Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy by Seth Fletcher

Bottled Lightning Superbatteries, Electric Cars, and the New Lithium Economy by Seth Fletcher

This is a history of batteries which make the electric car possible.  Seth Fletcher describes the invention of the battery from its beginnings to modern lithium-ion batteries.  It is about more than cars, because lithium batteries were first used in computers and cell phones before they were used in cars.

The book is very much a pro electric car book focused on the benefits of electric cars.  He enthusiastically describes the Chevrolet Volt, the Nissan Leaf, and the Tesla Roadster as the hope for our future.  His focus is not on hybrid electric cars, but on cars that are purely run by batteries.

I very much enjoyed reading about the lithium mines in Chile and Bolivia.  The largest lithium reserves are in Bolivia.  Seth Fletcher describes his visits to the mines.

There is an excellent reminder that ultimately lithium ion batteries are about more than cars.  Large power plants are starting to use giant lithium ion batteries as back up power storage.  This will grow with the increased use of wind and solar power.

This book is worth reading if you are interested in alternative energy or automobiles.  It is more of a story about batteries than just cars. 

Short list of Environment, Alternative Energy, and Clean Tech Books.

Short list of Environment, Alternative Energy, and Clean Tech Books.

Occassionally I like to summarize some of the books I have read on this subject and reviewed here.

Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy by Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks (This book is about a progressive alliance called the Apollo Alliance).

The Citizen Powered Energy Handbook-- Greg Pahl
The book describes solar power (solar hot water and photovoltaic), water power (micro, small, medium, and large hydro, hydrokinetic, wave power, and tidal power), wind power, biomass (pellets, syngas, wood, cofiring), liquid biofuels (bioidiesel, ethanol, and SVO-- straight vegetable oil), and geothermal energy. Examples are given for both houses, district plants, and community efforts.

The Clean Tech Revolution: Discover the Top Trends, Technologies, and Companies to Watch (Paperback)Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder
(About clean technology investing).

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough, Michael Braungart
(About making thngs so they are reusable)

Earth The Sequel:The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming (Fred Krupp)
(This book is focused on how we can come up with economic and technical solutions to global warming. )

Farewell My Subaru An Epic Adventure In Local Living by Doug Fine
(A story about a man who decides to live locally back to the land)

The First Billion Is the Hardest On a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens
(A biography, business history, and energy plan.)

Freedom From Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States' Oil Addiction (Hardcover)David Sandalow
(A discussion between the president and his staff on how
they can end America's addiction to oil.)

Green Investing A Guide To Making Money Through Environment-Friendly Stocks by Jack Uldrich
(A nice listing of many different alternative energy stocks.)

Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage (Hardcover)by Daniel C. Esty (Author), Andrew S. Winston (Author)
(Covers environmental strategy in business-- lean manufacturing, recycling, clean products, green advertising, waste reduction, alternative energy use in factories.)

Green Your Place In the New Energy Revolution by Jane Hoffman and Michael Hoffman
(An overview of different energy technologies)

Leviathan: The History of Whaling In America by Eric Jay Dolin
(You may not think of it this way, but whaling was America's first energy industry. Whale oil provided candles and oil to light the streets.)

Living Like Ed A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life-- Ed Begley, Jr.
(This is a comprehensive guide on how to live a more environmentally freindly life. It covers the Home, Transportation, Recycling, Energy, In The Garden and Kitchen, Clothing and Hair and Skin Care. )

Natural Capitalism Creating The Next Industrial Revolution by Amory Lovins and Paul Hawken
(A book on how to create a capitalist society based
around green economics. This book is connected with The Rocky Mountain Institute http://www.rmi.org/)

A Safe and Sustainable World, The Promise of Ecological Design by Nancy Todd and John Todd (A rather radical book that talks about how to use ecology to design things. John Todd is the Creator of living machines and is very important in bioremediation.)

Stirring It Up How To Make Money And Save the World--
Gary Hirshberg.
(This is the Story of Stonyfield Farms, a very
environmentally oriented corporation.)

Untapped The Scramble For Africa's Oil-- John Ghazvinian
(An expose on oil in Africa).

