The Distance Project

T Boone Pickens, Wind Power, And National Security.

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

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

Stealing Your Waste Oil

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Zach.
Categories: General, Sustainability, Systems of the World.

Can someone tell me if this is a good or bad thing?
There has been a rise in the theft of old cooking oil from restaurants according to the New York Times piece of a little while ago. So this is where we’re at is it - The stealing of waste stream material?

This is one of those times when the glass is half full or half empty. You know, those tests that are supposed to tell you whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist depending upon how you view a situation?

A pessimist would look at this filet-o-fish filled oil theft as disasterous. Fuel prices are rising at epic proportion making the waste stream oil look like a good option for fuel. They would say a dark storm approaches - home heating oil is astoundingly expensive and this kind of theft of basic materials is only the beginning of a downward spiral for the country. Fire and brimstone I tell ya.

An optimist sees the better angels of the situation. Imagine that, a waste stream being so coveted that it is even WORTH stealing. That hasn’t happened in a long, long time in this country. Not since one of the lesser known Adams brothers - not John Quincy - was indicted in that great cow manure scandal of the early 1800’s.

No, an optimist would say that rising fuel costs will force us to address unsustainable approaches to everyday life. That it is past time we dealt with these sorts of systems. That this is the rise of small cars, mass transit, and a return to local economies.

And really, who doesn’t want al of those things, I know I do. But big transitions hit people with the least amount of financial stability first, and that makes this transition pretty scary for many.

So I guess I am splitting the distance? Short term pain that is ultimately good for as all.

What we need is good leadership, that people believe in, and that can usher the country through the pain that is coming. Enough bickering, big things are happening around us - do I really care about this political “gotcha” crap that the campaigns are playing.

One other note:  Let me know when people start stealing the Dunkin Donuts oil to restrain and cook with. That’s when you know we are in serious trouble and it is time to fortify the house World War Z style.
Until then, it is time for all of us to put in some work.

0 comments.

Tags: waste oil, theft, biofuels, fuel costs

I hate packaging.

Posted on May 8th, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: Sustainability, Systems of the World.

Can I be any clearer than that? Let me try: I hate Blister Packaging with a fiery passion that knows no bounds. You know this stuff - every electronic gizmo comes in it. It’s a clear plastic shell that is totally impenetrable, the Fort Knox of packaging. If you were stuck on a deserted island with no tools and had to get it open to eat, you would either starve to death, or else die accidentally slicing an artery on the razor like edges.

I mean is there anything quite so stupid? It is such a nightmare, people are developing special tools to open this kind of packaging. Check out this one.

Pretty smart, but according to an article I read, the tool comes in Blister Pack. Great. Still dying on the island.

Vendors love this stuff I guess, and factories make the packaging process easy (plus there is no currently viable alternative, so the point is moot). If I order a pallet of items from overseas, not only do I get my product all packaged up coming out of the factory, but they will put my branding and instructions in the thing so I don’t have to do any assembly afterwards. You would not believe what a hassle reduction that is for a company. And reduced hassle is my dream come true these days.

Blister packing protects the products from damage really well too. Plastic really can get fairly beaten up and still look decent on an in-store display.

You want to experience waste? In my life it is when stores send back product because the PACKAGING is damaged. I love this, it always makes my day - the product is fine, it is just the protective shell that is beaten up. What? But this is not a knock on the stores. People don’t buy things with beaten up packaging. They just don’t. This may sound like stupid reasoning, but I have recently learned a lot about how people buy in stores (myself included) and presentation means a whole lot, it may be the only thing that matters in many cases.

It is hard to steal anything that is contained in Blister Packaging and that is a plus, but this is mainly due to the fact that there is so much plastic around the product. As an example, I recently bought a set of earbud headphones. There was at least double the amount of plastic in the packaging than in the product itself.

These aren’t the ones exactly, but you get the idea.

Douglas Adams once announced that a society which had instructions on toothpicks was broken. Me? I think when the material in packaging exceeds the product, we are all in big trouble.

What is truly excellent is that our plastic trash will be here a while. This stuff sits around for the odd 3-6 thousand years. It is typically a low grade plastic too which cannot be recycled. Instead we throw it away about 12 seconds after tearing into it as consumers. Broken System Alert.

