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Well, we could simply overwhelm here if every single energy releated news item that we bumped into made it into these electrons.  But, there are tremendously interesting things going on in a huge range of domains.  Just discussed blogged a discussion of algae bio-diesel the other day and today I bump into PetroSun’s plans to test open cultivation of algae along the Gulf Coast.

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When people talk about X million target solar roofs, I sometimes interject that I really want solar car ports and solar cell covered parking lots. I’ll be happy with the roofs being white reflective, with good skylights, and rain capture. When it comes to office buildings and stores, I would prefer the solar cells to be used to cover the parking lots.

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Truly, plug-in vehicles look to be a key near term leap forward toward a better energy future in the transportation system.  The Chevy Volt made a splash as a potential PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) for the passenger market.  Now, an effort is surfacing to do this with utility vehicles and vans in southern California.

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Algae bio-diesel has been gaining increasing attention in the past several years.   Algae has relatively high oil content, after processing the remnants can be used for other things (even burning for electricity, with the ash as fertilizer), and the path to producing algae ‘seems’ so straightforward:  water, sunlight, and nutrients.  And, one of algae’s great potential benefits is filtering emissions from fossil-fuel plants to, in essence, get double service (or more) from the carbon emissions.

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Perhaps the name is right — Diesel, as in diesel fuel that is helping warm the world, has an aggressive and ever so hip ad campaign that shows us that living in a world suffering the havoc of Global Warming doesn’t, after all, need to mean that we won’t be fashionable.  After all, one of the great philosophers once said: “It doesn’t matter how you feel, it matters how you look … and you look marrrvelous, darrrling …

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Now who wouldn’t want to be decked out like that when visiting the Great Wall of China?

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The Energize America 20 point plan for a prosperous and sustainable energy future has been building attention through its development here at Daily Kos and in the time since a group of four Kossacks briefed EA2020 at Yearly Kos 2006, with Governor Richardson as a commentator on the panel with us. What in the world, however, is anyone other than Jerome a Paris doing with Energize America in the diary title?

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Well … We are embarking, as a team — and, we hope, as a community, on a huge leap forward. A senior member of Congress has approached and met with the Energize America team. We have been asked to turn many of the EA2020 Acts and concepts into draft bills for legislative action.

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Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International in Houston and author of Twilight in the Desert (on Saudi oil), has publically stated his belief that we have passed peak oil.

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When reading The Washington Post, one has to wonder at the extent of schizophrenia within its pages when it comes to the issue of Global Warming.  On the same day that it published Humans Faulted For Global Warming (an article on the IPCC report) on its front page, its letters to the editor included one from the Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute — one of the prime Global Warming skeptic organizations. This letter, Bad Science Behind Al Gore’s ‘Truth’ is rhetorical and with little basis, from what this reader can see, in a reality-based analysis of the world’s situation and potential paths forward.

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There are amazing resources on the web, with new wonderful sites coming on my radar scope multiple times a day. World Changing is one of those magnificent sites.

They have a philosophy there of focusing solely on issues, concepts, and actions that offer the opportunity for turning the world toward a better path for tomorrow.

After touring dieoff or finding other eloquently written reasons to be depressed with Jim Kunstler, it is time to head to WorldChanging to swim amid reasons for hope for positive change and to learn about something that I hadn’t thought of prior to open the website that day …

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Bank of America has expanded its program to subsidize employee hybrid purchases.   Work at least 20 hours a week for Bank of America and you’re eligible for $3000 to go with that hybrid purchase (but watch out for the payroll and income tax implications).  Marrying up with tax benefits for buying a hybrid and Bank of America eliminates the Cost to Buy penalty for a hybrid, making that Cost to Own benefit come true for day one.

And, the employees recognize this …

“Our associates were very enthusiastic about this program and have responded well to the opportunity,” said Anne Finucane, Bank of America chief marketing officer and head of the company’s environmental council. “In fact, since we launched the program and within the three cities where it was piloted, hybrid vehicle purchases by our associates have more than quadrupled. The program continues to expand our commitment to the environment and offers our associates a way to participate in making a difference while cutting down on their commuting costs.”

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