Renewable Energy Tax Extenders

The tax incentives for many new fledgling companies in the alternative energy space are expiring at the end of this year. It is time that these extensions are put into law so that we continue to move away from using fossil fuels. We all need to urge our Congressional leader to move the Renewable Energy Tax Extenders forward. These are small but important steps that are needed to compete with BigOil

Modern Day Slaves Addicted to Oil

That is what we the people have become. Our solution to the energy crisis and addiction is to keep talking about it. If we do the end result will be drilling more holes and keeping us mainlined into the pure energy stuff. You know the fossil fuel stuff. It is like asking the drug pusher to help you get off your addiction. Sure I can help. How does $5.00 gas and $4.00 home heating oil sound?

The government says that alternative energy is too far away and why we need to keep the drilling piece front and center. Well that is simply not true. They say theses technologies are too expensive and we need to let the market decide who will be the winners and losers. That is also not true. The fact is the government has picked the winners and that is BigOil. The losers are alternative energy. The real underlying issue holding back alternatives and one that does not get reported in any meaningful way is that BigOil receives over $5.00 per gallon in hidden subsidies, incentives and tax schemes over the pump price. It is amazing that the talking heads representing the status quo are not fact checked by the media because these facts are readily available. These hidden incentives include depreciation allowances, master limited partnerships, pipelines built with taxpayer monies and then the talking heads say that alternative energy is too expensive. Come on, that is disingenuous. Where are the infrastructures built for alternatives? Where is parity within the tax code for alternative energy? Well there are none, only mere teasers to make it look good and to make you feel better about what we are doing as a nation.

Oh, one more point. Solar was making headway so they needed to be slowed down. So, Congress came up with a two year moratorium on building solar facilities on public land. Congress passes that, yet they can not even pass an extension for one year of mere teasers that alternative energies receive even when the public is crying and demanding change. Let us face reality. We are modern day slaves and the pharaohs are BigOil.

No kidding, Trouble with Carbon Cap-and-Trade Markets, Who Would Have Guessed

The New York Times reports today of trouble with markets for trading carbon. In a race to placate industry, the European carbon market experience raises suspicion on cap-and-trade schemes. I believe and I think the majority feel [won’t publicly admit] that the only real way to reduce greenhouse gases is to structure a Btu tax. The dreaded Btu tax.

There is so much interference and diversion away from carbon facts. For instance, proponents of cap-and-trade point to the success of SOx pollution trading schemes as a reason why this would work for carbon. Well, not so fast as these are totally different compounds. Carbon dioxide emissions are pervasive in the environment and are not isolated to SOx emitters.

One glaring example is the use of natural gas, which produces lots of power and that does not have sulfur or SOx, but lots of fossil fuel CO2 emissions. See the point.

Other real problems with cap-and-trade is the uncertainty in the price and the legitimacy of carbon offset programs. How does one protect against huge historical price swings and validate or even audit CO2 offset claims. Who is ultimately responsible if these offset are fraudulent credits being sold by manipulators?

A cap-and-trade sounds like a compromise but it is just another head fake on the public. A Btu tax, although politically more difficult, creates market certainty and eliminates these loopholes and potential for manipulations. A tax, of course, would disappoint financial institutions, attorneys and environmental groups that were anxious to capitalize on a new global trading scheme. Oh well!

Floods, Disaster Clean-up and Lack of Energy

We presented a concept paper to FEMA and the U.S Military to develop a mobile unit called a Rapid Diesel Deployment Platform or RDDP. It has been received well. This is a mobile unit that takes local organic waste and turns it into fuel for immediate use. This is the perfect piece of equipment to bring into disaster areas where power is often not available for extended periods of time. It would be ideal to turn the mountains of polluted waste into renewable diesel fuel oil to power the equipment for first responders and emergency crews.

With the predictions of more intense storms, droughts and flooding, the time has come for this to be constructed in order to bring relief to areas hit by disaster.

We are Now Forcing U.S. Beef on Korea

The story that has rocked the President of Korea is really incredible. If it takes high level meetings to force and open up markets for U.S beef [that is half the price] then something is dead wrong. This issue underscores the real magnitude of the U.S. still allowing downers and other waste to be rechanneled back into animal and pet food. The world markets have spoken and they do not want our meat.

