International Institute for Ecological Agriculture

May 29, 2009 member eNewsletter

IIEA is now offering valuable prize rewards to thorough newsletter readers. IIEA member's will find that we have embedded in the newsletter three prize winner IDs in the form of a partial email name ("dBlume@" as an example), an affiliate ID number, and a four or six-digit coupon code from an Alcohol Can Be a Gas! book (find yours in the upper right-hand box of the Alcoholics Unanimous card in the back between pages 548 and 549).

This week's prize will be $150.00 discount on our alcohol-fuel car conversion kits. Any IIEA member could win, (and three careful readers will) so keep reading, friends! To claim your prize, please phone Linda at 831-471-9164.

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Alcohol Can Be a Gas! News

1) Press Release: National Workshops Announcement

2) Hotel Discount Details for Madison-Area Attendees 

3) Workshop Course Curriculum

4) Book Review: Professional Engineering Magazine

5) Article by David Blume: Gas Prices Are Up!

National News

6) Oil, Gas and Coal Industry Spending an Admitted $42 Million Against Climate Bill

7) Oil Prices High Enough To Hurt 

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Alcohol Can Be a Gas! News

1) Press release: National Workshops Announcement

I.I.E.A., WIsconsin Farmers Union and the Wisconsin state OFFICE OF energy Independence sponsor David Blume’s Rural and Urban Economic revitalization workshops

Permaculture and Alcohol Fuel Production Provide Fast-track for Development of Sustainable Food, Biofuel and Related By-Product Businesses

Madison, WI. May 28, 2009. – The International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA) announced today that it is working with the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence along with agencies and groups across the region to present its next series of educational workshop programs. The two-day Intensive workshops, (June 27 and 28 in Osseo, WI and July 6 and 7 in Madison, WI) promote rural and urban economic revitalization and non-exportable job creation through the optimized production of food and fuel source crops and related by-products.

The workshops will be led by David Blume, renowned Permaculture and Biofuels expert and author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas. Mr. Blume, is the recent author recipient of the American Corn Growers Association’s Truth in Agricultural Journalism award, and will teach attendees how they can:
·    Earn federal and state renewable energy tax incentives that can offset as much as 80% of the startup costs for a small-scale alcohol fuel business.
·    Beat the fuel and food price increases predicted for 2009.
·    Produce clean alcohol fuel for less than a dollar per gallon from waste, toxic and spoiled food, common weeds, as well as high-return crops.

“Because of our current economic climate, farmers everywhere are struggling,” said Sue Beitlich, President of the Wisconsin Farmers Union. “At WFU we are working diligently to help provide our members and community with the knowledge and means to improve our local and regional economic outlook. David Blume’s workshop provides proven systems based on agriculture science that will enhance and optimize food and fuel source crop production. That knowledge can help Wisconsin farmers build new businesses and become leaders in the sustainable energy movement.”

The two day workshops will be held Saturday and Sunday June 27 and 28 at the Osseo-Fairchild High School in Osseo WI and Monday and Tuesday July 6 and 7 at the Madison Area Technical College, (Truax Campus) in Madison WI. The open-to-the-public programs present an ideal launch pad for green business entrepreneurs, activists, farmers, and people everywhere who are interested in developing their own energy independence and taking control of their economic future. For more information on the workshop program and schedule  please visit http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/store/alcohol_workshops

“People attending the David Blume workshops will gain a comprehensive understanding of alcohol fuel production and the related byproduct opportunities it creates,” said Maria Redmond Biofuels Sector Specialist, Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence. “David is one of the leading advocates for sustainable energy independence and he provides a comprehensive and practical look at what we can do today to start a ‘green’ energy business from resources that are available here in Wisconsin.”

Organizations including the Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Wisconsin Office of Energy Independence, American Corn Growers Association and the Center for Sustainable Communities are supporting Blume’s workshops as the answer to the economic depression that is stifling virtually every industry and market in America today.

Blume’s Alcohol Can Be a Gas!  has ranked as Amazon.com’s top-selling automotive and sustainable agriculture book for the last 8 months and serves as the course book for the coming “Two Days to Energy Independence” workshop.

For more information about Mr. Blume, IIEA, or coming workshops, contact Tom Harvey theCommunications • (530) 257-3533 • thcommunications@gmail.com, or visit www.permaculture.com.

