you have no place to start.

Now I am not naive enough to think that a lifelong oil guy like T. Boone Pickens is doing this out of the goodness of his heart. Like all of us he has larger motives – in his case mainly profit motives. In fact I would put money on the fact that this story is way more complicated than it seems.

Pickens has been taking advantage the odd regulations regarding drilling in Texas and is buying up land above a set of aquifers. So along with lobbying himself into a Water Authority and distributing water into the Dallas metropolitan area, I have no doubt that wind generated electricity can be easily transmitted down those same pipe lanes.

Eminent Domain is a wonderful concept.

If it turns out that there is Natural Gas on his land, then you can see the whole plan come together – one $2 billion pipeline, three critical services.
There is big money in this thing for Pickens, and all in all it is pretty brilliant if totally shady.

But in the end, I sit here and ask myself; “Do I Care?” And the answer is no. From the outset of embarking on this journey, I told myself that I didn’t care why people came to the table as long as they came. Well Pickens, came to the table because he saw huge money in wind power. I may not personally love all of his reasons, but his reasons frame the problems in ways many other people can identify with. And for that I am excited to welcome an old Oil Wildcatter to the party.

Let’s talk more about the transfer of wealth, it is a great point and one that I never would have conceived of if not for Pickens’ approach. It is simple and straight forward, and it matters.
Here is the You Tube explanation of the plan.

Here is the full website: www.pickensplan.com

Judge for yourself.

2 comments.

Tags: oil, wind, water, Natural Gas, T. Boone Pickens, Pickens Plan, Eminent Domain

Watching the Change and Getting the Message – Why Wall-E Matters.

Posted on July 7th, 2008 by hg.
Categories: General, Pop-Culture, Renewable Energy, Sustainability.

For those of you who don’t have a youngster in the house, aren’t a fan of cutting-edge animation, or just don’t get out much, you may be interested to learn that the movie WALL-E is perhaps the greatest environmental film of all time. I write this not as a steadfast environmentalist (which I am) or a shill for the Disney Company (which I am not), but as a student of mass communication , in general, and message framing and mass opinion, in particular.

Released to near universal critical acclaim for its animation, story and general creativity, the film was produced by Pixar/Disney for $180 million with a global marketing budget estimated at 20-30% of that number. The movie’s made $130 million since its release June 27^th (10 days ago). Industry estimates are that the film will gross a minimum of ½ a billion dollars globally, and may well bring in close to twice that much by the end of its theatrical run.

Whether it will or not I can’t say, but what’s fascinating is that we are now at a time, globally, where we can see the world as a whole engaging in the act of mass opinion change; in this case, with regard to moving from how we have historically powered our lives to a new, cleaner, more earth-centric system.

The movie does more in its 97 minute running time for the concepts of renewable energy, conservation, recycling, and consumer awareness than any 97 minutes of anything I can think of. I would challenge anyone to come up with an article, speech, ad or lobbying effort of the last 30 years that does as much for spreading…globally and to a wide swath of the human demographic…the awesomeness of solar power than does the 10 second bit that takes place in the first 30 minutes of this film.

There aren’t many times in life where you can look behind you to see what was, and forward to see what will be, but that’s exactly what’s happening at this time in history, as is evidenced by the production, release and embrace of a movie—ostensibly made for children and about two little robots in love—that tells its story using the backdrop of a dark, dystopian future of an earth rendered nearly uninhabitable by lack of environmental care, and that calls out to you to consider where you stand in the midst of the change occurring around you. Are you a part of the problem, or a part of the solution? Are you an apologist for the oil and gas industry? Are you a lobbyist at Bracewell and Giuliani, paid to discredit climate scientists? Are you a political appointee, dragging your feet on global warming, air quality, progressive energy policies and true energy security?

While our matinee showing was heavily populated by kids of all ages, my wife and I were surrounded by 5 and 8 year olds; people who will, perhaps—if everything goes well– never drive a vehicle that runs predominantly on polluting fossil fuels, and may actually drive to Prom in a “plug-in electric biofuel hydrogen fuel cell solar charged” number made by a company that actually “gets it”. (A discussion as to whether that company will be either of the current Detroit-based crew is best saved for another day).

I won’t give away the plot or ending, but I will tell you that the film is both aggressively “green” and elegantly not. It’s for the viewer to decide. It’s sometimes uncomfortable to watch, with its themes of consumerism gone amok, the melding of corporations and government, and idea that humans lack appreciation for the difficult and natural in favor of that which is easy and packaged. But don’t get me wrong, it’s also a joy to watch and experience this little gem of an American film, so don’t think you have it figured out before you even go see it.

That said, it’s possible that those people existing at the edges of the political spectrum will find things to dislike and diminish about the film. I’m relatively certain that the defenders of our historically “brown” system will find much to pooh pooh about a silly cartoon with the temerity to suggest the current system isn’t working just fine, thank you very much. But If that’s the case, then I don’t think they really understand the meaning of a movie like WALL E.

WALL E means that the world has changed. That if you’re still fighting on Capitol Hill to keep CAFE standards low, you just don’t get it. If you’re trying to get a coal plant sited, you’re on the backside of the curve, dude. If you’ve been running a car company where people call your main product “The Extinction”, or “The Bummer”, then you’re about to be extinct yourself, my friend. And, if you think it’s OK to spew filth into the air, make money without regard for the only planet we have, and work to blur any intelligent dialogue about the need for us to move to a new system as fast as we possibly can, then you are, quite frankly, old, and WALL E just ain’t for you. But that doesn’t matter anyway.

