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Obama Invests $5 Million In Bullshit Energy
Just when we thought we had seen the epic failure of every single possible "alternative energy" project by this administration, along comes the announcement that the USDA is investing $5 million in a "biogas anaerobic digester" that will use "cow manure to heat an ethanol plant and create 15 permanent jobs." Which for anyone confused, is roughly exactly what it sounds like. Perhaps if "Hope and Change" is a little passe now, a far more appropriate slogan for the 2012 Campaign will be "From Bullshit to Jobs, and Back Again."
From the Washington Examiner:
Western Plains Energy, LLC, a Kansas company, will use the money to "utilize waste energy resources from a local cattle feedlot to replace almost 90 percent of the fossil fuels currently used" at the plant.
"Projects such as this are a key part of the Obama Administration's all-of-the-above approach to American energy that is supporting the development and usage of renewable energy, revitalizing rural economies and creating an America built to last," USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement touting this project as an example of the policies that cut dependence on foreign oil.
"Animal waste from a local feedlot will be the primary feedstock that Western Plains will use for the digester," USDA added. "Support for renewable energy projects such as these is an example of the many ways USDA is helping revitalize rural economies."
USDA expects the project to create 15 permanent jobs and 100 temporary construction jobs.
So how many shit shovelers does it take to run a "biogas anaerobic digester"? Apparently 15. At $333,333 a poop, pardon pop.
Sorry folks. We only wish this was a joke.
h/t Ralph
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The manure doesn't go to waste - it's often used as fertilizer.
This needs to be considered when using it for energy - it's good we use the poo efficiently - but watch out that this doesn't result in chemical only fertilizer which is probably worse for the environment than the CO2 from manure.
(see recent study on bees and pesticides)
good point
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,820369,00.html
A Power Grid of Their Own German Village Becomes Model for Renewable EnergyFeldheim is the only town in Germany that started its own energy grid and gets all of its electricity and heating through local renewable sources, primarily wind and biogas. By 2008, after two years of planning, Feldheim built a €1.7 million biogas factory to be used for heat and fueled by slurry of unused corn and pig manure. The village received about half of the startup costs from a European Union program. Because farmers in Feldheim already grew corn and raised pigs, the biogas factory also benefits local agricultureIn 2008 Feldheim decided to take control of its own grid. Cutting out the middleman was a natural step since the town was producing all of its own energy right in its backyard. Now Feldheimers pay about 31 percent less for electricity and 10 percent less for heating. The project has created about 30 jobs in Feldheimnote this also means the farmers have a decreased cost of getting rid of the crap as well, and additional savings.
I see we have many of the 'flat earth society' (sponsored by BP, Exxon and the Saudi's) in today.
Couple of clarifications for my dimwitted friends.
The use of manure, or methane is not a zero sum - the cows already exist and are already pumping methane out - we're just using the energy before it goes into the atmosphere.
Is this a serious comment - did you think it's costing $5m A YEAR? - are you dim or what?
The longevity of such a plan is clearly beyond your mental capacity - you won't find that $333,333 a pop INVESTMENT such a bad deal when you're paying that price PER GALLON OF OIL!!!
Really - this truly is the 'believer's trying to lead the 'knowers' - this is never a good direction for society to run in.
Considering the bullshit that the election and the anti-climate change brigade talk in America - I'd say this will be your number 1 export in less than a decade.
...or you stick with oil, and console yourself with material goods in order to appease your conscience for the tyranny which is carried out in your name in order to deliver gas to your car because you're too fucking lazy to walk to the nearest shops.
This is the responsibility of choice - a responsibility the oil giants, T-party lunatics and christian fundamentalists (sponsored by Exxon) are incorrectly informing you that you don't have to consider.
The author of this article has already contributed to the bullshit sweeping America by mis-understanding what 'investment' means.
I can only presume that it's his determination to 'prove' that Keynsian economists are literally creating jobs from thin air which have no merit (hole digging and filling) - that he has missed the key ingredient in this plan - these jobs have MERIT.
I suspect it's another capitalist who thinks 'profit' will motivate the next generation of energy production - rather foolishly thinking thet the profit from scarcity (of oil) is much more appealing and profitable to the capitalists.
DUH!
I am disappointed that ZH allowed this article to damage their reputation.