2)Hotel Discount Details for Osseo and Madison Event Attendees

Great news for those travelling a distance to attend the Wisconsin Workshops

If you are traveling to Osseo:

The Osseo Inn
Regular Rate $67.95 per night
Mention IIEA/ David Blume
For $10.00 per night discount

12830 Cox Lane, Osseo, WI 54758
Phone: 1 866-228-1950
Click here for Map

5 minute walk to Osseo-Fairchild High School
Nearest Airports
Chippewa Valley Regl- 27 mi, 30 min drive

Neighborhood
Location: 18 mi from Eau Claire.  Suburban.  Near Highway.
Dining: Restaurant & Bar On Site

If you are traveling to Madison:

The DoubleTree Madison Hotel is offering a SPECIAL DISCOUNT RATE
for Conference Attendees: rooms that are regularly $159-169 a night
are available to us for $119 per night, for up to 4 in a room! Guess where we’ll be staying? Following is the information on reserving your room:

TO MAKE GROUP RESERVATIONS ONLINE:
Go to www.doubletreemadison.com
Enter dates of stay
On dates and preferences page
Go to “Special accounts”
Enter the following group/convention code: "NEW"

TO MAKE GROUP RESERVATIONS VIA PHONE:
Call 1-800-222-TREE
Give agent dates of stay and the following group code: "NEW"
OR
Call 608-251-5511
Give agent dates of stay and the following group code: "NEW"

3)Outline for Two-Day Intensive Alcohol Fuel Production & Use Workshop

Presented by permaculture and biofuels expert and author David Blume

Day One:

Introduction
• State of current fuel situation
• Peak Oil and what it means
• The environmental effects of fossil fuels and post-petroleum fossil-alternative fuels proposed:
oil shale, tar sands, coal, methane hydrates, hydrogen and nuclear power
• History of alcohol fuel use around the world, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the present day
• Where and how alcohol fuel is being used today and in the near future

Busting the Myths
• Does it take more energy to produce alcohol than you get from it?
• Can we produce enough?
• Do we have to choose between food or fuel?
• Is ethanol practical without tax subsidies?
• Does ethanol increase pollution or global warming?

Agriculture and Ethanol
• How energy crops grow
• Soil, water, photosaturation, monoculture versus polyculture
• Energy crops
• Discussion of many crops that can be used for fuel
• How to select feedstocks for alcohol production
• Farmers
• Waste products
• Urban/suburban feedstock choices
• Feedstock preparation and fermentation
• The sugar method
• The starch method
• Cellulosic feedstocks
• Advanced techniques

Distillation
• Primer on heat and energy
• Distillery design and principles
• Vacuum distillation
• Continuous distillation
• Alternative sources of energy for distillation
• Azeotropic distillation—getting the last 4% of water out of your ethanol

Alcohol Co-Products
• Animal feeds
• Fertilizer/compost
• Mushroom production
• Aquaculture
• Mariculture
• Earthworm products
• Methane
• Carbon dioxide
• Single-cell protein
• Yeast
• Surplus heat
• Biomass fuels

Designing Your Integrated Feed/Fuel Operation
• Micro-plants (less than 10,000 gallons)
• Small plants (10,000 to 100,000 gallons)
• Medium plants (1 to 5 million gallons)
• Selecting equipment
• Tanks, pumps, grinders, agitators, heat exchangers, methane digesters, safety, and storage
• Alcohol versus gasoline as a fuel
• Myths about ethanol as a fuel
• Burns hotter, emissions, mileage, corrosion, blending
• Alcohol and octane
• Starting alcohol engines in cold weather

Day Two:

Converting Carbureted Engines
• Main metering
• Idle
• Acceleration
• General carburetor issues
• Electronic carbs

Converting Fuel-Injected Engines
• History of fuel injection and how it works
• General issues of alcohol and fuel injection
• Oxygen sensor, catalytic converters, and EFI
• Throttle body and multiport fuel injection
• Older fuel injection systems
• Newer fuel injection systems

Coldstart Systems for E-100
• Addition of volatiles
• Use of a coldstart device—multiple strategies

Tuning for Alcohol
• How ignition timing works
• Making timing changes
• Mechanical systems
• Electronic systems

Assorted Conversion Enhancements
• Taking advantage of alcohol’s properties
• Increasing mileage
• Increasing horsepower
• High-compression conversions
• Mechanical
• Non-mechanical

Smaller Engines
• Motorcycles
• Utility engines
• Two-stroke engines

Flex-Fuel and Dual-Fuel Systems
• Origins of ?ex-fuel and E-85
• Basics of system design
• Modi?cation of ?ex-fuels for better mileage
• Variable-compression FFVs
• Propane/alcohol dual-fuel

