Tag Archives: alternative
Can Crop Prices Keep Pace With The Cost Of Ag Land?
By John Fitzgerald | 08/27/13 REUTERS/Adrees Latif High corn and soybean prices have farmers plowing their cash back into land, which is driving land prices up. There’s an interesting quote in Julie Buntjer’s story in the Worthington Daily Globe about some Nobles County farm land that sold for a county-record $13,000 per acre. The land is good farm land and there were a lot of bidders, said Steve Prins of Prins-Sliver Auction Services. A Sibley, Iowa, buyer got the 156.8-acre parcel for a total of $2,038,400, which went to the heirs of Ella Mae Sall. Prins said high corn and soybean prices have farmers plowing their cash back into land, which is driving land prices up. Prins says he has a long list of people willing to pay almost any price for land. Ag prices have “been good for the past few years and that’s the reason they can afford to pay these prices,” Prins said. Here’s the interesting quote: “W e hope that the farming industry continues to be good.” Yup, that’s the key because when the prices aren’t so good … Per Peterson at the Marshall Independent picks up on some state Department of Natural Resources statistics about last year’s pheasant and duck harvests. The number of pheasant and duck hunters increased 8 percent, he reported — in 2012, an estimated 84,000 people hunted pheasants, and 90,400 hunted ducks. “Although ruffed grouse are on the downward side of their 10-year population cycle, the number of grouse hunters increased 6 percent in 2012 to 97,200, the DNR said. Statewide estimates show that hunters harvested 264,000 pheasants, 835,000 ducks and 355,000 ruffed grouse,” Peterson wrote. Here’s the first paragraph in a story in the Fargo Forum : “A Moorhead man was sentenced to almost a year in jail after pleading guilty to child endangerment and drunken driving charges after police say he drove his daughters at speeds up to 100 mph, drinking beers he had them open for him .” When a deputy stopped Thomas Eugene Iverson, 48, his 12-year-old twin daughters said their father had been driving between 90 and 100 mph, that Iverson had been having them open his beers for him, and one of the girls told the deputy she’d pretended to throw up to try to get her father to slow down. Meanwhile, down in Worthington, eighth-graders are all being kitted out with iPads. So reports the Globe’s Ryan McGaughey . Seventh-graders will get them today. Fifth-and sixth-graders get them next week, third- and fourth-graders a day or two after that. While students and teachers take to the devices intuitively, simply inventorying each iPad and getting them up on a network that will filter web pages was a monumental task , said the district’s technology director, Amy Ernst. No detail in the story about how much the iPads cost, where the money came from or why the district felt the need to outfit students as young as 8 with iPads. No doubt they felt it was one of those “21st century” things to do. The Willmar city utility company is warning of a phone scam where customers are told their electricity will be cut off unless they wire money to the scammer, reports David Little of the West Central Tribune . The utility does not use money wiring or disconnect power without going through the proper process. Call Willmar Municipal Utilities at 320-235-4422 to verify any call made about disconnection. OK, here we go down the rabbit hole in a story by Tom Olsen of the Duluth News Tribune : Marcus Michael Linky, 22, is a felon – convicted of third-degree burglary in 2011 – which means he can’t own a gun. Police were called to a house near his residence on a report of a fight. They didn’t find a fight, but they did see a long-haired man step outside an apartment building holding a rifle. Police drew their weapons and ordered the man to drop the rifle, which the man did and then ran back into the building. Police found the rifle and, with the help of another resident, identified the rifle as belonging to Linky. Officers got permission to enter Linky’s apartment and found him in bed with a bad haircut and remnants of hair on his chest and back. They also found clothing similar to the clothes worn by the long-haired man who was seen throwing the rifle. Later, Linky said he cut his hair about a week earlier but had not showered since, which is why he had hair on his shoulders and chest. He admitted to handling the firearm but said he knew he could not purchase it because he is prohibited from handling or possessing firearms, according to the complaint. Linky’s next court appearance is scheduled for Sept. 18. Continue reading
New Regulations Create Fresh Row Over Biomass Power