I vote for burning bankers and politicians for the energy. We can eat their offspring to offset the inflation in food prices. The savings to be had in the near future by ridding the world of their ilk is just a bonus. Kill 3 birds with one stone.
So many alternatives that work. The irrational social mood continues.
When these markets resume their downward direction, Obama will have more troubles - like getting re-elected.
www.bullandbearmash.com/index/sp-500/
What a hoot when I read this article. Here we have one in my area that has been mothballed for several years now, but hell no--send the money somewhere else. And it is not because we don't have enough shit! It reminds me of that outdoor mall near Elk Grove, CA. Looks like a ghost town, just rotting away.
http://www.bisonenergy.us/index.htm
Reminds me of the whole Lewis and Clark pipeline. Little money for that, in the meantime we have a lot of places that would like to expand but can't until the additional water capacity is there. Typical of this fucked up admin.
Ok, let's just get something straight, this is a GOVT providing TAXPAYERS MONEY to a private entity to setup a methane plant.
But you blindly say;
writingsonthewall
IF this has such great innate merit, as an investment, then why has the PRIVATE SECTOR not funded it?
Why can such a meritorious investment opportunity not go forwards without TAXPAYER'S MONEY being involved?
I mean it's a mere $5-mill right? Less than the cost of a dozen houses.
Could it be that its otherwise uneconomic unless they get a subsidised freebee from the working-class?
Since when is it wrong to question the BUSINESS CASE for spending TAXPAYERS MONEY and calling it an investment in the future, rather than just another unfunded debt liability for the future taxpayer to pay for, or default on?
If you think an uneconomic 'investment' is an actual investment, then you need to start and operate a small-business, become an employer, and see how long you can last as a going-concern, with such insane lunatics who don't even understand what a real investment or asset or liability actually are, and are running around in Govt and lobbyist organisations, and Wall Street, with just that national economic suicide mindset.
That's how the USSA got where it is now, when are you going to wake up? Do you think there is any future ate all for the USSA if this continues much longer? Becasue freankly, the USSA is in an existential crisis of its politician's making. So, that US may not even have to worry about a national energy policy soon, as there won't even be such a country, if uneconomic malinvestment remains the Statist's central-planning norm.
And apparently a DEFICIT of $1.5T does not matter to you either? ... the printing press will fix it right? ... is your name Dick by any chance?
Ill cut the hair of it;
If a job costs more in NET public subsidies than it will raise in NET public revenues generated, than it is not a job or a project that ANY economy can afford to proceed with. Such is the OPPOSITE of an actual public investment.
Just a guess, but I would say that $333,333 per job probably falls within that category and besides that, there is always a good reason to question the business case and probably political motives for backing previous failed alternative energy schemes.
The USSA is currently a rancid sewer of profound non-accountability, and routinely things are proposed and politically announced/'approved' before its clear what is being done, and if it is even warranted or economically viable (let alone affordable), while the Govt just grandstands in the media, cynically labelling it all an 'investment'.
Who can argue against hopey-goodness investments in renewable energy?
Mostly you can't.
And that's why they falsely call it an 'investment', to free America from raghead and commie "foreign imported energy dependence", in order to attain a short-term political objective.
After that, the quietly cut it adrift, as they again rummage through the pockets of the taxpayer, for their latest unfunded boondoggle, to ruin the country even faster.
This is yet another trend from Europe.
The concept is to collect cow shit to generate bio gas that is used to power a generator.
The next step is that they will add food crops to the cow shit and even disposlas from the slaughter house.
This will be the cause of unintended consequences which are grave.
In Germany bio plants have been linked workers infected with chronic botulism. There currently is no cure for chronic botulism.
Al we know is that these bio plants are nothing less but breeders of all kind of bacteria and viruses. Of course any research into bio plant safety is blocked by the waco green government.
The other unintended consequence is a change in land use.
Farmers are paid to plant feed crops for bio plants.
As a consequence in Germany land and lease prices have gone through the sky triggering a total collapse of local food production.
Farmers in North Rhein Westfalen can only compete when they pay around 450 Euro a year for a hectare land.
Bio farm crop producers (who are subsidized) are willing to pay over 1.000 euro per hectare.
When the Eurocrats are finished we end up with a bankrupt nation and a treeless landscape full of wind mills, bio plants and a freezing and starving population.