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Alarming Report On Genetic Modification For Fuel Production
by Eric Brooks 11 Aug '09

11 Aug '09

Hi all, GeneWatch UK has just released a new report on the many proposed uses and dangers of using genetically engineered organisms to produce biofuels. Perhaps the most alarming section of the report is on the possibility of genetically modified micro-organisms being developed to be particularly aggressive at breaking down the crucial protective cellulose skeletal structure in plants. The report notes that these aggressive traits would be very useful to naturally occurring plant disease microbes, and it is quite possible that those aggressive cellulose decaying traits could be transfered to such wild microbes and therefore trigger extensive and more rapid plant die-offs. If such modified organisms were then to spread extensively in the wild planet-wide, they could trigger a mass rapid collapse in plant species. Such a mass die-off would vastly increase CO2 in the atmosphere, and conceivably could even result in a total collapse of virtually all life on the planet due to a catastrophic meltdown in the survival of plants. To read a four page summary of the report go to: http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Biofuels_… To look over the full 72 page report go to: http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Genewatch… peace Eric -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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More Biofuel Madness In SF (This Time Algae)
by Eric Brooks 06 Aug '09

06 Aug '09

Hi all, I regret to report yet another tale of biofuel madness from San Francisco; this time regarding algae. The story below (which actually naively promotes as good, an incredibly dangerous and frankly ridiculous idea) highlights just how much of a Frankenstein's monster algae based biofuel will become if we let it proceed any further. (Also note my public response comment at the end, for a concise blurb with which to challenge the nonsense proposed in the article..) http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=8950 <http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=8950> The algae solution /GREEN CITY: The San Francisco Bay may soon host a dramatic new environmental project/ By Gabrielle Poccia The San Francisco Bay may soon host a dramatic new environmental project that backers say could solve three problems at once: clean wastewater, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and produce biodiesel fuel. Yet it's gotten remarkably little attention. "For the most part, people are just ignoring me," says Jonathan Trent, a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, who is one of the driving forces behind the project. The new technology Trent and his colleagues have created is called OMEGA (Off-shore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae). The idea is to grow large colonies of freshwater algae in what amounts to large plastic bags floating in the bay. Wastewater from local sewage plants and carbon sequestered from power plants would provide food for the algae, which then produce oxygen and freshwater along with an oil that can be refined into fuel. The OMEGAs are giant semi-permeable membranes; the design allows freshwater in but keeps saltwater out. Using algae for biofuel isn't new --- there are a number of algae farms on land. But they require large amounts of real estate and fresh water and enough electricity to keep the water moving. In this case, light from the sun provides the energy, and the motion of the waves stirs the algae around. Trent is looking at ways to collect the freshwater that gets released by the OMEGAs --- potentially another major breakthrough for a state desperately short of water. Trent has shopped his project all over the world and many countries have showed interest, but he believes San Francisco is the perfect fit. "The people of San Francisco really have an enlightened attitude and are aware that something needs to be done to fix the problems we've created," he told us. "It's a great place to demonstrate to the world that this is a feasible technology." The OMEGA project still faces political hurdles. Trent recently survived an internal audit. And U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) has been critical of federal spending for biofuel projects. But the scientist isn't discouraged. "Actually I'm glad we have been audited," he said. "I've been able to get attention and show that not only does our system not use water, it actually produces clean water." On July 29 the project received approval for an $800,000 grant from the California Energy Commission. According to Trent, the approval for the grant was ready for approval months earlier, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to put it on hold because of the budget crisis. The CEC grant is coming just in time. A previous grant, from Google, was due to run out at the end of September. "We're optimistic that if people see that the CEC has invested, maybe others will want to invest," Trent said. "But we need more than just financial resources --- we need brain power as well. The next step is to find engineers to really make this a workable option." Trent would like to get a working model up and running within the next 18 months and hopes to see a full-scale operation in place in five years. San Francisco may be the first city to host OMEGA. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staffers have met with Trent and are cautiously optimistic. "Although it is just at the preliminary stages of discussion, it doesn't dampen our excitement about the project," said Tyrone Jue, spokesperson for the SFPUC. "We have to know what good we will get out of it and if it is feasible in this area." Environmentalists caution that it's far from a perfect solution to the planet's problems. Sierra Club staffer John Rizzo notes that "biofuels themselves are not a good solution. It's a good bridge, but they are still burned and create carbons that are bad for the planet." In the short term, however, it sure beats drilling for oil off the California coast. Wednesday August 5, 2009 ( 1 comment | Comment on this article <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=8950&catid=&volume_id=398&issue_id=4…>) *brookse* on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 11:18 PM You have got to be kidding... You are actually asking readers to believe that covering the bay with giant plastic bags, filled with sewage and genetically engineered algae (yes - genetically engineered - just do a good web search on algae biodiesel and you'll discover this little inconvenient reality); bags which also separate salt from the baywater leaving it unnaturally saline and therefore deadly to wildlife; bags which of course will end up leaking their toxic genetically engineered soup into the bay; you are seriously asking us to believe that this is actually a good thing... Readers, for the straight story about the incredible screwed-up-ness of the recent biofuel craze and how it is drastically messing up our planet even more quickly than global warming, go to the Biofuel Watch web site at: [link] <http://biofuelwatch.org.uk/> Eric Brooks San Francisco Green Party Sustainability Working Group *Comment on: The algae solution* In order to comment on an article, you must *Log In.* <http://www.sfbg.com/reg/login.php?_return=/entry.php?entry_id=8950> -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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Fuel From Factory Animal 'Waste' Parts & Factory Fishing 'By-Catch' Rising Threat
by Eric Brooks 29 Jul '09