Winning The Oil Endgame by Amory Lovins
http://www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook.html
(Another plan for oil independence)

The First Billion Is The Hardest-- T. Boone Pickens-- Review

The First Billion Is the Hardest On a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens is a combination of biography, energy business management, and platform for energy independence in the United States. Somehow, it all ties together very well.

T. Boone Pickens comes across in a folksy direct manner. He includes Booneisms in his book. Booneism #8 is I have always believed that it's important to show a new look periodically. Predictability can lead to failure.

The Frog and the Scorpion is one of the stories he tells in the book as well as many crass jokes and some rather crude, but colorful commentary.

His childhood is described as that of a normal American boy mixed with lessons in entrepreneurship from his grandmother. He had a paper route and mowed lawns for money. At the age of 11, he even pumped gas.

Combined with this is a strong drive for sports. He played basketball and was driven to win. Later in life this translated into his winning business practices and his huge donations for a sports complex at Ohio State University.

Although, it is not my style I can recognize the classic republican sportsman who loves Reagan in his writings. Luckily, he doesn't go too deeply into personal beliefs about race, religion, and social issues, he stays focused on business and energy. He does say he liked Wilt Chamberlain

His whole life seems to say energy entrepreneurship. His college degree was in geology a good precursor for the oil business.

He gives lots of advice. Make big deals, they are as easy to make as little deals, and they often have added benefits to them. He shows his disdain for bureaucracy and old school management.

He does this by describing how he used shareholder rights to help takeover poorly run companies. It shows an interesting combination of ruthlessness and compassion. Usually when he took over companies the stock prices went up. He was bent on winning for the underdog. He envisions himself as the underdog reaching up to face the giant.

About halfway through the book, the story changes. He burns himself out gets divorced, nearly loses everything. He even describes how he loses his dog. We get a very different person than the man who ran Mesa energy.

He reopens a new business which seems much more focused on teamwork BP Capital Energy Equity Fund, a hedge fund which can both sell short and long in both stocks and commodities.

There is a section of maxims on how to run a business. These read something like a story out of Aesop's Fables in a way: win fairly, lead, it's all about team, concentrate on goals not growing the company, and let people succeed are some of the exhortations.

It is towards the end that we get his opinion on America's energy problems. These are straightforward, direct statements, we have reached peak oil, America does not control the oil industry, the reports on reserves throughout the world are false, the age of alternatives must begin immediately.

One of the reasons he is so compelling in his writing is that he tells you that he intends to give away all of his money, he already has enough cash. Then he describes how he is giving away his cash.

We get to the plan. Here is where I am having a little bit of trouble. In his descriptions of working with natural gas, T. Boone Pickens has always not quite succeeded in making the natural gas companies the giants he envisioned them to be.

I think in a way, his attempt to sell natural gas in combination with wind energy is a kind of last attempt at leaving a legacy. He is putting his money where his convictions are. He realizes that is no longer just about the money anymore. Some people will have a hard time believing this.

The one problem I had with his book was his description of how he sold off the water rights under his land. I don't agree with this. There is too much potential for environmental damage when major aquifers are drained.

He says, on page 146, "With supply pushed to the brink of unquenchable demand, we're going to need everything. We're going to need all the oil and gas we can find. We're going to need ethanol, natural gas, solar, wind, biofuels, and nuclear."

He is describing the outcome of "being addicted to oil."
I have mixed feelings about his plan, but I hope it will break the deadlock in Washington. T. Boone Pickens plainly states he has never seen a politician capable of facing the problem of energy independence.

This is an excellent interesting book which people should read. There is a center section with full color photographs. I rather like the picture of him on the cover of Time magazine holding cards and poker chips. He also has pictures of him with his wife, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan. The back has an index.

Put aside any political differences you may have. What he is saying is very important. Get in the dialog, I took the time to sign up for http://www.pickensplan/theplan

Green Investing A Guide To Making Money Through Environment-Friendly Stocks by Jack Uldrich

Green Investing A Guide To Making Money Through Environment-Friendly Stocks by Jack Uldrich is a guide to companies that have alternative energy products.

