E.
Sugar mills for ethanol in diesel
Ajay Modi / New Delhi September 08, 2007
The issue of allowing the private sector to participate in nuclear power generation independently of the government has been put on the backburner with the Centre withdrawing a minor amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, from the Cabinet at the last moment.
Confirming this, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, “Before the meeting started, the amendment was withdrawn.”
The amendment would have enabled the private sector to take advantage of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement.
“We’re not even talking of getting the private sector to build nuclear reactors. At the moment, India can buy reactors only from other states. But there are several US companies that have the technology. This will need to be reviewed. But not now,” said a source.
The Atomic Energy Act, 1962, allows nuclear power generation only by a Central government company. In the Lok Sabha last month, replying to a question, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Prithviraj Chavan conceded that this would have to be reviewed through an amendment of the Act.
According to the existing law, private players can hold up to 49 per cent equity in any nuclear power generation company but the majority shares have to remain with the Centre.
A review of the Atomic Energy Act has been under consideration for the past 10 years. An expert committee, set up in 1997 under the chairmanship of scientist Raja Ramanna, had submitted its report in 1998.
This report was reviewed by an expert committee of the Department of Atomic Energy, which made some recommendations related to national security and strengthening the regulatory mechanism in the atomic energy sector.
NUKE FACTS
Nuclear Power Corporation of India is the sole company generating nuclear power in the country It is wholly owned by the Government of India Its current installed capacity of 4,120 Mw is about 3 per cent of the country's generation capacity Nuclear power capacity is proposed to be increased to 20,000 Mw by 2020 Operationalising civil nuclear cooperation could help India reach 40,000 Mw by 2020 Tata Power, Reliance Energy and GMR are keen to set up nuclear power plants, and so is the government-controlled thermal generation major NTPC Entry of new players who want to set up plants independent of the government (they can set up plants in which the government has majority holding even now) will require an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act - a process that requires a majority in both Houses of Parliament
*
Forest Chief Touts Ethanol to Power Cars
The U.S. Forest Service chief is proposing replacing 15 percent of the nation's gasoline with ethanol made from wood, while doubling the amount of carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by public and private forests.
"These are ambitious goals, and they would take a concerted national effort to reach," Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell said in remarks prepared for a speech before the Society of Environmental Journalists Friday night in San Francisco.
They also appear contradictory. But such a plan is consistent with President Bush's goal cutting gasoline use by 20 percent while expanding reliance on ethanol, which is a central part of his energy policy. He has sent Congress a proposal mandating the use of 35 billion gallons a year of "alternative" fuels, mostly ethanol, by 2017.
Kimbell said that "with the technologies now becoming available, we could replace as much as 15 percent of our current gasoline consumption with ethanol from wood — and not just any wood, but wood that is not now being used for other purposes."
In 2006, motorists used 143 billion gallons of gasoline, 136 billion gallons of which was produced by U.S. refineries.
Kimbell said small-diameter trees and underbrush can be used to heat homes, generate electricity and power cars.
"Forests can provide renewable bio-fuels that can replace fossil fuels like coal and oil," Kimbell said. "This will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere while diminishing our dependence on foreign fuel sources."
The Forest Service estimates that the nation's forests — both public and private — offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. "I propose a national effort to double that amount by 2020," Kimbell said.
While carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas, amounts of it have been increasing sharply since the beginning of the industrial age. It is produced by fossil fuels burned in manufacturing plants, motor vehicles and power plants.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, but the science for measuring how much is unsettled. The Forest Service manages 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands — an area equivalent to the size of Texas.
Asked how the nation could churn out vastly more wood for ethanol while rapidly growing more forests, Kimbell's spokeswoman, Allison Stewart, said in an interview Friday night that the wood for ethanol would come mainly from brush that the Bush administration's "healthy forests" law now requires to be thinned to prevent wildfires.
"A lot of our forests across our country are unhealthy because they're overstocked. There's a lot of unhealthy underbrush," Stewart said. "That's where we're talking about getting the bio-energy from. It's from the reduction of flammable fuels in the forests — instead of just burning it up in piles or grinding it up."
At the same time, Stewart said, the Forest Service is "doing a lot of replanting of new forests, where there are no forests now." Most of those, she added, are in areas cleared out by wildfires, floods and other calamities of nature.