29 Jul '09

Hello all, The shift to 'waste' animal parts based biodiesel is clearly becoming serious. You've seen my report about the Darling rendering plant in San Francisco. Last week there was a report about arctic shark and other 'by-catch' being used as biodiesel feedstock, and this week a NY Times report on chicken plucking remnants being turned into 'waste for fuel' biodiesel. See both reports below my signature. These are not isolated incidents. The 'biodiesel' industry, seeing that anti agrofuel organisers are successfully turning cities like Berkeley and Seattle away from its obviously unsustainable plant based biofuels, is desperately grasping for another feedstock that it can pawn off to the public as 'sustainable' 'waste' 'recycling'. It is clear they've decided that this feedstock is 'waste' animal parts and 'by-catch' from the incredibly environmentally destructive factory animal farming and factory fishing industries. This now makes our work to stop the local Darling animal biodiesel plant critically important to the entire planet; because San Francisco may well be the knock-out-the-keystone leverage point needed to flatly reject, as inherently un-sustainable, any fuels made from factory ag renderings and factory fishing by-catch. In the next few weeks, I am going to start an active coalition to oppose factory animal and fishing based biofuels and will need co-organizers. Please email me one-on-one at brookse32(a)aim.com if you are willing to attend a meeting once every two months or so to help organize against the alarming rise of these animal based franken-fuels. Keep in mind, right now it is shark, chickens, pigs and cows. How long will it be before Japan, or some other whaling country, decides to make biodiesel out of whale blubber? We are rapidly and truly reverting to the even more planet destroying nineteenth century energy paradigm if we don't put a stop to this now! Please RSVP. Eric Brooks - brookse32(a)aim.com Here are the reports: http://www.greendiary.com/entry/artek-plans-to-produce-biofuel-from-shark/ * ARTEK plans to produce biofuel from sharks* Aditi Justa <http://aditij.instablogs.com/> | Jul 20 2009 Researchers at the Arctic Technology Center in Sisimiut in Western Greenland are on their way to producing biofuel from sharks’ oily flesh. A lot of research and experiments are being undertaken for this purpose. The pilot project <http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jZYaPI6X7WN8mk_GAsM1-YGz…> funded by the EU in Uummannaq will use shark’s meat blended with wastewater and macro-algae to form a fish mince to be further used to produce biofuel. Thousands of Greenland sharks already lose their lives being trapped into the deadly nets of the anglers. Hence, it’s a sensible way to utilize the decaying bodies. In order to utilize these dead beasts in a better way, Joegensen will perform tests at the organic waste treatment plant. ARTEK’s innovative solution will produces biofuel <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel> from sharks and other sea products, which could provide 13 percent of energy consumption in the village of Uummannaq. Although it is claimed that the Greenland sharks are not in danger of extinction but the International Union for the Conservation of nature <http://www.iucn.org/> and the Danish branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature do not quite agree to this. Therefore, using sharks to produce biofuels does not sound like a very good idea. It would rather be better to look for some other sustainable energy alternatives. *The New York Times* July 28, 2009 A Recipe for Biodiesel, Plucked From Poultry By HENRY FOUNTAIN <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/henry_fountain…> Those researchers in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Nevada <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univers…> in Reno are at it again. Last year they showed the world that it was possible to make biodiesel <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/b/biofuels/ind…> fuel from coffee grounds. This time, it’s chicken feathers. In a paper <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf900140e> in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Mano Misra, Susanta K. Mohapatra and colleagues describe how they extracted fat from chicken feather meal and converted it into good-quality biodiesel. Feather meal, which is commonly used as fertilizer or animal feed, is a byproduct of large-scale poultry production and often includes blood and offal. It can contain up to 11 percent fat. The researchers extracted the fat by boiling the meal in water and converting it to biodiesel by a process called transesterification. They say that there is enough feather meal produced in the United States alone to create about 150 million gallons of biodiesel a year. That’s just a drop in the bucket, really, but the researchers note that most current production of biodiesel uses vegetable oil, and as demand for the fuel grows there is likely to be competition for the oil between food uses and fuel uses. Thus it’s important, the researchers say, to seek alternative sources for biodiesel production — with the goal, as they put it, of “food for hunger, waste for fuel.” Copyright 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html> The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/> -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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Sustainability/Transpo Meeting Next Monday?
by Eric Brooks 13 Jul '09

