With all the attention being paid to alternative fuels, it is not surprising that Big Oil should launch a PR counteroffensive. The American Petroleum Institute (API), advertising itself as "the People of America's Oil and Natural Gas Industry," is running a new TV ad, Delivering America's Energy Security, which can be viewed at their website at energytomorrow.com. Their contention is that there is still so much oil under America that we can achieve energy independence without getting off oil for a long time. According to API, there are "112 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil beneath U.S. federal lands and coastal waters. That's enough oil to fuel 60 million cars for 60 years." Unfortunately, we already seem to have about 250,000,000 passenger vehicles in the U.S. And perhaps we don't have 60 years to reverse the effects of 100 years of gasoline-powered internal combustion.

[Source: American Petroleum Institute]

With gas prices as they are, getting a fill-up can feel a little bit like an adventure -- as in 'just where am I going to locate the money to fill up my Suburban this week?' I don't personally remember it, but I've heard about the long lines that existed in the 1970s, when getting gas seemed nigh impossible. But, imagine if you lived in Bali and got a container of gas on a street-side shop like the one you see pictured above? Some questions could arise. Like, for instance, what octane? Eh, who cares? It's petrol, right? Take what you can get and run with it. You could always walk.

[Source: Bikes in the Fast Lane]

I have long had the image that that fuel pump hose filling our gas tanks is really more like a money vacuum. We pump in 10 gallons and make a $35 deposit into the oil cartel bank account. They then take some of that money and use some of it to explore for new oil. They use another part to live large in their parts of the world. Then they use still another part to buy properties in the US so that soon will be buying oil to drive to work at businesses owned by foreign oil company wealth.

There is nothing basically wrong with this. Believe me, if the tables were reversed, we would do exactly the same thing. It is perfectly legal under our form of government and justice. We are allowing and condoning it. In fact we are funding it, aren't we? Somehow I am beginning to feel like a gerbil in an exercise wheel. I can run like hell but I will never get anywhere..

This is AutoblogGreen but I feel it could just as well be AutoblogSmart. I think we have to squeeze every wasted drop of petroleum out of our day-to-day lives. The "p" in petroleum is for "precious" and we treat it like we will never run out of it. Stretch that fuel in your tank. Car pool, walk, bike, maintain you current vehicle (proper tire pressure? clean air filter?), take a freakin' bus or train, telecommute. If you don't, when oil hits $100 a barrel, who you gonna blame? Get a mirror.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have published the results of the Biodiesel Lifecycle Inventory Study which looked at energy resources consumed and air, water and solid waste emissions generated by petroleum diesel fuel and biodiesel. The intention of the three-and-a-half-year study was to provide a comprehensive "cradle to grave" environmental comparison of the two fuels in order to compare the total "lifecycle" costs and benefits of each.

It was determined that biodiesel has a total fossil energy efficiency ratio (i.e., total fuel energy / total fossil energy used in production, manufacture, transportation and distribution) four times greater than that of petroleum diesel fuel making biodiesel far more efficient in its use of non-renewable fossil fuels.

Other key findings showed that in comparison to petroleum diesel, biodiesel had:

• 78 percent lower overall lifecycle carbon dioxide
• 35 percent lower overall lifecycle carbon monoxide
• 32 percent lower overall lifecycle particulate matter
• 68 percent lower overall bus exhaust-pipe emissions of PM10 (significant in relation to respiratory disease)
• 83.6 percent lower overall bus exhaust-pipe emissions of particulate matter soot
• 8 percent lower overall lifecycle sulphur oxides
• No bus exhaust-pipe emissions of sulphur oxides
• 3 percent lower overall lifecycle methane
• 37 percent lower overall lifecycle hydrocarbons
• 79 percent lower overall lifecycle production of wastewater
• 96 percent lower overall lifecycle production of hazardous solid wastes

Analysis: It's great that such a comprehensive study has been undertaken that no one will be able to argue with due to its thoroughness and due-diligence. I'm surprised that nitrogen oxides emissions weren't mentioned which are typically held to be higher for biodiesel than petroleum diesel, but even if they are, clearly biodiesel is miles in front of petroleum diesel in terms of environmental impact. The key findings read like a Top Ten list of emissions we would all like to see reduced to zero and should be reason enough to continue to push forward the introduction of the renewable fuel. Biodiesel, it's good stuff.

