ISBN: 9781931498654 Year Added to Catalog: 2004 Book Format: Paperback Book Art: resources, bibliography, index Number of Pages: 6 x 9, 224 pages Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1931498652 Release Date: December 27, 2004
NEW BOOK COMBATS RISING FUEL PRICES, POLITICAL INSTABILITY, AND ENVINRONMENTAL DEGRADATION WITH BIODIESEL
As eyebrows raise across the country at the increasing prices of oil, propane, and natural gas, Chelsea Green author Greg Pahl has an idea on how to grow a new energy economy. This January Pahl introduces Biodiesel, a vital examination of the political, economic, and environmental possibilities of homegrown fuel.
Last month the US government cast a grim forecast for heating prices this winter, and Smart Money reported average residential natural gas prices are expected to be 11% higher than a year ago. Meanwhile, heating oil prices are up 29% and propane is averaging 17% higher than last winter. At the same time, we are repeatedly reminded that our increasing reliance on unstable fuel markets is the greatest threat to our national security.
With so much at stake in the fuels industry, Biodiesel offers an increasingly appealing alternative, and smart consumers are asking questions: Where does this new fuel technology come from? Are there standards for production and quality? What would be involved in switching over to a biodiesel fuel blend? And where is biodiesel heading? Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy answers these questions and more.
Greg Pahl, a full-time freelance journalist and author of Natural Home Heating, has been covering energy and the environment for over twenty years. Pahl has carefully researched the history of biofuels and stands well prepared to asses their future. In Biodiesel, he looks critically at the fuel-producing potential of a variety of feedstocks, including exotic palm oil, local (North American) canola oil, used cooking oil, and algae. Pahl shows how biodiesel production could provide for more than 20% of our diesel fuel needs, and carefully outlines ways we can dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
As the politics of energy are called into question, visionary entrepreneurs in the biofuels industry may very well become society’s great hope—heroes to today’s energy insecurity the way astronauts were to the Cold War’s space race. When Rudolph Diesel invented his engine in the late nineteenth century, he envisioned a device that could run anywhere on a wide range of local fuels. A century later, Greg Pahl recalls that vision and shows us it is possible with biodiesel.
Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy
1-931498-65-2 | February 2005 | $18.00 | paperback | 6x9 | 296 pages
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