Posted by
thekeenobserver on Friday, June 12, 2009 4:21:56 PM
Ever since the exit of George Bush, late night comedians have struggled with the void: for the first time in recent memory, they had no Dubya (or Clinton) to lampoon during their monologues.
And to dare make fun of Barack Obama was completely off limits-- a first degree crime of political incorrectness.
But what's a late night audience supposed to do? Simple; just go to the source, Professor Obama himself, whose quotes last year on the campaign trail are worthy of any hall of fame comedian:
There's the one where Mr. Obama said..."I will promise every American the same health care plan that I have as Senator!" Hardy-har; guffaw-guffaw. Now that's funny!
Or how about the one where he claimed..."We're going to create five million alternative energy jobs-- jobs that can't be outsourced!" Indeed--even funnier! And these were supposed to be those highly-coveted, "green-collar" jobs of the future according to Professor Barack-O, the energy master of disaster.
Are we ready for more jesting? How about when he was campaigning in Pennsylvania (and West Virginia) where Obama claimed he was for "clean coal"---basically an oxymoron -- just like all the rest of the "green energy" ideas.
But the apex of Obama's levity hit its peak in late summer "08, during a tour of an alternative energy plant near Monaca, Pennsylvania -- an operation synthesizing biofuels from chicken fat. Mr. Obama had enthusiastically declared, "We can duplicate these plants all over America!"
This was undoubtedly Obama's greatest-ever idea! U.S. industry would churn out poultry fat-based biodiesel, and we'd thumb our energy noses at Saudi Arabia-- literally playing chicken with OPEC; and it would reduce foreign oil imports, plus show 'em thing or two about good ol' American ingenuity.
But what came first; the chicken or the egg? It seems that every company who took up the Obama green banner (in 2008) is suddenly "chickening-out." Fat-generated biodiesel is about to bite the dust.
Conoco-Phillips recently announced it would halt its collaboration with Tyson Foods to make diesel fuel from animal fat, after federal tax credits were cut in half.
Shame; the tax credit had fallen victim to dirty politics-- lobbying by a coalition of soap makers, concerned that it would drive up the price of animal fats used in the manufacturing process.
Thus far, every corporate player-- attempting to roll the dice and "play" the green energy game-- has thrown snake eyes.
A prime example is Green Fuel Technologies, one of the earliest, best-funded and most publicized "algae" companies. Green Fuel is shutting its doors; a victim of the credit crunch.
The company's plan was to pump carbon dioxide from smokestacks into "bio-reactors" (cavernous plastic bags filled with algae and water). The algae then grows fat within its cells (as lipids and carbohydrates) and is then converted into oil for biodiesel.
Of course, getting the process to run smoothly became quite another matter:
Green Fuel easily grew the algae; the problem was CONTROLLING it. The algae grew much faster than it could be harvested, and the process became highly unmanageable. The company also found its system would cost more than three times its target. Estimates were that algae- based green fuel would have cost American consumers $12-15 dollars per gallon-- now wouldn't Professor Obama have loved that!
But that’s typical: whenever Obama announces a new policy, he omits the details-- he just puts it out there for "discussion", and lets the media & public run with it.
And all politics aside, why was the threat of the algae fiasco not analyzed, nor the plight of the hapless chicken population ever mentioned?
Hundreds of millions of chickens would have been facing doom-- their innards destined not for the dinner table, but the fuel tank. It would have meant open season on chickens everywhere-- possibly driving the species to extinction.
Has PETA been asleep at the switch?
And what about the EPA? After it became public that the algae-to-biodiesel process couldn't be controlled, this should have immediately set off alarm bells in DC -- the specter of an unstoppable green tide of algae engulfing mankind, and possibly taking over the earth.
It would have made the disaster portrayed in the 1969 movie, "the Green Slime", tame by comparison.
And what about economic considerations? The chicken-biodiesel boondoggle would certainly have been another replay of the corn-ethanol disaster, further jacking up worldwide food prices. To what new heights would it have taken the price of poultry? Four-five- even six dollars per pound?
And our science-challenged anti-president never once mentioned the complicated process of "hydro-cracking," where chicken fat is converted to biodesel-- a process not easily performed in basements or garages.
Chicken fat vaporizes at temperatures varying from 275 to 325 degrees Celsius (527 to 617 degrees Fahrenheit) After liquefication and weighing, the contents are transferred to stainless steel reactors. Water and catalysts are then added to help achieve the desired pressure.
After letting the reaction run for 20 minutes, the reactor is cooled, and the contents are removed; ergo, chicken fat-based biodiesel, an energy-intensive process, resulting in an end-product that generates less power than the amountof fuel needed to produce it--an overall net energy LOSS (similar to ethanol).
But the law of economics always prevails. Costs of production for chicken-biodiesel = approx $40/barrel HIGHER than for conventional diesel; which would translate to fuel costing around $7/gallon!
And we thought $4.43/gallon gasoline was ridiculous (the all-time high of the 2008 peak gas prices).
So Mr. Obama, we only have one final question... wouldn't it just be easier to drill?