Now That Corporations Are People…
Oil Exports, Bad For The Planet, Suprisingly Bad For The People Of Oil Exporting Countries
I have heard the argument before that oil production is great, because it helps feed people in other countries, or it helps enrich poor nations, or it helps drive the economy of third world nations. None of which seems to be true.
Some facts from Oxfam:
• Over 60 percent of the world’s poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources – but they rarely share the wealth.
• 12 of the world’s 25 most mineral-dependent countries and six of the world’s most oil-dependent countries are classified by the World Bank as “highly indebted poor countries.”
• In Africa, about 3/4 of the continent’s trade relates to the natural resource sector. In 2003, US investment in African oil exceeded 10 billion per year, some 2/3 to 3/4 of all its total investment in the continent.
• African oil exporters are likely to receive $400 billion in government revenues over the next decade, an amount that would dwarf feasible increases in official aid.
• By 2015, oil revenues in oil-producing countries could exceed annual aid needs by $35 billion.
• In Angola, more than $4 billion in state oil revenues disappeared from government coffers between 1997 and 2002, an amount roughly equal to the entire sum the government spent on social programs in the same period.
However a much better plan would be one where the poor countries are able to export a product that NEVER runs out, they could count on this revenue for basically the foreseeable future. That is just what Northern African countries are planning with Europe. (see here and here)
Obama On Clean Energy
I agree with everything he has laid out here, I am still concerned that he even mentioned clean coal and off shore drilling (not in this video). The part where you see half the chamber stand up and clap, you will notice that the republicans remain seated. I fear that being the party of NO is going to be the downfall of the republicans, I can only shake my head in wonder at why they don’t realize it as well.
France Opens First CO2 Capture Site, Lets Hope It Works
I have deep reservations about co2 capture technology, mostly because I am afraid of what will happen if it were to all suddenly leak out. But I feel it also makes people feel like they simply can continue to burn fossil fuels, global warming, or no global warming, the burning of carbon based fuels is highly problematic (peek oil, ocean acidification, wars over fuels, etc). The inauguration of the first European pilot integrating the entire process of capturing and storing CO2, the main greenhouse gas responsible for the planet’s global warming, will be held on the Lacq site in France.
Click to see animation of how the process works
Air Liquide is the technological partner of this industrial project operated by Total.
CO2 capture, transport and storage are promising approaches, pointed up by international experts, to preserving the planet and helping to fight climate change. These processes aid to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of industrial facilities that use fossil fuels (fuel oil, gas or coal) such as power plants, steel mills, cement factories, oil refineries…
Air Liquide is contributing to this project by supplying the technology of CO2 capture by means of oxycombustion. This process consists in replacing the air in an industrial boiler by pure oxygen. The fumes obtained when they come out of the boiler are then very concentrated in CO2 (90%).
In the framework of this project, Air Liquide has developed burners designed for this technology and supplies the oxygen needed for oxycombustion through an on-site unit and the CO2 drying process, required for transport.
This CO2 is then transported to the Rousse geological storage site 27 km from the Lacq plant via pipeline, then injected 4,500 m deep into this former gas field.
Over the next two years, the industrial project plans to trap about 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide. This quantity of CO2 is equivalent to what is discharged by 40,000 vehicles during the same time period.
Sustainable Industrial Design
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