The first part of the book is about how you need to do your due diligence on stocks. Jack Uldrich warns you against investing in companies that have not yet fully developeda working product that is on the market. Doing this can be extremely risky. I personally lost money on Finavera because of a failed test of their wave buoy energy technology. Unfinished and untested products are a very high risk. Many companies make promises on undeveloped products.

Due diligence is the process of checking companies to see if they are safe to invest in. Thismeans looking at the finances, management, products, marketing, human resources, and everyaspect of the company which you can get your hands on. Do your due diligence when investing.

Jack Uldrich correctly points out that over half of alternative energy investments are occurringin Fortune 500 companies that are doing a variety of different things. Archer Daniels Midland is invested in ethanol, General Electric bought Enron's wind business and made it profitable, Goldman Sachs is investedin Horizon Wind Energies and Sun Edison a solar company. Although, it is not described in the book,Bank of America is working on building the most environmentally friendly office building in the world.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America_Tower_(New_York)

There is tremendous interest in clean technology. It is not just a passing trend. In the chapter on Fortune 500 companies and each proceeding chapter there are brief two page summaries of major companiesthat are invested in alternative energy and energy conservation. Many, but not all of the companies arepublicly traded companies. They are not just in the United States.
The chapters cover biofuels, solar, wind energy,alternative alternative energies, and energy conservation. Alternative alternative energies covers geothermal, wave power, fuel cells, and clean coal.

The book misses the boatwhen it comes to waste to energy conversion. There is nothing on Startech, a company developing a plasmafurnace for garbage http://www.startech.net/faqs.html, or landfill gasification. There is a little bit onanimal waste to biofuel in the chapter on biofuels. I don't think of clean coal as an alternative energysource. It is more of an attempt to clean up a very dirty source of power.

In each chapter, you get summaries of a variety of companies. I found two very interesting companies, Ormat Technologies for geothermal power and FPL Florida Power and Light (the nations largest producer of wind energy). I found in general like most books that advise about stocks, the book tended to be more bullish than bearish in stock opinions. This can be quite dangerous. Most companies are a tremendous risk to invest in. I am not giving any recommendations on investing other than saying it is risky. But, crossingthe street is risky.

This book is very to easy read. It is a general introduction to the subject. If you want to learn the basics of alternative energy investing this book is useful. The summaries are too simple to rely on them for making complete investment choices. I would look at them as snapshots or introductions to companies which you can do research on. The book is written in 2008, so most of the company information is still fairly recent. The book is not very long. The copy I read was a paperback. It is light and easy to carry around so it might make a nice subway read, or a read on an airport flight. I like the design of the book.

Wall Street Journal Energy Issue, June 30, 2008

Wall Street Journal Energy Issue, June 30, 2008

Today, I decided not to read a book on the way home. Occassionally, I read the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times on the trade ride home. They both have become very expensive these days. It cost me a $1.50 to buy the Wall Street Journal. That is more than the cost of a cup of coffee at the diner down the street from the library where I work. It irks me a little bit.

However, when I opened this issue, I was pleasantly surprised. There is an energy section with quite a few good articles in it. One is on biobutanol, a possible substitute for ethanol that has 36% more energy density and can be transported using regular pipelines.

Also on the last page of the section, they profiled six republicans in congress that are supporters of alternative energy and are peak oil advocates.

Large parts of it were not that interesting to me. I don't particularly believe in nuclear power, or natural gas drilling. I also thought their article on algae oil was inaccurate. Algae oil is already being commercialized for production in New Zealand of all places. http://www.aquaflowgroup.com/ . They may even be producing biodiesel for jet planes for Boeing. It is a really fascinating idea. http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/nextnews7.23b.html

Green Your Place In the New Energy Revolution by Jane Hoffman and Michael Hoffman-- Review

Green Your Place In The New Energy Revolution by Jane Hoffman and Michael Hoffman is a primer on alternative energy. The book starts with reasons you should go green; pollution, dwindling energy resources, political instability, and changes to a healthier lifestyle.

The book describes the present state of renewable energy focusing first on sources of energy that are not renewable. Coal, nuclear, oil and natural gas are compared to renewables. The author correctly points out that although there is talk about carbon sequestration, but no research money has actually been spent on creating the process.