The fix is simple. Ban cannibalism and the processing of sick and downer animals from entering the food chain. Even if we believe there is still a debate on science related to food safety, we are losing billions of dollars in sales, and our reputation for producing quality meats is being tarnished. It may be reaching the point that the damage will be irreparable if the FDA and the USDA do nothing to alleviate food safety concerns.

Reading About It

Virtually every week, CWT receives an inquiry from a municipality or a commercial enterprise that wants us to come build a TCP plant in their area. They've seen us or read about us somewhere, and the logic of what we're doing with TCP instantly registers. We've received literally hundreds of inquiries like this over the past 3 or 4 years. Unfortunately, as a start up company, we're not in a position to pursue most of these yet. But it sure is encouraging to know that our technology makes so much instinctive sense to so many.

BARTA, the transportation authority in Reading, Pennsylvania, is one of these companies. The Reading Eagle wrote about the authority's interest in CWT today. It's way too soon to know if this will actually go anywhere, but State Rep. Thomas Caltagirone from Reading actually sponsored a bill in the State legislature that would create a tax credit to lure CWT to build a plant there. He sees our technology as a way to "break the stranglehold on foreign oil." The bill didn't pass the Senate, but what's really significant is that key enterprises like BARTA and leaders like Rep. Caltagirone are demonstrating that serious mainstream interest in alternative energy solutions like ours is growing. In fact, the BARTA board is talking about forming a coalition with other public transportation systems in Pennsylvania to collaborate on the effort to get an alternative energy plant built.

This is good news indeed and, hopefully, a harbinger of things to come.

In Denial About The Energy Crunch

As if we couldn't predict it, energy prices are officially taking their toll on stocks. Today's Wall Street Journal sums up the depressing situation by saying, "Now, as the second quarter enters its final month, the energy crunch is taking a bigger bite out of profits just as many analysts thought earnings would be getting better." Didn't they see it coming? I did. You probably did. Any company that relies on oil for its bread and butter earnings (automotive manufacturers, chemical producers and airlines) or on consumer traffic (retailers and restaurants) was bound to take a hit. You don't have to be a professional stock analyst to know this.

Ironically, the Journal says that technology stocks are holding steady as this sector takes advantage of the "export boom" stemming from the weak dollar. That's just great. We're celebrating the demise of the U.S. dollar.

How about, instead, we try shoring up the economy by replacing a key import - oil, that is -- with an alternative that we can produce domestically? Oil, that is. Yes, we can produce our own oil utilizing an abundant, renewable, readily available resource: the hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste that accumulates in this country every year.

Just imagine the ramifications -- economically, politically and environmentally -- if the United States were to stop importing oil and supply its own, based on the use of above-ground carbon stock. U.S. industry would have a reliable source of inexpensive energy. Gas pump prices would drop to realistic levels. There would be little left to fight about in the Middle East. We would solve our waste management problems and arrest global warming at the same time.

This is the stuff great headlines are made of. Maybe our new administration, whoever that turns out to be, will see the light and take steps toward an energy policy that is forward-looking and takes advantage of technologies like TCP (thermal conversion process) to change the energy paradigm. Or maybe we'll just keep wooping it up every time U.S. currency takes another plunge.

Helping the Working Man

Did you see that story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal's "Personal Journal" section a couple of days ago, about how companies are taking emergency measures to help their employees deal with high fuel costs?

• One company gave everyone a $50 bonus in their paychecks to offset some of the cost.
• Some companies are providing van pooling or other company-sponsored transportation.
• Some are increasing reimbursable mileage rates or providing cost-of-living raises.
• One company is subsidizing employees' cost of fuel for traveling to work.
• Another is subsidizing their cost for public transportation.
• Another negotiated a discounted membership fee for its employees at a warehouse club that sells gasoline.
• Microsoft (who else would have the resources?) leased two large office complexes that are closer to home for lots of their employees.
• And -- my personal favorite -- one company pays 100% of employees' fuel costs if they agree to wrap their cars in the company's branding (60% of the employees have taken them up on it).

Why am I telling you all this? Because high fuel prices are bad for people and bad for companies.

These companies aren't taking these measures because they've had a sudden onset of beneficence. They're doing it because they're afraid their employees will quit because it's too expensive to get there. One expert cited in the article also pointed out that financial problems are a source of stress that can make employees less productive. So companies are biting the bullet and doing what they can to help, out of their own self-interest.