The Forest Service already is teaming with the nonprofit National Forest Foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions by making charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. Several such reforestation projects have been identified in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and in the Payette National Forest in Idaho.
On the Net:
* Forest Service: http://www.fs.fed.us
Ajay Modi / New Delhi September 08, 2007
The issue of allowing the private sector to participate in nuclear power generation independently of the government has been put on the backburner with the Centre withdrawing a minor amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, from the Cabinet at the last moment.
Confirming this, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, “Before the meeting started, the amendment was withdrawn.”
The amendment would have enabled the private sector to take advantage of the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement.
“We’re not even talking of getting the private sector to build nuclear reactors. At the moment, India can buy reactors only from other states. But there are several US companies that have the technology. This will need to be reviewed. But not now,” said a source.
The Atomic Energy Act, 1962, allows nuclear power generation only by a Central government company. In the Lok Sabha last month, replying to a question, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Prithviraj Chavan conceded that this would have to be reviewed through an amendment of the Act.
According to the existing law, private players can hold up to 49 per cent equity in any nuclear power generation company but the majority shares have to remain with the Centre.
A review of the Atomic Energy Act has been under consideration for the past 10 years. An expert committee, set up in 1997 under the chairmanship of scientist Raja Ramanna, had submitted its report in 1998.
This report was reviewed by an expert committee of the Department of Atomic Energy, which made some recommendations related to national security and strengthening the regulatory mechanism in the atomic energy sector.
NUKE FACTS
*
Forest Chief Touts Ethanol to Power Cars
The U.S. Forest Service chief is proposing replacing 15 percent of the nation's gasoline with ethanol made from wood, while doubling the amount of carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by public and private forests.
"These are ambitious goals, and they would take a concerted national effort to reach," Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell said in remarks prepared for a speech before the Society of Environmental Journalists Friday night in San Francisco.
They also appear contradictory. But such a plan is consistent with President Bush's goal cutting gasoline use by 20 percent while expanding reliance on ethanol, which is a central part of his energy policy. He has sent Congress a proposal mandating the use of 35 billion gallons a year of "alternative" fuels, mostly ethanol, by 2017.
Kimbell said that "with the technologies now becoming available, we could replace as much as 15 percent of our current gasoline consumption with ethanol from wood — and not just any wood, but wood that is not now being used for other purposes."
In 2006, motorists used 143 billion gallons of gasoline, 136 billion gallons of which was produced by U.S. refineries.
Kimbell said small-diameter trees and underbrush can be used to heat homes, generate electricity and power cars.
"Forests can provide renewable bio-fuels that can replace fossil fuels like coal and oil," Kimbell said. "This will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere while diminishing our dependence on foreign fuel sources."
The Forest Service estimates that the nation's forests — both public and private — offset about 10 percent of carbon emissions in the United States. "I propose a national effort to double that amount by 2020," Kimbell said.
While carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas, amounts of it have been increasing sharply since the beginning of the industrial age. It is produced by fossil fuels burned in manufacturing plants, motor vehicles and power plants.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide, but the science for measuring how much is unsettled. The Forest Service manages 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands — an area equivalent to the size of Texas.
Asked how the nation could churn out vastly more wood for ethanol while rapidly growing more forests, Kimbell's spokeswoman, Allison Stewart, said in an interview Friday night that the wood for ethanol would come mainly from brush that the Bush administration's "healthy forests" law now requires to be thinned to prevent wildfires.
"A lot of our forests across our country are unhealthy because they're overstocked. There's a lot of unhealthy underbrush," Stewart said. "That's where we're talking about getting the bio-energy from. It's from the reduction of flammable fuels in the forests — instead of just burning it up in piles or grinding it up."
At the same time, Stewart said, the Forest Service is "doing a lot of replanting of new forests, where there are no forests now." Most of those, she added, are in areas cleared out by wildfires, floods and other calamities of nature.
The Forest Service already is teaming with the nonprofit National Forest Foundation to allow consumers to participate in a voluntary program to "offset" their carbon dioxide emissions by making charitable contributions that will be used to plant trees and do other work to improve national forests. Several such reforestation projects have been identified in the Custer National Forest in Montana and South Dakota and in the Payette National Forest in Idaho.
On the Net:
* Forest Service: http://www.fs.fed.us
posted by Alice at
Friday, September 07, 2007
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