The book then focuses on the state of renewable energy. It describes the different types of renewables, wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass energy. Wind is pointed out to be the most successful form of renewable energy currently. There is some brief talk on new concepts in solar energy like solar towers.

Then the author switches to describing biofuels. As part of this discussion he describes how a hydrogen infrastructure is not possible to build until at least fifteen years in the future. Ethanol and biodiesel are the only two currently available biomass fuels. This is a little bit wrong. Biobutanol is another option which could have been described. I like the extensive description of biofuels in Brazil. The authors even give several suggestions on how the Brazilian model could be extended to the United States.

After the forms of energy are described, methods of encouraging renewable energy are suggested. This includes definitions, RECs, (renewable energy credits), carbon cap and trade systems, and carbon offset taxes. The language makes these ideas which are very complex easy to understand.

Finally some new technologies are suggested. The jatropha plant which can be used for biodiesel is described, and the plasma converter for waste is also explained. This book misses the boat on wave energy converters. It doesn't talk about them at all.

Then the book puts renewable energy in a global perspective. China has already put over $8 billion dollars a year into renewable energy. They are very serious about developing a renewable infrastructure. India also has an extensive renewable energy infrastructure.

The final chapter is a series of recommendations for renewable energy. They are very lightweight. Institute higher standards for gas mileage, conserve energy at home and buy green appliances, and invest in a wide variety of renewables.

This is a solid primer on renewable energy. It covers all the basics in clean, understandable language. The book is not very controversial. It is meant for the mainstream reader. It is not very preachy. This book would be a good introduction for the sceptic or the person who was just starting to be interested in the subject. There is a short index in the back as well as a set of notes on the chapters. The book is a quick read.

Earth The Sequel-- Fred Krupp-- Review

Earth The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy And Stop Global Warming by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn is a guide to renewable energy companies working on breakthrough technologies. Fred Krupp correctly states that unless there is a national competitive cap and trade system for carbon, renewable energy will not take off in this country in time to prevent global environmental disaster.

Each chapter in this book focuses on a specific type of renewable energy; solar, biofuels, ocean energy, "clean coal" (specifically carbon sequestration), geothermal energy, assorted energy sources, what can be done now, and the future.

In the chapter on solar, three types of solar power were discussed photovoltaic, thin film, and solar concentrating. The most interesting of these technologies to me is the solar tower. There was a brief overview of the "stirling engine", a type of engine often used with solar concentrating mirrors. Solar concentrating technology is an old technology that can use solar power to create utility scale energy.

This book is focused on new developments in alternative energy. Because this it skips the two already developed alternative energy sources, wind and hydropower. It would have been nice if there was some coverage of micro-hydro and distributed hydroelectric power. Oddly, the section on wind energy focused on wind energy kits and wind energy blimps. Basically, a blimp is raised on a tether with wind turbines attached. The tether is a cable which can take the current genterated at high altitudes and send it to the ground for storage.

I really enjoyed reading the section on ocean energy. It gave the complete history of the aquabuoy wave energy turbine, and a bit on the pelamis wave energy device. There was also a bit on underwater wave turbines similar to wind turbines. Ocean energy is one of the newest forms of energy and has not been exploited very much.

I thought the section on geothermal was quite limited. I think that the author correctly points out that not much funding is being put into developing new sources of geothermal energy.

The author did the best job of describing biofuels. He attacked ADM, Archer Daniels Midland for their focus on food (specifically corn) as a fuel. A lot of next generation biofuel companies were described, Verenium which makes cellulosic ethanol, Greenfuel Technologies which is working on algae biofuel, Amyris which is designing genetically engineered biojet fuel.

There was a discussion of miscellaneous technologies. Things like Waste Management's landfill gasification program, and using animal waste to create methanol. Also conservation was briefly covered.

The car was brought up in the last chapter. The author focused on the electric car. He mentions two developments that are interesting, the Tesla roadster all electric sports car, and the Volt, General Motor's planned hybrid electric car.