Related:

• New Mexico House passes B5 by 2012 bill with 47-8 vote
• British Columbia sees biofuels as part of 2025 energy self-sufficiency plan
• Interview with Emily Horgan, Director of the Greaseball Challenge, part one

[Source: The Independent]

In conjunction with other measures to protect the U.S. from crude oil price shocks such as promoting alternative fuel research and production, President Bush has announced an expansion of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves. The reserves, which were established in 1975 following the Arab oil embargo, are assets designed to limit the effects of severe supply disruption.

Currently the Strategic Petroleum Reserves hold around 691 million barrels of crude oil, which equates to approximately 55 days of net imports. This is to be expanded to 1.5 billion barrels, or approximately 97 day supply of net import, over the next two decades. The reserves were recently used in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to supply the U.S. while Gulf of Mexico oil facilities were patched up and brought back on-line.

Analysis: I would argue that the fastest way to increase the relative value of the reserves is to rapidly increase fuel economy. Vehicle taxes linked to official mpg ratings and a healthy cash injection into lightweight composite body panel manufacturing capacity would be a lot less expensive than buying up 809 million barrels of oil as well.

Related:

• The Department of Energy has $17 million for battery and ethanol research
• The Department of Energy has over $19 million on hand to fund hydrogen research

[Source: Department of Energy]

It seems that the biofuels industry continues to expand with the news this week that Brunei National Petroleum Co. is looking to partner with the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) to build a biodiesel plant in the Philippines. Recently at an Asean Council on Petroleum meeting in Indonesia, PNOC officials revealed that they have received expressions of interest from several possible investors to pursue biofuels development.

PNOC president Pedro Aquino Jr. has discussed biofuels development with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, especially in regards to the feedstocks of sweet sorghum for ethanol production, and jatropha curcas for biodiesel.

Analysis: Biofuels represent a huge opportunity to emerging economies to enhance their agricultural sector, and the lives of their farmers, while reducing costly oil imports. The Philippines in particular has shown a great willingness to pursue a biofuels strategy as an opportunity to encourage poor farmers not to fell forest timbers to escape poverty.

Related:

• "I pledge allegiance to getting better mileage"
• ABG POLL: Biodiesel Feedstock
• Biofuels conference highlights dependence on subsidies

[Source: ABS CBN Interactive]

Here are some facts from an article on U.S. and worldwide oil demand in 2006:

• Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, fell by roughly 1 percent to 20.6 million barrels per day, down from 20.8 in '05 and 20.7 in '04
• U.S. consumption of residual fuel oil deliveries fell nearly 27 percent to 673,000 barrels per day
• Jet fuel demand declined by 2.8 percent to 1.6 million barrels a day
• Gasoline demand rose 0.8 percent to average more than 9.2 million barrels per day. The slight bump was met entirely by ethanol blends, which rose by nearly 35 percent to an estimated 5.4 billion gallons
• U.S. crude oil production slipped 1.1 percent in 2006
• Imports accounted for 66 percent of domestic petroleum use for the year
• Total petroleum imports fell slightly to 13.6 million barrels per day, a 1.9 percent drop
• Oil well completions in 2006 were the highest in 18 years, and natural gas completions reached an all-time high
• However, global demand rose in 2006 due to the strength of consumption in China and the Middle East

I read all that and here is what I gather from it. The U.S. still uses the most petroleum in the world. We make a lot less than we use, so we import the rest. We imported less last year than the two years before, but still managed to use more by upping our demand for ethanol. Airlines are trying to save fuel in whatever way they can, and powerplants are trying to use different methods to generate electricity as well.

The study was performed and the data released by the American Petroleum Institute. When reading the data, remember that total petroleum is different that gasoline, as it includes other petroleum based fuels and products.

[Source: API via Forbes]

Oil and Natural Gas Conservation Fortnight has begun in India and that can only mean one thing, its time to get the children to take on oath to conserve petroleum products and educate others to do the same. An official of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association was on hand in Bangalore on Tuesday to lead the children in taking the oath to strive to conserve supplies of scarce resources.

Ecology clubs are being promoted in Indian high schools to encourage students to form an opinion about the environment, resource use and the importance of biofuels as an alternative to fossil-based energy. The Indian President has urged the states of India to plant jatropha curcas plants as a biodiesel feedstock crop.

Related:

• India President outlines energy independence plan
• India will move seriously into biodiesel territory

[Source: The Hindu]