Once again, I'm left scratching my head.

Once again, I have to ask, What the heck is it going to take before we recognize that the answer is right in front of us?! We can lower our fuel costs by creating our own domestic source of energy instead of importing it. By using the renewable resource represented by solid waste, we can generate our own energy, solve a nasty waste problem, and contribute to the arrest of global warming. I know it can work because it is working. In Carthage, Missouri, where a subsidiary of our company is producing and selling 20,000 gallons of renewable diesel every day to local companies who use it for boiler fuel. So what we are waiting for? For our energy policy-makers to wake up before the cost of fuel bankrupts our economy.

Divided Nation

Last week I was in Jefferson City, Missouri to meet with environmental regulators and was surprised to hear that a bill was being debated singling out the RES plant for odors in Carthage, Missouri. What a coincidence that I was able to participate in the discussions. What I found was hope and a rekindled confidence in the leadership of the State. Many of the people I met including some who were initially supporting what we believe was an unfair attack on the facility were more interested in how they could help so that more waste-to-oil facilities could be built solving three huge issues. That being waste disposal, energy production and global warming. Many comments were what a great idea to turn a burdensome liability, waste, into oil and fertilizer. We believe we have the majority of support for what we are doing in Missouri, the Show Me State. We believe that even our worst critics will come around because it is the right thing to do.



The majority of the people I spoke with get the point that we need to help industry and not chase it away. RES is selling fuel and fertilizer locally. Two large industrial entities are able to reduce energy cost while using a green fuel and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Local farmers are happy applying an organic fertilizer at a discount to chemical fertilizers, putting the wealth back into the land so it produces abundant crops.



The dedicated staff at Carthage should be commended for making this dream come true for turning waste into oil despite the exaggerated complaints and the attacks on them to keep a nuisance lawsuit alive. It is hard to believe that the nation is so divided on so many issues and a local plant that is truly amazing appears to have divided the town. We do not believe that the nation or the town are divided, but the story sure helps sell papers. You would think that even the small group of purported activist looking at the big issues facing our communities and nation would ask how to help instead of how to kill what the whole world needs; a waste to energy facility in every community.

The Ethanol Debate Heats Up

An interesting debate about corn-based ethanol and its role in the run-up on global corn prices has emerged in the last few weeks. Advocates and foes are waging battle in the popular media. BusinessWeek, for example, has articles on both sides of the issue in this week's edition. Where, not all that long ago, ethanol was being almost universally haled (by those who invested in it and those who wish they had) as the "answer" to the U.S. energy crisis, now there is a sudden chorus of naysayers decrying the impact ethanol is already having on world food stores, by diverting food crops into the energy supply chain and critics claiming that it takes more btu's to produce ethanol than ethanol saves as an alternative energy supply.

I have no doubt whatsoever that corn-as-fuel is bad energy policy but an important agricultural crop. There is no doubt that demand for ethanol has driven up the price of corn, a basic food staple, to the point of in-affordability for people around the world who depend on it for their daily caloric intake. One article quotes Patrick S. Schnable, a professor from Iowa State University -- smack in the corn-growing center of the world -- as saying, "Crops will go to the highest bidder, and we in the Western world are willing to pay more for fuel than poor people are able to pay for food."

"Of course, it's impossible to divert nearly one-quarter of the corn crop to fuel without causing prices to rise. Corn is now around $5.50 per bushel, more than double its price in 2005," BW says in a different article on page 60. (In fairness, the article also says the price increase in corn has had a "relatively small impact" on global food prices in general. Which may be true, but corn is the basis for the sudden world market in ethanol, which by the way, has done nothing to stop oil prices from reaching new record highs almost daily).

While scientists and industrialists continue to debate the relative merits of corn-based ethanol and to pursue other potential agricultural feedstocks for alternative energy, Changing World Technologies is successfully producing and selling commercial-grade oil from waste material. That's right. Waste. The stuff that companies pay to get rid of. The stuff that floats around on barges with nowhere to unload. The stuff that accumulates in places like the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, the largest garbage dump it the world, which some residents fear may be a source of local spikes in the incidence of cancer.