If you want a survey of new energy technology and ideas this book is for you. It lists many companies that are working on potential breakthrough renewable energy technology. This would be a good book to read if you are an investor. The authors point out that there is a considerable amount of money in Silicon Valley waiting to be tapped if the regulatory environment changes for alternative energy research and development. Google has an interesting program, Renewable Energe Cheaper than coal, and Vinod Khosla one of the founders of Sun Microsystems has started a venture capital firm focused on biofuels. The will to change is there, but the environment in the United States to bring about the change is difficult.

This book was on the New York Times Bestseller list, it is 279 pages long, there is an index and a short list of websites focused on renewable energy. I was not impressed with the writing in the book, it was a little slow. However, the subject held my interest readily. Fred Krupp is the president of the Ennvironmental Defense Fund, and Miriam Horn is a journalist.

The Citizen Powered Energy Handbook-- Greg Pahl-- Review

The Citizen Powered Energy Handbook Community Solutions to A Global Crisis by Greg Pahl is a primer on renewable energy at the community and household level. It focuses on the idea of CSE-- Community Supported Energy. The author compares this to CSA-- community supported agriculture.

The book describes solar power (solar hot water and photovoltaic), water power (micro, small, medium, and large hydro, hydrokinetic, wave power, and tidal power), wind power, biomass (pellets, syngas, wood, cofiring), liquid biofuels (bioidiesel, ethanol, and SVO-- straight vegetable oil), and geothermal energy. Examples are given for both houses, district plants, and community efforts.

Greg Pahl gives two personal examples of renewable fuel use in his home. He has a pellet burning biomass heater, and a solar hot water heater in his house. At one point he also lived off the grid with a wind turbine as well. He is clearly interested in describing straightforward real life examples of renewable energy use. Some of these are a micro-hydro system for individual houses on P.126, and a wood gas powered truck on P.174.

The majority of examples are real in use systems. Some of them, I thought were quite interesting. There was a municipal wastewater hydropower installation and a downtown central geothermal heating installation for several buildings in a city.

A few renewable energy use examples are for communities. He describes a solar powered central hot water heating system for a cluster of houses. Greg Pahl describes how a biofuel cooperative works, Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsburgh, North Carolina. They produce biodiesel and bio hieating oil.

Greg Pahl suggests some legislative initiatives like net metering and group net metering, as well as the CBED-- Community Based Energy Development legislation in Minnesota. He also describes the basic structure of cooperative ownership for small scale renewable energy projects.

There are lots of black and white illustrations and photographs throughout the book. Many are basic descriptions of how a particular type of renewable energy works. For example on P. 245, there is a picture of how a geothermal heat pump works. Some of the pictures are quite classic; they look like clusters of back to the land types and hippies standing next to renewable energy equipment.

Politically this book is focused on the concept of peak oil. He is very much concentrated on the idea that big government is not going to help you solve your energy needs. He claims that one of the only things to do is create small centers of independent energy use because the future is going to suddenly become much more local. We in the United States are in for some rough times ahead.

The book is well organized and easy to read. On Pp. 301-308, there is a guide to organizations that work with renewable energy. Many of the organizations are community based. It includes addresses, phone numbers, and websites. There are also endnotes, a glossary of renewable energy terms, a bibliography, and an index. This book was written in January 2007, so the information is still fairly current.

If you are interested in how renewable energy works, or want to read about how to create community supported renewable energy projects, this book is for you. This book is not a big fix to save the world book. It will not tell you global solutions. It is also the kind of book which will not be reviewed by the mainstream press.

Freedom From Oil-- David Sandalow-- Review

Ford Edge Hydrogen Hybrid

Freedom From Oil How The Next President Can End The United States Oil Addiction by David Sandalow, Introduction by U.S. Senator Richard G. Lugar. This book presents what looks like a bipartisan solution to helping end the United States dependence on oil. The book is about how the United States can diversify its transportation sector away from oil to other sources like electricity and biofuels. The book largely consists of memorandums between a fictitious president and his different advisors. At first, when I read this, I thought "oh no", a book about committee meetings between a politician and his staff. But, luckily it turned out to not be so dull.

There is a lot of material covered in this book. Some of it is surprising. Each chapter has a guest cameo. General Richard Zilmer talks about how it is necessary to introduce solar and wind power in the military to reduce the need for vulnerable fuel convoys, Chelsea Sexton who starred in Who Killed The Electric Car talks about the need for electric cars. There are a lot of interesting cameos.