Cogeneration
• Producing both electricity and heat from your alcohol
• Cooking, cooling, and other ways to reduce energy use with alcohol

Diesel Engines and Alcohol
• Five methods for conversion

The Business of Alcohol
• Economics
• Tax credits
• Legal considerations
• Business structures
• Legalities of car conversion
• Legalities in production
• Filling out the federal alcohol, tobacco, and ?rearms permit
• Dealing with local permitting

Community-Supported Energy
• Driver-owned stations
• How to set one up
• How to set up a CSE farmer/consumer system

Taking Action
• Where do you go from here?

4)Book Review: Professional Engineering Magazine

http://www.profeng.com/archive/archive+2009/2201/22010050M.htm

Alcohol Is the Way Forward

John Clark
Shedfield, Southampton

Tom Roberts raises the very important subject of permaculture (PE 10 December) and need have no worries that this subject is “very ‘leftie’ for an engineering publication” as I will endeavour to explain.

One of his fellow US citizens, David Blume, has devoted the past 30 years of his life to the development of permaculture particularly its use in the production of alcohol (ethanol). Blume’s late colleague in this work was the well-known R Buckminster Fuller. In his magnum opus entitled ‘Alcohol Can Be A Gas’ David Blume states: “We can easily use alcohol fuel to power diesel engines, trains, aircraft, small utility engines, generators to make electricity, heaters for our homes – and it can even be used to cook our food.”

Having worked my way through most of this 600-page tome and watched recordings of several interviews he has given I am convinced we ignore this alternative energy source at our peril. (muel.kephart@) Oil and uranium if they do not run out will become increasingly more scarce and expensive, quite apart from the moral issue of whether the present generation has the right to use up all these non renewable resources.

Alcohol production in the way he proposes (and does it) requires no new techniques, no huge expensive production facilities and is ideally suited to small local plants. It would solve, as Tom Roberts also acknowledges, the problems associated with our current industrial farming methods by making the land more fertile, obviating the need for most pesticides, also herbicides and make the land more productive.

David Blume seems to have proved all this but as he also points out the opposition from vested interests will be, and is already, enormous. At present there do not seem to be politicians out there with the necessary courage who are prepared to take up this challenge.

In my view eventually there will simply be no alternative but to take this route being cheaper, more reliable, CO2 absorbing, not destructive to the environment and hugely more beneficial in many other directions than are any present alternative energy sources.

I recommend a visit to the website www.permaculture.com which has and leads to a wealth of information on this fascinating, and yes, very much an engineering subject.

5)Article by David Blume

Gas Prices Are Up: A Recipe for Cooking the American Consumer in Boiling Oil

As I have documented in my book Alcohol Can Be A Gas! and reported in recent  articles and interviews, it is a fact that oil prices always drop steeply before an election and rapidly ratchet back up following inaugurations with no political pushback. There are no repercussions because most elected officials are too grateful for the funding they’ve been receiving over the course of the campaign and because Big Oil is cunning enough to drop its prices heading into election periods. They do this to drop below the current issues horizon line the media decides to focus public attention on during elections (such as the debate over the types of ties worn, candidate high school and college party affiliations as well as practices; you know the real relevant stuff campaigns give way to as they progress). 

The best example of price manipulation by Big Oil in current times was the 2006 midterm election in which the price of oil started inexorably rising the very day after the election. I have this documented and can provide charts that track oil and gas prices through this period, but that really isn’t the focus of this piece.

In this article I am looking at the fact that, since President Obama and his team have taken office, and more specifically since February 12, 2009, the price of oil has risen about 1% per day (a whopping 45% increase) and yet no one is alarmed or talking about the new cost of living increase the petroleum industry has injected into the veins of our struggling economy.

Regardless of the strategy, the results are the same for Big Oil, it is making bank, though admittedly the tactics used to get there now look more like a recipe from a French cookbook rather than a page from Rockefeller’s rules of capitalism.

Coming into the recent election if you were in the oil business you had to notice that every new speech then candidate Obama gave, touched on eliminating America’s dependence on fossil fuels (yikes, that is your bread and butter).  Given that most Presidents have a honeymoon period after the election in which they can pass almost anything they propose, the last thing you want to do if you are Big Oil is put yourself in the gunsights of White House sharpshooters drafting renewable energy legislation. Thus the prudent course of action (as unsavory as it may be to the many stockholders that have become addicted to dividends based on $140 a barrel oil price) is to drop prices back to a market relief level.