WALL E is for those kids born after 2000, who someday will ask what you were doing when the world changed. They’ll ask what it was like burning black rocks and liquids to heat your house and get to the supermarket. They’ll ask what a gas station was, and wasn’t it a drag to have to go to one all the time. They’ll ask why so many people had asthma and what acid rain was and to explain the Exxon Valdez; and why the people you chose to be in charge didn’t do more to clean things up and change things more quickly.

And they’ll ask, to gauge whether or not you’re really “with it”, whether you’ve ever seen the best environmental film of all time.

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Tags: movies, wall-e, environmentalism

Managing The Clock

Posted on March 14th, 2008 by Zach.
Categories: General, Renewable Energy, Systems of the World.

Something special happens this time of year – the days are long, the air is warm, and of course that happiest of days, the “Spring Ahead” day hits. As far as I am concerned Spring Ahead day should be a national holiday. There is nothing like the feeling of that first time you get out of work and still have 3 hours of daylight to run around in. Oh happy day!

Yearly though my happiness is slightly muted by the raft of articles like this one in the Wall Street Journal, showing that Daylight Savings Time wastes energy.

Noooooooo! See this is why the world has such a negative opinion of environmental causes, they take away all our fun.

Damn you Indiana and your crystal clear data. If ever there was a fight that was worth creating more renewable energy for, this is it. I think I will start a “Save Daylight Savings” cause right now. In fact, what I really want is to never have Fall Back day. That day sucks.

Time and clocks play such huge role in how we consume energy, how we plan for usage in the future, and what it causes the average user. Another example that just popped up today is in the concept of the Plug-In hybrid.

There has been a lot of noise about the Plug-In Hybrid recently and with justification – the average Mile-Per-Gallon that some of the modified Prius’ (is this the plural of Prius? Prii, anyone?) are getting is straight up astounding.

But I always look at the over-taxed grid in this country, and think “Where are all these cars going to get plugged in?” Oak Ridge Labs had the answer in this study identifying the impact a move to Plug-Ins would have on current infrasturture as well as future growth.

Again it comes down to clock management. ORNL sees minimal impact of the Plug-In as long as they charge at certain off-peak hours of the day. They see a large need to increase production if charging happens during peak times.

If the energy infrastructure increase is rooted in a basket of renewable energy technologies, then no problem. In that case we are trading the combustion car for clean energy and I am down with that. If the increased electrical need is fulfilled by the construction of new fossil based power plants then welcome my friend – welcome to the age of the coal-fired automobile.

So maybe we could start with a timer for Plug-In charging? Yeah that would be good.

Ah the power of the clock. From its usage in the industrial revolution to regulate work, to our current issues of electrical consumption, the clock is seminal to the management so many facets of our lives.

I find it fascinating and annoying simultaneously. Have to go now- Almost 5:00 and spring is in the air.

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Tags: Oak Ridge, Clocks, Coal, Daylight Savings, Spring Ahead

Inspiration like no other – The Solar Decathlon 2007

Posted on October 21st, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Urban Planning.

Every two years a group of university students descend upon the Mall in Washington DC for the Solar Decathlon. For anyone who has not seen the event, it is worth a trip to DC in my opinion. I have never been so inspired by the possibilities for the future as when touring the event.

Picture this: 25 University teams made up of students from Architecture, Engineering, and Design programs spend 2 years of there college lives planning, designing and constructing 800 squre foot homes. Each with their own cool approaches to a combination of livability and sustainability.

Every other October, the house roll into town on flatbed trucks and plop themselves down a stones throw from the capital building. But this is not for show, the kids all battle it out in 10 event competition to see whose house will be America’s next top model! Sorry no, I am watching too much reality TV as I write these days. But they do compete and the it is fierce. All the houses have to power a maximum of 800 square feet completely by solar, no exceptions. They must also heat a certain amount of hot water per hour, as well provide good aesthetics for a home, and good communication of their theories through tours and websites.

All of this proved especially challenging in the 2005 when it proceeded to rain for 6 days of the competition.

While the rain was rightly disappointing to many of the teams and a pain for all of the vistors to the houses (For most of the week you get to tour any house you’d like), I actually like seeing whose houses were built tightly and whose leaked like a sieve!

No such problems this year as we had unbelievably beautiful weather for the week and watched a University in Germany take home top honors followed by the University of Maryland.

I spent most of the week on the Mall for the event as we showed off our newest product the PowerCube. There are a couple of observations that I came away with:

- Our good friends Richard King and Wendy Burt at the Department of Energy who run the event, continue to put on an amazing show. The show from the outside was a huge success. Huge crowds, great houses, just a truly fun time. Big up to both of them for pulling it all off yet again.

- The National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden Colorado, is one of the coolest assets the US Government has. In to make sure the show was a success, everyone from the Lab was so knowledgeable, excited about the event, so genuinely passionate about renewable energy. Just a great group.

- The passion and creativity of the students is straight up inspiring. I can’t say this enough, it is just fun to be around that kind of passion for something that will revolutionize our country. They are changing the world.

This decathlon was such a success that there is rumblings of a European version next year as well.

Check out all of the websites for the teams from the SolarDecathlon07 website. So many green products and approach to green building, these websites are a must see if you are thinking about a building project in the near future.

Keep track of this thing as they gear up for 2009 because it is something not to be missed.

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Tags: Solar Decathlon, Housing, Green Building, Dept. of Energy