Yes, It’s the military again, this time blazing the trail for alternative energy. It’s rushing to deploy solar energy equip on th battlefields of Afghanistan.

No they are not solely green-conscious. It costs them a mint to transport fossil fuel to the land-locked country.

This is great news for all Americans! Once the military gets interested in a technology, the costs can only come down. Think the microchip NASA wanted them for Minuteman missiles & the space program. In 1961 the cost was $32/microchip. In 1971, $1.25. Now it’s something less than a nickel. Look at the IBM computer. $78,000, but the Social Security Agency & Selective Service wanted them. You know what a computer costs now. The highway system. High School math & science funding (to keep up with the Ruskies).

Think ahead, people! This is a way to get solar technology into the hands of all of us.

Nice article by Rachel Cernansky on ‘Planet Green’ about 10 places to find petroleum, and why it’s going to take more than driving hybrids to conserve on gas.

#1. Chewing gum – uses petroleum-based polymers (we never knew this one).

#2. Hair dye – you don’t want to know.

#3. Asphalt

#4. Crayons – uses paraffin. Also see candles.

#5. Ink

#6. Pantyhose Also see any other nylon product.

7, 8, 9, 10…Ok, there’s going to be more than 10 items on this list

Heart Valves. Pillows. Aspirin. Ammonia. Toothpaste. Toothbrushes. Guitar strings. Shoe polish. Tape. Rubbing Alcohol. Vitamin capsules. Solvents. Caulking. Insecticides. Deodorant. Glue.

The wax layer of the packaging your frozen food comes in. (And, of course, the fertilizers that farmers used to grow much of that food.)

Riding a bike isn’t going to take care of all our dependence on oil. Not by a long shot!

Energy Sec. Steven Chu was/is not a big fan of using gov. money for “clean vehicles” (he actually almost mocked their potential), and zeroed their funding.

In slashing the budget, Chu, an advocate of alternative energy, reopened longstanding questions over whether hydrogen cars are a distant pipe dream, or as former President Bush once said, a technology that could be in showrooms by 2019.

Never fear, the Senate is here. On Thurs. the Senate agreed to restore all the money for hydrogen car research that was previously cut. The hydrogen people are happy, carmakers are happy.

We’re grateful to the Congress for seeing the value in continuing this work,” said Jerome Hinkle, vice president of government affairs for the National Hydrogen Association. He added that the administration has since seemed to moderate its opposition to hydrogen cars.

“They’ve made peace with it,” he said.

We shall see.

IEA says oil at a prolonged $70/barrel or more will hurt the global economic recovery.

U.S. light crude for September delivery was trading at $70.80 a barrel at 1000 GMT on Tuesday.

“If the prices go much higher than today I think that would be a problem for the economic recovery; $70 and above, especially for oil importing countries,” International Energy Agency (IEA) Chief Economist Fatih Birol said.

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BoA Merrill Lynch analyst Francisco Blanch sees no change in OPEC output.

“OPEC probably stays put and that continues to keep upward pressure on prices,” Blanch said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “Certainly no more production cuts at this stage, no more are necessary.”

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T. Boone Pickens sees oil up to $75/barrel this year, $85 next.

“I’m long oil,” said Pickens in an interview on the sidelines of U.S. Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Democrat Harry Reid’s National Clean Energy Summit, a meeting of industry leaders and policy makers

The Texas wind power biz just needs a little $$ to get off the ground.

And it feels like we’ve never been gone!!

Get ready to open your wallet for that last trip of the summer season. Crude prices jumped $10/barrel translating to something like an increase of $0.10/gal at the pump.

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Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, turned profitable in July. Sales of its Roadster 2 sports car rose dramatically, and manufacturing costs came down.

“There is strong demand for a car that is unique in offering high performance with a clean conscience,” said Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, in a prepared statement. “Customers know that in buying the Roadster they are helping fund development of our mass market electric cars.”

The Roadster gets 244 miles to the charge.

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A little ray of sunshine from Goldman Sachs (NOT!). Analysts expect commodity prices to spike higher next year just like 2008. They see another possible $150/barrel price for oil. Supply shortages due to underinvestment and increased consumption to blame.