96% of the United States transportation sector relies on oil. The majority of this oil comes from the Middle East and countries unfriendly to the United States like Venezuela. The political costs of this oil are high, vulnerability to attack on oil fields by terrorists, problems sanctioning Iran, going to war with Iraq, being dependent on non-democratic countries like Saudia Arabia, global warming, dwindling suppies, and pollution. The costs are described in plain language.

The book itself is divided into three sections, problems, solutions, and decisions. In the problems section, David Sandalow describes how every president since Nixon has tried on some level to reduce dependence on foreign oil and failed. Taxes on oil and gas are practically unpassable as legislation. So is breaking the pork barrel politics which hands out benefits to oil and gas companies. Yet, the next president has to do this according to Mr. Sandalow.

There is also some material on the intransigence of the car companies in relation to change. There is a culture built around the internal combustion engine and big powerful race car fantasies.

The section on solutions is very interesting. I don't agree with him on many points, but he is talking about real things which can be done which is more than most politicians are doing. The main focus of the book seems to be getting millions of plug in hybrid electric vehicles on the road with a combination of tax incentives for individuals and incentives for American companies to retool factories so we can produce better cars. The second focus is on developing a strong biofuels infrastructure. This is focused on ethanol mainly, with wishful thinking on cellulosic ethanol.

There is also a section on improving fuel efficiency for cars by improving engines and materials. It is mostly about improving engines. Although he does mention that the fuel efficiency standards should be the same for cars and light trucks. He has come up with a new acronym which is kind of funny, Fuel Reduction and Energy Efficiency standard, FREEdom standars. I think the section on fuel efficiency could have included more on the idea of reducing weight for cars. The Hypercar created by the Rocky Mountain Institute doubles fuel efficiency by building the body of the car from superstrong carbon fiber.

There is an overemphasis on corn ethanol which many people are debating as a fuel source. Sugarcane ethanol, the main ethanol crop in Brazil is much more environmentally friendly. I don't think it would be that bad for the American public if we had sugar shortages because it is being used as a fuel. It might even be healthy. There is a bit on importing ethanol from Brazil instead of oil from Venezuela. This of course is completely opposed to by the American farm lobby.

I think the book shortchanges biodiesel. Biodiesel in my opinion is a better source of fuel than ethanol. Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine with minimal changes. Also biodiesel can be made from feedstocks like human and animal wastes, restaurant grease, and oil seed bearing trees all of which use much less land than corn or sugar cane. I am going to mention two companies in the biodiesel arena. Aquaflow Bionomics in New Zealand grows algae to clean up settling ponds, the algae then is processed into biodiesel. This is a double benefit for the environment. Another company is Cleanfuel Technologies. Algae is grown in a process where it extracts carbon from flue stacks. Then the algae is processed into biodiesel.
http://www.greenfuelonline.com/gf_files/GreenFuel%20Growth%20Rates.pdf
Hybrid diesel engines are also being developed. I think as a potential fuel source algae trumps cellulosic ethanol.

Cellulosic ethanol is discussed as the fuel of the future. There is a description where they plan to make every gas station have an E85 pump. E85, is a mix of 85% ethanol and 15% gas. I am not sure how they are going to do this. It is a nice idea, however, they have to pass the legislation through congress and senate. They can't seem to get the congress or senate to pass a 10% requirement for ethanol in gasoline. I am really not sure how they will do this. A lot of the big companies are already invested in FFV's or flexible fuel vehicles that can run on either gasoline or E85. General Motors has invested a lot of money into this.

Coal liquification is considered a good idea in this book. At least that was my take when I was reading the book. He says something different during the video presentation, that coal gasification is not so good. Maybe, I interpreted things the wrong way.

I am not a big fan of big coal. Coal accounts for 50% of our stationary energy use. Claiming that we will reduce global warming by investing in clean coal then sequestering the carbon dioxide in holes in the ground seems like a fantasy. I think there are other options for coal like the aforementioned GreenFuel Technologies. There is also cofiring with biomass. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy00osti/28009.pdf He says wind is simply not an option. I disagree with him. There is no discussion of diversifying the United States energy base with more geothermal, improved hydroelectric plants, solar power, more natural gas, and even nuclear energy. Diversification is essential, it is the best way to create a positive bipartisan energy policy.