The worst part of the whole thing is that plastic is made of petroleum. In an age where oil is getting more and more valuable, it is insane that we use so much in such useless situations. Thinking about the Oil economy takes up way too much of my time these days, but at least it is usually based around situations where Oil is being used because there are no other systemic options. This is true in packaging of course, there are no other great options, but it seems like this is a fairly easy systemic fix. Proof yet again that if I was a billionaire it would be fun to start the next generation plastics lab. There is no reason packaging has to stay around the way it does. And maybe we could save the oil for, you know, driving firetrucks around or something?

Next up in the Packaging Vent-A-Thon: Cardboard….

0 comments.

Tags: packaging, Peak Oil, Shift, broken systems

The Breaking - More Martha Stewart or Road Warrior?

Posted on March 30th, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: Systems of the World, Industry.

We are beholden to tentative social systems like never before in human history.

Usually when that idea pops into my head, I am freaking out about the coming Oil crisis. Oil dictates so incredibly much of my world, it is crazy. The success of Reware for example is utterly and completely dictated by fossil based fuels. We build Solar Bags in which, let’s say for argument sake, 80-90%% of our process is dependent on Oil – The photovoltaics include materials refined using fossil based energy, they are then sealed in a special plastic coating (all plastics are petroleum based), they are then shipped (Using diesel fired trucks, trains, and planes) to a factory whose machines, heat, lights, and arriving workers are all powered by fossil energy. They cut rolls of various Nylon Fabrics (and if you own nylon, you own a nice little piece of woven oil my friend) into bags that incorporate the solar. Bags are then shipped to a warehouse, and then shipped to your doorstep. Let’s see, is there any step that isn’t totally dependent on the oil economy for us? Nope.

Think Oil price fluctuations matter?
And we are not special, you can take apart any industry and see the exact thing.

The systemic use of Oil in the world is astounding and we have two brand spanking new industrial behemoths developing in India and China. There is no question that there will be some shortage in availability will effect the cost of doing business AT EVERY SINGLE STEP for us, and the US economy at large.

Not convinced? Talk to Matt Simmons – a former Bush energy advisor - about what he thinks about the Oil that exists in the oilfields of the Middle East, or what he anticipates the growing demand to do to our own national security. Or how about James Woolsey, former CIA head under Clinton. Or Amory Lovins, who has forgotten more about this issue than I will ever know.

All of them will tell you that the coming Oil shock is a big deal. Interestingly though, it is not the only system we hang onto by a thread. There are other examples; among others Food Distribution, Clean Water Access, hell Traffic Volume - are all systems that stand precarious if you start to analyze them.

Imagine for a second all communications stopped on the planet. It is not that hard to spin a scenario where all satellite communications were knocked out, and not just from a rogue missile system Take this story about a coming solar storm.

Oh yeah, you read that right, Solar Storms! As if we didn’t have enough to worry about right? But I don’t bring this up in a doomsday mood – we’ll leave the killer asteroid we should worry about for another time. No, it looks like this storm won’t disrupt much, but it served as a mechanism to think about how critically important global communications are to the world we live in, and are only getting more so.

The question I find myself asking is what would be the impact of this. Seriously this is what I am wondering – what happens when the systems of the world come to a grinding halt? The easy answer is that I need to start buying leather chaps and spiked collars for my posse of punked out 80’s style post-apocalyptic warriors. We could drive around in dune buggies looking for trouble.

As exciting as that vision is, it seems like there might be a more nuanced answer. Will it be Road Warrior, or Martha Stewart, this world where systems break down. Is there good in system breakage? A rise in local economies, a subsistence workday, a return to natural fibers and a lessening of mass produced goods anyone? Any takers?

I don’t have all the answers, but I am curious. I can’t help but think that with all the doomsday projections, there are some serious unrealized positives. And I don’t call me a Luddite, I am just spinning the question. The Amish live a decent lifestyle, with happiness, family, and healthy economy. Is it unreasonable to look at that and wonder what would become of us should the systems we rely on so heavily disappear?

My current lifestyle personally would come to a grinding halt, especially workwise. I count myself as pretty handy, but the reality is I like the creature comforts of our systems. I don’t want to work in the fields dawn til dusk. I am a product of the digital age. I don’t remember what it was like before email – partly because it has become so ingrained in the business and personal world, and partly because I never worked in the pre-digital age. I have some vague recollection about how you do research without the internet, but sourcing materials for Juice Bags?

Now how would I go about that exactly? No really.

Update 4.5.07: It appears the Solar Storm will screw up systems. GPS and general global navigation may feel the heat. Sorry about the pun.

1 comment.

Tags: Peak Oil, economy, Reware, big changes