The waste we use at our plant in Carthage, Missouri, is mostly turkey offal (the parts unfit for human consumption) from a local food processing plant, but any carbon-based feedstock will work. Oh, and by the way, not only are we turning a low-value waste stream into a high-value energy source, we are also demonstrating the only proven-effective way to rid the food chain of BSE, the protein that causes Mad Cow Disease.

More on this later. For now, I'll keep my eye on the ethanol match. It's hard to tell whose court the ball is in, but one thing's for sure. There's no love in this game.

Modern Marvel

Yesterday may have been just another day for some people, but for us it was the day that CWT went down in History. That's because Modern Marvels, the History Channel's hit series, was taping at our TCP plant in Carthage, Missouri, for an episode that will air later this year. CWT has actually been featured in many prestigious television programs in the past several years, including "Future Cars" and "Techknowledge" on the Discovery Channel, and another History Channel program called "Boneyard." (We have also been the subject of many newspaper and magazine articles -- too many to mention, but some of my personal favorites appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Money magazine, Scientific American, the New York Times and Newsday, to name a few. If you do an Internet search you'll find these and a bunch of others.)

Modern Marvels showcases America's passion for ingenuity and innovation. The producers felt that our waste-into-oil technology fit their profile. Now if only our energy policy-makers would arrive at the same conclusion...!

As soon as we know the air date and time for "our" Modern Marvels segment, we'll post the information here. So keep reading!

The Earth Day Blues

It's hard to get excited about Earth Day when the answer to one of our greatest environmental challenges is sitting right in front of us, and our policy makers can't see it through the smoke screen put up by the energy establishment. What could make more sense than utilizing above-ground waste streams to create a renewable, reliable, cost-effective, environmentally sound, domestic source of energy, that also arrests global warming in its tracks and solves the solid waste management crisis at the same time? Duh. Who wants that? Especially when we can continue to wage oil wars, divert our crops, add more carbon to the atmosphere, and wallow in a planet's worth of solid waste? So instead of celebrating Earth Day with a rousing chorus of "yes we can," I ruminate about the wayward path our national leaders are taking us down, and hope they get tired enough of clearing the garbage out of their sneaker treads to recognize and embrace the solution.

Food Fight

The farmers are under attack. But to blame the farmers is not totally fair. The fact is, the capital markets hyped renewable energy as the new pot of gold for cash-strapped farmers to a point that will make the dot-com and energy hype of the 90's look childish. The hype took food out of people's mouths, by diverting crops from the food chain to the ethanol windfall. Farmers are entitled to earn and make a living, but if renewable energy hadn't been so over-hyped there would have been controlled growth instead of a gold rush. So now that nobody can afford corn or soy beans, farmers, too, are being hurt by the investments that they made in producing feedstock for the bio-fuel pipeline. They didn't see the backlash coming.

Clearly, the blame game will further distort the facts. As an example, it is not just corn (ethanol) going into cars with no meaningful C.A.F.E. standard. It is not just the fact that corn is grown with fossil fuels, and the main fertilizer used is anhydrous ammonia, which is made from natural gas. Fossil fuel prices are very high due to increasing worldwide demand. There are droughts, floods and many other factors that can and have contributed to increasing food prices. Pointing fingers is not the point. What we are missing is that growing food for fuel is a bad idea. We have a better solution -- the utilization of waste as a source for our energy needs.

Our company fights every day to gain parity under the incentives provided for both fossil fuels and traditional bio-fuels made from food crops. You would think that with all the attention being paid to the "green revolution" that our leaders in Congress and industry would actually provide additional incentives and resources to companies that can convert waste into oil. The system needs to change if we want to continue as a species. We must become sustainable, and it will not be done by accepting what big oil and big "ag" have to say. Waste to oil is one solution for avoiding the atrocities that are happening today due to diverting food into fuel, and Big Oil extracting more than a pound of flesh from every human being on this planet.

The CO2 Dilema

The U.S. thinks it is at a crossroads on how to reduce CO2 released into the atmosphere. There is only one road to take. Two be clear, there are currently two very different approaches used by governments:

• One, a tax on CO2 emitted into the air. This is the best way to go because it provides a clear price signal to the market, is less susceptible to market manipulations, and can be used as a revenue raiser to incentivize new emerging technologies that supplement fossil fuels.