Government guidelines could allow destructive forms of biomass and fail to satisfy industry of future financial support Fiona Harvey , environment correspondent theguardian.com , Thursday 22 August 2013 15.34 BST The travails of the industry were highlighted in July with the shelving of plans to turn the Tilbury power station into a biomass-burning plant. Photograph: Alamy[/color] New regulations to ensure energy generated from forests, crops and waste is sustainable provoked a fresh row on Thursday over biomass power, with the government plans failing to reassure the industry of future financial support. Green campaigners said the new rules would allow the use of destructive forms of biomass, which have been linked to deforestation in other countries. The biomass industry denied this, but will still face a major task to attract investment into the sector, because the government has put strict limits on how biomass plants will be supported under its new regime for the electricity market. Under the current proposals, biomass will be at a disadvantage relative to other forms of generation, because some forms of new biomass power plants will be effectively excluded from the new long-term “contracts for difference” that are the basis of the new system. That may rattle investors. The travails of the industry were highlighted in July with the shelving of plans to turn the Tilbury power station, in Essex, into a biomass-burning plant. Greg Barker, minister for energy and climate change, said biomass – now an industry worth £1bn in the UK and supporting 3,000 jobs – had “an important role” in UK energy generation. “The new criteria will provide the necessary investor certainty and ensure that the biomass is delivered in a transparent and sustainable way.” The new sustainability rules cover issues such as harvesting rates, to ensure trees can regrow, as well as ensuring wood comes from forests where the biodiversity is not harmed by the harvesting, and where the rights of indigenous people are respected. The government promised there would be no changes to the criteria before 2027, and that the operators of plants who complied with the guidelines would continue to receive subsidies under the Renewable Obligation. Dr Nina Skorupska, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association, which represents the industry, said: “These sustainability criteria ensure that the UK can reap the benefits of biomass, safe in the knowledge that it is making a real dent in our carbon emissions and that ecologically sensitive land is being protected.” Tensions between green groups and the biomass industry have been running high for months, as environmental groups have published studies and claims that some forms of biomass, such as imported wood, do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions because they encourage the chopping down of large swaths of forest. Biomass proponents have responded that some of the scientific research has been misinterpreted , and unrealistic worst case scenarios wrongly presented as the norm. At least one academic involved with the research has contested the green groups’ claims. However, the government’s new guidelines, far from defusing the row, have inflamed it further. Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: “The loopholes in these sustainability standards are big enough to drive a logging truck through. The government has ignored the latest scientific research and produced standards that will take a potentially sustainable industry and transform it into one more way to greenwash environmental destruction. The climate isn’t going to fall for creative accounting and neither should the public.” The government also failed to satisfy the biomass industry with Thursday’s announcement. Under electricity market reform, new biomass-burning power stations will only qualify for the new contracts if the heat they produce is captured and reused, a process known as combined heat and power (CHP). But some biomass companies are worried because CHP technology is an extra cost at the outset, and because it is only suitable where there are buildings – either dwellings, industrial estates or large public buildings – near enough for the heat to be piped from the plant. Given the UK’s planning laws, it may be hard to get permission for a site, which could put some potential projects in a “catch-22” situation. CHP will also only be economically viable if nearby property owners are prepared to pay for the heat. Skorupska said biomass was a good option because it could reduce carbon, but is not intermittent like other renewables such as wind. But she warned that the CHP stipulation risked harming investment. “CHP is an excellent use of the resource, but it is not feasible in sites where there is no user for the heatload. The government will have serious regrets down the line if it excludes the construction of dedicated biomass power plants from the new regime.”[/font][/color] Continue reading
Power From Wood, Wood-Derived Fuels Up In June
Taylor Scott International News Taylor Scott International Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott Continue reading