13 Jul '09

Hi all, Next Monday is the third Monday of the month (the date we set for joint Sustainability/Transpo meetings). My schedule is open, so I'm ready to be there for a meeting. Attendance on Monday's has been pretty low though. Do y'all want to go for next Monday, or try a different day/time? peace Eric -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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Sustain/Transpo Meeting?
by Eric Brooks 14 Jun '09

14 Jun '09

Hi all, I have been way too overwhelmed with campaign emergencies in the last few days to even think about lining up a meeting for Sustain/Transpo tomorrow. If folks want to meet, someone else should take the ball on this. peace Eric B -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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Berkeley Says Bye To Biodiesel
by Eric Brooks 12 Jun '09

12 Jun '09

http://www.contracostatimes.com/berkeleyvoice/ci_12536568?nclick_check=1 Berkeley says bye to biodiesel By Doug Oakley Berkeley Voice Posted: 06/06/2009 04:24:15 PM PDT Berkeley has ended its six-year attempt to save the world by burning biodiesel in its trucks and machinery amid concerns it actually increases greenhouse gases worldwide and exacerbates hunger. The city stopped receiving shipments of biodiesel derived from soy bean crops last month. The City Council will consider formalizing its policy on the matter in September. "Four years ago we looked at this and thought it was a really good idea to do biofuels when there were no crop-based biofuels, but the situation has changed beneath us," said Robert Clear a member of the city's Community Environmental Advisory Commission which recommended the city change its policy on biofuels. In 2003, the city started using 100 percent biodiesel in its more than 100 cars and trucks that run on diesel fuel. But that biodiesel was derived from recycled frying grease. Over the years, the supply changed to a crop-based biofuel. New thinking on that product and its implications for global warming have changed for the worse. Although biodiesel pollutes less than regular diesel when it comes out of a tail pipe, the farming involved to produce crop-based biofuels actually increases pollution worldwide, city officials say. Clear said American farmers who are now converting their crops to grow soy beans to meet the biodiesel demand are decreasing the amount of land used to grow food for people and cattle. That in turn has caused an increase in demand for land to grow food in South America and South East Asia where farmers are burning down virgin forests. The burning of the forests releases carbon into the atmosphere and there is a decrease in the amount of carbon the plants suck out of the atmosphere: two big negatives for global warming. Add that to the fact that American farmers are growing less food because they are using their land for biodiesel production and you have a crimp on worldwide food supplies that contributes to global hunger problems. Both of those issues are something Berkeley policy makers don't want on their save-the-world agenda even though local pollution is reduced when their trucks are burning biodiesel. "It no longer looks like a thing to encourage," Clear said. "It's really too bad, because we'd love to see some magic bullets." One option is going back to using biodiesel from recycled fryer grease, but there just isn't enough of it to go around and it's hard on the engines, said Deputy Public Works Director Andrew Clough. In 2005 the city had two diesel truck engines explode when the city got a bad batch of biodiesel made from recycled fryer grease. "Right now it doesn't sound like there is a good option," Clough said. "What seemed like a really good idea maybe isn't such a good idea as we thought because of all the considerations." Reach Doug Oakley at doakley(a)bayareanewsgroup.com <mailto:doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com> ### -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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Fwd: Currently: In the Green Room with Gavin Newsom
by Ann Garrison 06 Jun '09