• Two is a system called "Cap and Trade." But, this system DOES NOT WORK!
  

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2008, one of the pioneers in advancing a Cap and Trade system, is sinking. Cap and Trade is touted by the promoters of such a market-based approach as the only fair system. Not true as these are essentially permits to pollute, and result in a market where "anything goes."


In the real world, these trading schemes are difficult to audit and even harder to certify as legitimate. The permits are the equivalent of cash, creating fraudulent opportunities. Some promoters argue that we could emulate what has been labeled as a successful SOx trading scheme, but that is not true. CO2 is a pervasive bi-product of the economy and long-lived in the environment. The exposed European Union failures underscore the ability for market manipulation and shows what not to do.


No one wants to create a tax since this is a repeat of the infamous "Btu tax" of the early 90's, when the nation watched one major party lose control of Congress as the result of energy tax. If we do not create a CO2 tax it would be best to just do nothing, as opposed to crafting legislation that will just lead to manipulation and another future government bailout of these buyers of fradulent permits. These would not be unintended consequences because everyone is aware of the pittfalls. It is another chance to game the system like we did with the savings and loan crises in the early 90's which blossomed into the currenet sub-prime loan crises, still unraveling today. Leave the CO2 issue alone if you cannot put a tax on carbon.

The WSJ Reported April 11,2008 "Seoul Unlikely to End U.S. Beef Ban"

U.S. beef exported to South Korea is off close to 250,000 metric tons since the U.S. mad cow issue was disclosed at the end of 2003. There is no excuse for allowing these sales to slip away given the well documented history of BSE in Europe and the rest of the world. There has been a simple solution to solving this problem which the Canadian government adopted last year. Specifically, it would be for the U.S. to adhere to currently approved worldwide guidelines in the removal of waste and high risk materials from entering animal feed.

Why don't we have this on the books now?
It is simple, the U.S. agencies responsible (FDA and USDA) are both in a difficult position to make such simple decisions, as they promote sales but also regulate food safety. This leaves them in conflict, which means their action of doing nothing continues hurting what was one our most admired industries, meat processing. The influence over the FDA and USDA by a few powerful special interest groups will result in putting the industry at further risk to future liabilities. Two recent events, last year's pet food recall and the recent Hallmark beef recall, illustrates this vulnerability.

What is the impact of this conflict of interest?
Billions of dollars in lost sales. What is equally concerning is that once the sales void is filled from other countries that do not allow cannibalism, it will then be very difficult to get back those lost sales, costing ranchers and meat processors important jobs in the U.S.

What's It Going to Take?

Oil prices hit another high today- over $112/barrel. What's it going take before our energy policy recognizes the sheer common sense of utilizing above-ground carbon sources to produce a domestic supply of energy? Low value waste streams from agricultural refuse [not food crops] to used tires are a ready feedstock that can be converted into renewable diesel fuel oil easily, quickly and efficiently. Our fuel is helping to keep local business in business while reducing fossil fuel use.

Let's see where imported oil prices stand tomorrow once we depoly more waste to oil facilities!

How TCP Works

Our thermal conversion process (TCP) breaks down chains of organic polymers into smaller units and reforms them into new combinations to produce renewable diesel fuel oil and specialty chemicals, like fertilizers. The process emulates the earth’s natural geothermal activity, which converts organic material into fossil fuels under conditions of extreme heat and pressure over millions of years. We mimic the earth’s process, using pipes and vessels and controlling temperature and pressure, to reduce the process from millions of years to mere hours. We do it without combustion, incineration or producing toxic residue.

What is really neat is the process is more than 80% energy efficient.

A limited number of government officials have provided some support but our energy and farm policies take front and center stage and the reality is new technologies are just not that important in the early stages of development. Very few congressional leaders find dealing with waste that important unless they are in highly populated states.

After the November elections, we belive efforts to turn waste to oil will become important.

Welcome

Welcome to our waste-to-oil blog. Our company is the pioneer of producing renewable diesel fuel oil from waste. U will be hearing from us on matters relating to achieving a more sustainable environment.

Our goal is to create a forum to navigate though the hype, the misconception and the stark realities of producing renewable energy without negatively impacting the environment or adding additional burdens on our natural resources.

We look forward to your participation...