The next section is about driving and highways. There is a brief statement that instead of putting money into roads, we should put money into mass transit. Also we should allow more telecommuting. Telecommuting at the level which he is describing would require a major change in the way most Americans think about work. Maybe if we put some money into better trains, things like the GE Hybrid locomotive http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1840706/posts people might be more interested in mass transit. I love trains.

The ideas in this book are interesting. Many of them seem implementable, I'd say about half of them. This is far better than most political books which I have read.

He summarzies the main goals of his program for ending oil addiction. He even spends some time describing what oil addiction is. Then he creates a speech which reminds me slightly of Ronald Reagan's speaking style on how we should kick the oil habit.

Here is the summary of his ideas reworded in my own language:

1) Transform the vehicle fleet to PHEV-- plug in hybrid electric vehicles . Get the government to order a PHEV fleet.

2) Change the fuel supply to ethanol and other biofuels.

3) Spend more money on mass transit and telecommuting.

4) Invest in research in cellulosic ethanol, biobutanol, and improved battery technology.

5) Create a gas tax to fund the changes as well as introduce a PHEV rebate for tax payers.

6) Change our diplomacy. During the video he mentions that we should cooperate with China in creating better standards. He implies that we should open our borders to Brazilian ethanol.

He describes his solution as a big government solution. Personally, it seems a bit too big government, but it is a better start than almost any other politician has come out and talked about. This is well worth reading if you are interested in energy policy.

David Sandalow is an Energy & Environment Scholar and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.

A Few Books And Comments On Money

US Silver Certificate Dollar

Money is one of those things which bloggers seem to talk about a lot. These are a few book recommendations on investing. The first four books are currently part of the Wiley Investment Classics series. The first book is one which most stock brokers claim they have read at one point or other, Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd. Benjaimin Graham is considered to be one of the fathers of value investing. The next book is called Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher. Philip Fisher is considered to be the person who came up with idea on how to invest in growth stocks.

The other two books are about the condition of wall street. They show how little has changed in the way people act around stocks and money. The first book is Where Are All The Customers Yachts: A Good Hard Look At Wall Street by Fred Schwed. This book is quite fun to read. Confessions of A Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre is equally entertaining.

The best book which I have ever read on the concept of value is an art book, surprisingly. The book is called Boggs: A Comedy of Values by Lawrence Weschler. J.S.G. Boggs is an artist who draws money. He draws single sided bills. These are variations of different types of money with fantastical elements, like flowers and pictures of children, or odd colors. He then tries to use the bills to buy things from stores. He tells the people he is attempting to buy the things from that it is not real money but art, and if they want the art, they should give him some change and a receipt for the thing he has bought. Watching the process is fascinating. This link has an interview and a video of him. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/egg/217/boggs

Please don't ask me about stock tips. I'm not great at this.. Two of my recent investments were near total disasters. I invested in HOKU Scientific, a fuel cell company which recently was forced to switch from being a fuel cell manufacturer to a solar cell manufacturer. HOKU lost its contracts for fuel cells which are basically pie in the sky in most cases and was forced to invest in a form of more realistic energy, solar energy.

I also am invested in Finavera, a company that recently had another total disaster. At the beginning of November, the wave energy generation buoy which they were working on failed its commercialization test. The buoy went from a commercial value of over $4 million dollars to being written down to $1. The wave energy generator proved to be commercially unviable. Luckily, the company didn't go out of business completely because they were heavily invested in wind energy, a more traditional form of alternative energy. They received financing to stay in business.

Now is not the best time for alternative energy in the United States. Also investing in the stock market is risky. I used etrade to make my trades. One day, because Citigroup investment analysts downgraded it, the stock fell 58% in value. I pulled all of my trading money out of there quickly. In the beginning, it looked to be an online stock trading company failure. Luckily, someone bailed them out. If Etrade had gone under, it would have had incredible impact on the market. http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/13/etrade_stock_falls_58_after_forecast/

Things in the stock market are very scary right now.