Green News Round-Up | Wednesday, June 11

Politico reports that legislation addressing climate change will surely be a priority no matter who becomes the next president. Focus on the issue has recently switched from the Senate to the House, where the next significant climate bill will most likely arise (there’s a wealth of new climate change legislation on the House drawing board). It’s likely, however, that some attention will remain on the Senate, since it’s critical to maintain the momentum that has come from the Lieberman-Warner Bill, which only recently ran through the Congressional gauntlet - with tragic results. But it’s unlikely any legislation will become law this year. Instead, the bills will serve as something of a training course for House members and staffers; and this summer is likely to serve as an intense education, as everyone will rush to become an expert on global warming. Actually passing a bill, however, will be an uphill climb; whatever new bills arise will most likely be even tougher than the Lieberman-Warner bill was, likely demanding greater emission reductions and producing increasingly knotty framework for cap-and-trade actions.

Reuters reports that Algenol, an American company, plans to make ethanol from algae without raising food costs, which other biofuel feedstocks like corn have been criticized for. The algae have been trained to convert water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide into motor fuel. The technology has been available for decades but has only recently become cost effective because of today’s record oil prices. Moreover, the growing alarm about global warming has created a friendly environment for the development of such alternative fuels. The process works by coaxing individual algal cells to secrete ethanol, which allows the fuel to be taken directly from the vats while the algae lives on – a process that uses far less energy than having to dry and press the algae for their oil. Altogether, Algenol is planning to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol by 2009. By the end of 2012, however, the company plans to have increased the yield to 1 billion gallons – or more than 10 % of the current ethanol capacity in the United States. Along the same lines, Newsweek reports that Craig Venter, who once decoded the human genome faster – and cheaper – than anyone else, has set a new goal for himself. He has been manipulating chromosomes in his lab in an effort to create an ‘energy bug,’ a kind of bacterium that will ingest carbon dioxide, sunlight and water, and organically turn it into liquid fuel that can be pumped into American cars, helping rid the country of its addiction to foreign fossil fuels. Essentially, says Venter, the process is the same as that used to make wine and beer. “We're using similar processes, but ones that are designed to produce much more complex molecules than ethanol, and therefore fuels that will be much higher in energy content, and will work well with the existing energy infrastructure”.

The Boston Globe reports that scientists have grown increasingly concerned about the fate of the male horseshoe crab, which have traditionally been caught in abundance off the coasts of Massachusetts. Authorities are worried fishermen will soon want to harvest a greater number of these crabs, using them as bait for conch and eel fishing. A significant depletion of the crab population is especially troublesome since their milky blue blood is used to detect contaminants in medical equipment and injectable drugs, a critical function. Moreover, the crabs are an unusually fascinating organism for scientists, who are captivated by its strange medicinal powers and its archaic physiology. The horseshoe’s hard shell and claws have much in common with crabs; but the animal is actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions. Research on the crab has even led to a Nobel Prize, when scientists studied the horseshoe’s eyes to determine how the sensory cells in the retina help the brain process visual cues.

The Guardian (UK) reports on Thanet Earth, Britain's biggest greenhouse development to date, which will ultimately increase UK's crop of salad vegetables by 15%. Isle of Thanet, in Kent, will soon be home to this massive project – 1.3 million plants, grown in seven greenhouses. Each greenhouse will be over 400 feet long and will be fed by its own reservoir system. All the crops will hang suspended from a fifteen-foot ceiling in hydroponic rows of nutrient-enriched water; their roots will never even touch the soil beneath. In all, seven power-generating stations on site will heat the glasshouses; as a byproduct they will generate enough electricity to supply half of the Thanet area. This kind of industrial agriculture has never been attempted in the UK on such a scale; though it is more common in the Netherlands, for example. Its advantages to grower, however, are quite clear: the growing season is significantly extended in a sheltered climate (essentially a perpetual summer) that provides for every nutritional need and supplies artificial lighting through part of the night.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Toyota has announced that next year it will start producing lithium–ion batteries for its cars. The batteries will power a new generation of eco-friendly vehicles, including a plug-in hybrid vehicle that will be released in 2010. Toyota also said that it would open a new research department later this month, which will be dedicated to creating an even more advanced battery that they hope will "outperform" the lithium-ion battery, which is currently considered the best technology available for powering electric vehicles. Developing better battery technology is central to creating Toyota’s next generation of cars, which will include hybrids, fuel-cell vehicles and a mass- produced small electric vehicle.