Joseph Miglietta Response to Ethanol Debate Challenge

Introduction Joseph Miglietta, a chemical engineer and chemist, responded to my Ethanol Debate Challenge. I look forward to the exchange of ideas. His response is posted below, with nothing changed except for some formatting. Joseph, […]

Compressed Air Energy Storage

I have always been a big fan of wind power. But one of the knocks on wind is that it is intermittent. Since electrical demand probably won’t match up very well with wind fluctuations, installed […]

Ethanol Debate Challenge

Suggested Debate Guidelines My opinions on grain ethanol are clear from my previous essays. I object to grain ethanol because I feel it is a tremendous misallocation of time, money, and resources, while the benefits […]

Daschle and Khosla Ethanol Propaganda

I just read an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times by Tom Daschle and Vinod Khosla. The editorial is Miles Per Cob, (1) and is one of the dumbest things I have run across […]

60 Minutes – The Ethanol Solution

I just finished watching the 60 Minutes piece on ethanol production. Wow. What a puff piece. I thought at least I might see some attempt at balance. But there was no mention of the disadvantages […]

Debunking the Debunkers

There are a few things I have learned over the years regarding the relationship between the public and oil companies. The public seems to have an especially strong distaste for oil companies, and especially Big […]

Bio-Butanol

Butanol Production Process In my previous job, I worked for a major chemical company for seven years. For six of those years, I worked on various processes to produce butanol. This included roles in R&D, […]

I Can Drive 55

When I was a bit younger, and Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55” would come on my car radio, I always found myself easing the speed up higher and higher. I would ease up to […]

I’m Being Gouged!

Where’s the Outrage? They reported profits today of $2.89 billion in the first quarter on revenues of $10.9 billion. Their profit margin on sales was 26.5%! I was expecting outrage. Yet I haven’t heard anyone […]