06 Jun '09

Here's the actual notice re Gavin on a Green ticket, with a capital "G." Seems to me like that---the capital "G"---should be cause for complaint. > From: Current TV <yourfriends(a)community.current.com> > Date: June 5, 2009 10:08:37 PM PDT > To: anniegarrison(a)mac.com > Subject: Currently: In the Green Room with Gavin Newsom > Reply-To: yourfriends(a)community.current.com > > > This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, > click here to view. > > > Take Control of the Conversation > Current Green interviews Gavin Newsom > > Current Green is just about ready to roll out a brand new live- > streamed web show about all things green called "The Green Room." > This new web-only show will be hosted by Leah Lamb and will feature > eco-minded friends from around the web (such as Treehugger, > Huffington Post Green, Daily Grist, and more). We're kicking off > The Green Room with a live interview with Gavin Newsom, the San > Francisco Mayor who is running for Governor of California on a > Green ticket. > > The live-streamed interview will take place on Thursday, June 11th, > and Current wants YOU to take control of the conversation! What > should we ask Gavin? You decide what environmental topics this > political leader should address. So, submit your questions now! > Then vote on the ones you want us to ask. And don't forget to watch > live on Current Green on June 11th at noon PDT. > > Not sure what to ask? Watch Mr. Newsom discuss solar energy and how > we can implement in our own homes. Or let Mr. Newsom tell you about > hip, cool electric vehicles. He also gets into what's next in the > green world. > > Now get on it! Submit your questions. Go back and vote. And watch > Leah Lamb and Gavin Newsom live on Current Green, June 11th at noon > PDT. > > Brigett > Online Marketing > current.com | facebook | twitter © 2009 current. all rights > reserved. > This email was sent from Current TV at 118 King Street, San > Francisco, CA 94107. To opt out of future emails, click this link. >

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Gavin Newsom running on a Green ticket
by Ann Garrison 06 Jun '09

06 Jun '09

According to Current TV, in an e-mail they sent me "We're kicking off The Green Room with a live interview with Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco Mayor who is running for Governor of California on a Green ticket." The Green Room is Current's new show. They're asking audience to submit questions to ask Green ticket Gavin Newsom for 06./11 netcast: http://current.com/topics/88918209_green-questions-for-gavin-newsom/

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Please call Mark Leno about the offshore oil drilling leases.
by Ann Garrison 05 Jun '09

05 Jun '09

This is a repeat request, but I've been studying this and realized that the consequences are potentially much worse than I thought, though I'm gonna skip the details for now. PLEASE CALL MARK LENO, at all of his #s: say you don't want the legislation that would grant new offshore drilling leases off the coast of Santa Barbara to get out of the State Budget Conference Committee, which he's on. This is not gonna do a thing for the budget; Schwarzenegger and the oil interests are just using budget panic to scare everyone into agreeing. I think it's quite possible that this could lead to a lot more leases before Schwarzenegger's out of office, if it gets out of this committee and the legislature passes it. Capitol (916) 651-4003 State Capitol, Room 4061 Sacramento, CA 95814 San Rafael (415) 479-6612 Marin Civic Center 3501 Civic Center Drive Suite 425 San Rafael, CA 94903 San Francisco (415) 557-1300 455 Golden Gate Avenue Suite 14800 San Francisco, CA 94102

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Mark Leno plays a big role in the decision about more oil drilling off the California coast
by Ann Garrison 02 Jun '09

02 Jun '09

Someone in Pedro Nava's office told me that they'd see whether the budget legislation that would extend oil drilling leases off the coast of Santa Barbara, to try to solve the state budget crisis, gets out of committee in the next two weeks. If it does, they'll probably vote on it before the end of the month. Mark Leno is on this State Budget Conference Committee that will or won't send it to a vote: Assemblymember Noreen Evans (Democrat - Santa Rosa) - Chair Assemblymember Kevin de León (Democrat - Los Angeles) Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (Democrat - Woodland Hills) Assemblymember Roger Niello (Republican - Fair Oaks) Assemblymember Jim Nielsen (Republican - Gerber) The State Senate members of the Budget Conference Committee are: Senator Denise Ducheny (Democrat - San Diego) Senator Mark Leno (Democrat - San Francisco) PH: (916) 651-4003 Senator Alan Lowenthal (Democrat - Long Beach) Senator Bob Dutton (Republican - Rancho Cucamonga) Senator Mimi Walters (Republican - Laguna Hill

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