Even though that temporary price drop means making some millions less than you’d like to record, if you were the present Oilygarchy, you would have to take comfort in knowing that while there is a tumultuous cry and hue regarding failing banks, industries and individuals, you are not among those. In fact, with a little patience you can regain the momentary set back by gradually raising the price of oil essentially deep-frying the unaware consumers as they sit shell shocked by the present economic condition.

It appears to me that the Oilygarchy feels they are just about out of the woods and into the kitchen now since the price of oil has begun to heat steadily.  (code#12972) The U.S. is wallowing in the worst depression since the 1930’s, yet miraculously (and allegedly) through the recent record setting cold winter, we didn’t use as much oil as we needed last summer. The lack of demand supposedly explains last Fall’s price reduction, but with no transportation index data to support a demand increase theory, the demand must be up, e.g. (so is the price of crude).

On February 12, 2009 the daily price of oil was at $33.98 a barrel.  As of today, Tuesday April 7, 2009 the price of crude is $49.08 or a 45% increase in just 53 days. When you put it in black and white like this it’s a bit shocking. 

It is as if the Oilygarchy chefs have summoned up the old “cooked frog” recipe and while the American consumer has been mesmerized with news about the myriad other economic failures and of course the war, we are being boiled alive. If this had happened instantly right after the election we American consumers would be outraged. We would have jumped out of the pot and started screaming to our elected leaders and Representatives about monopolies and price fixing.  But, as I pointed out earlier, the Oilygarchy chef’s now know this and like the recipe for cooking the hapless amphibian they have gradually raised the price of oil slowly and steadily. Instead of facing a public that is recoiling in anger from the price heat, the media and we consumers have been deliriously bobbing about it the warming oil over the last month and a half, preoccupied with bailouts, job losses and whether the President’s wife is wearing too many sleeveless dresses.

The rate of the current oil price increase has been about 1.2%.  That’s the price increase PER DAY not per year.  This steep climb however has not been perceived clearly since the price of gasoline has been inexplicably disconnected from the price of oil, making it hard for the public to track this steady increase.  Gasoline prices have vacillated up and down a few cents at a time so in an average week you can’t really get a sense of what is going on, but when you stand back you can see we are back on the usual post election track. So John Q. Frog doesn’t quite notice the change in temperature and thinks everything is okay when it comes to the price of fuel.

There is another important fact to note here and that is: world oil production has been flat for the last 3 years with no new refineries coming on line and with all the current refineries running at nearly 98% capacity. This means we have virtually no reserve in the oil system. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for global population growth and its resultant insatiable demand for energy that continues to increase every day (despite what oil companies tell us).  In fact, in October 2008, during the steepest part of the economic meltdown, US oil use did NOT go down, it went up by 10,000 barrels per day.  So the relief the public has experienced with artificially low oil prices cannot go on forever and it looks like prices are now off to the races again.

If the current per day the increase in the price of oil continues, by early June we will hit the OPEC target price of over $80 a barrel.  About that time the supertankers rented by Morgan Stanley, Citicorp, et all, full of taxpayer bailout funded $33/barrel oil, will sail into our Gulf ports earning the profiteers billions of dollars.

In the meantime, the Oilygarchy Chef’s hope all of us croakers have a nice swim in MegaOilron’s hot tub and buy a new SUV while we’re are at it.  If high prices, funding wars and polluting the planet don’t sound that attractive and you are ready to jump out of the pot you might consider switching your vehicle over to flex fuel, making it able to run on alcohol fuel or gasoline. 

Alcohol fuel’s projected retail price increase over the next year is less than 10 cents a gallon. That means it could cost as little as $1.20 a gallon after tax credits in some states like Oregon and Illinois.  The federal tax credit for installing an alcohol station just went up from 30% to 50% with the new stimulus package and when the new Energy Bill is ready hopefully there will be other deep incentives to wean America off of volatile and monopoly controlled climate destroying oil.

We can make a change and we can get our butts out of the stewpot, but we have to be aware of what is going on and what we can do. Join the forums on www.alcoholcanbeagas.com or join your local Farm to Fuel organization and let’s take back our future now. The Alcohol Fuel revival is ON!

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National NEWS

6)Obama's Key Climate Bill Hit by $45M PR Campaign

Surge in oil, gas and coal industry lobbying against Democratic leadership on "cap and trade" legislation
US President Barack Obama during a tour of the solar array at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Photograph: Charles Ommanney/Getty Images
America's oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama's plan to build a clean energy economy.
The spoiler campaign runs to hundreds of millions of dollars and involves industry front groups, lobbying firms, television, print and radio advertising, and donations to pivotal members of Congress. Its intention is to water down or kill off plans by the Democratic leadership to pass "cap and trade" legislation this year, which would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
A defeat for the bill would have global consequences. (CD305) The international community is depending on America, as the world's biggest per capita polluter, to set out a firm plan for getting off dirty fuels in the months before crucial UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
Without such action, the chances of getting a deal that scientists say is vital to limiting dangerous climate change are much reduced.
Suzanne Goldenberg reports on US fossil fuel firms PR blitz. Link to this audio. Those high stakes have intensified the fight for control over America's energy future. "There are an awful lot of people who have an awful lot to gain and lose and they have been acting accordingly," said Evan Tracey, founder of the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), who has tracked the proliferation of climate change ads.

But it is an unequal contest. Liberal and environmental organizations, as well as the major corporations that support climate change legislation, say they are being vastly outspent by fossil fuel interests.

"These guys are spending a billion dollars this year convincing Americans that they are clean, green, cuddly and warm," said Bob Perkowitz, founder of the eco- America PR firm. Perkowitz is to brief the White House yesterday on a new environmental messaging strategy. "The enviros are getting their message out, but they are being outspent by 10 to one." he said.On advertising, the ratio is about three to one. The oil and coal industry spent $76.1m on ads from 1 January to 27 April, according to CMAG data seen by the Guardian. Environmental groups, led by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, the Environmental Defence Fund and the Sierra Club, spent $28.6m on ads in the same period, Tracey said.

Despite its global significance, the fate of the draft "cap and trade" bill now lies in the hands of just a dozen Democrats, who have yet to back Obama's energy transformation. The Democratic leadership cannot take their support for granted. Seven of those pivotal Democrats received campaign donations in excess of $100,000 from the oil and gas industry, coal producers, and electricity firms during last year's elections, according to an analysis provided to the Guardian by the Centre for Responsive Politics. Another two received more than $90,000 last year.

Environmentalists say those Democrats, who hold the balance of power on the committee, pose a far greater threat to the chances of passing climate change legislation than a full vote in the House of Representatives. "If they can get that bill through the subcommittee what is going to emerge is a piece of legislation," said Tony Kreindler of the Environmental Defence Fund. "So this is ground zero for the vote."
   

7)Oil Prices: High Enough to Help, High Enough to Hurt

May 8, 2009, 2:32 PM ET - Wall Street Journal Oil Prices

Clean-energy types (and environmentalists) have been hoping oil prices go back up, to recover some of the momentum clean energy lost thanks to the economic meltdown.

But now that crude prices are indeed sneaking up to $60 a barrel—New York futures are up about 2% and dancing all around the $58 mark—the worry is pricier crude could short-circuit any economic recovery.

JP Morgan, in a research note today, estimates that a $10 a barrel increase in oil prices sustained over a one-month period takes $5.5 billion from consumer and industry pockets. “In the current fragile economic state, that may be an unnecessary shock,” the bank says in a research note.

Using J.P. Morgan’s rule of thumb, higher crude prices have nicked about $15 billion since Christmas. If oil keeps rising, it could improve the outlook for everything from wind farms to General Motor’s makeover—provided rising oil doesn’t poleax the economic recovery first.

So the question becomes: Is this rally for real, or a house of cards? Oil bulls see signs of demand recovery everywhere: Lower-than-expected inventory builds in the U.S.; less-awful-than-expected jobless numbers; record Chinese car sales in April. Top that off with OPEC’s continued efforts to fully cut oil production, even as non-OPEC countries watch their production too, and oil bulls think $70 oil is a real possibility.

Bears see huge oil inventories everywhere, which adds up to a supply overhang so big that denting it would call for a serious recovery in demand.

Deutsche Bank said Friday that OPEC should cut production further to help get rid of all that excess oil, but probably won’t now that prices have been rising.

We’ll get an idea next week, when the International Energy Agency releases its monthly oil-market report. If the IEA bucks recent trends and stops revising downward its global forecasts of oil demand, bulls might rejoice. On the other hand, if the IEA keeps its pessimistic hat on, oil’s rally might get checked yet.

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