HONR268A FALL 2005 BULLETIN BOARD

MESSAGE #67. Sat Dec 24 14:26:57 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

A quick note on grades: those are final grades on the website, except the +/- are not shown (a flaw in my code!). The A-/B+ boundary was set at the largest gap in the list of point totals which is what I seek to do. Somewhat by chance, this came just at the 90% level, so I didn't need to curve the final grades, hence the two scales are the same. A group of 7 students all had scores within a few points of one another, these became B+s. Here is the final breakdown:

1 A+
4 A
4 A-
7 B+
2 B


This is a generous grading scheme, but you were an excellent class and deserve it!

MESSAGE #66. Fri Dec 23 23:10:21 2005 . James Idol wrote:

Hey I was wondering if the grades on the website are final... the strict and curved point ranges are the same so I didn't know what to think.

MESSAGE #65. Fri Dec 23 17:01:06 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Whew, just finished a very well written 189-page energy policy document this morning (Available from the website as a single PDF now!). I didn't find a single "Dr. Hamilton, are you really reading this?" comment anywhere in there! Congrats to all - it came out very well despite the fact that I think that I didn't give you quite enough class time to form a strong group consensus.

Final Paper - Excellent work! Everybody earned an A. Special thanks to those who took on the intro and final two conclusion chapters.

Last homework - you can pick these up from my office in CSS1245 anytime next semester. Come visit!

Participation Grade - this was calculated from a base of 135, from which your score went up for good class participation and use of the bulletin board :) and down for being disruptive in class :(.

I guess that that's it. Thanks to all for being an excellent class - I really enjoyed the change of pace from my usual Astro courses, and I hope that you had fun in energy class too. Go TERP!

MESSAGE #64. Wed Dec 21 16:49:28 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Yep - they have those fans in Kitchens too, for removing smoke from your burning dinner! Getting smoke out of the house is probably worth the energy cost, though.

Today in the newspaper I saw that the New England States have agreed to band together voluntarily to form a Carbon Credit trading bloc! The intent is to slow and eventually reverse the growth in Carbon emissions. It looks like an interesting first step!

I have a very thick document in front of me that I will be reading over the next few days ...

MESSAGE #63. Tue Dec 20 23:56:20 2005 . Brandon Kopetzky wrote:

I was thinking about the bathtub heating the house today. If you have a bathroom fan that you run to keep steam from forming while taking a shower, that is pulling the warm air out of the house. And worse if you leave it on longer it will start taking out just the plain heated air.

I was also pondering how much a well designed exhaust system for a dryer could allow the exhaust air to heat a house during the winter (but not excessively during the summer).

MESSAGE #62. Tue Dec 20 20:11:44 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Just waiting on two more chapters - good work everybody! I hope that you all learned a lot in this class this semester and enjoyed it as well. I look forward to reading your final writeups and hope that you will browse through them as well. Feel free to drop by my office and say hi anytime that you are in the neighborhood. I really enjoyed the chance to work with you all this semester! Enjoy the holidays!

MESSAGE #61. Tue Dec 20 17:21:20 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

if anyone still needs to convert their document to a pdf, go to adobe.com. they have a pdf converter that you can get 5 free trials of. it's pretty easy.

MESSAGE #60. Tue Dec 20 15:18:44 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

I can't figure out how to convert my file to a pdf. i'm at work, and i have a mac at home. this pc isn't doing any of the things the instructions i find on google tell me it should be doing. someone help!

MESSAGE #59. Tue Dec 20 13:43:23 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

I actually prefer endnotes! :)

MESSAGE #58. Tue Dec 20 13:42:10 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Everyone,

The first few Chapters are in: Coal, Renewables, and Near Term Recommendations. I've posted these to a new "Task Force Final Report" link from the main page. Please send me your chapter in PDF format, as I was unable to convert the one Word File that I was sent (although I might be able to do this with my Mac laptop at home). You can select PDF from either a "print" or "export" menu.

Please check the website that I put together to make sure that your name appears as an author of the correct section(s)! Better yet, when you email me your chapter, include the author names and, if you'd like, a breakdown of who wrote which parts.

And sometime over break, when classes are a distant memory, take a look at the entire report that you have put together. I think that it is going to be very impressive!

MESSAGE #57. Tue Dec 20 13:31:43 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

what kind of file type do you want us to send to you?

MESSAGE #56. Tue Dec 20 12:41:12 2005 . Max Etin wrote:

the transportation task force used endnotes instead of footnotes. is that going to be a problem??

MESSAGE #55. Mon Dec 19 21:28:26 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

I thought that we said Tuesday for the Task Force chapters and Wednesday for the concluding chapters. Any group that needs more time that this, please email me. We have some flexibilty to work around final schedules ...

MESSAGE #54. Mon Dec 19 20:07:27 2005 . Lindsey Garst wrote:

Yes hi I was just wondering when exactly the final paper is due. I thought we had said Tuesday but I wasn't sure. Thanks!

MESSAGE #53. Mon Dec 19 13:13:31 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi everyone, how's it going? I hope that you are doing well on your writing. Here are some quick answers to questions that I see posted here.

You should definitely put some recommendations in the Task Force Chapters (Renewables, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Transportation, Policy) along the lines of "we recommend building LNG terminals", " we favor a move toward wind power", "we support considering joining whatever comes after Kyoto", etc. The bigger questions of investing in one form of development or improvement at the expense of another should be left to the final chapters.

By the way, anyone who wants me to post a rough draft of their chapter to the website for others to see, just email it to me! I'll produce a link from the main page for collecting rough and final drafts of the chapters.

As long as the grade site says "Estimated Grade", the curve is just an estimate. I will do the best that I can to fine tune the curve at the end of the class when everything is graded so that no one misses a higher grade by just a point or two. My automated procedure does not do that. And I'll have the participation grades posted within a few hours!

Good Luck with all of your finals!

MESSAGE #52. Mon Dec 19 12:01:13 2005 . James Idol wrote:

I've been using foonotes or whichevert the ones are that show up at the bottom of each page.

Are the people writing chapters supposed to make future recommendations at all or what?

By The Way ...Is the curve shown on the site the final curve??

MESSAGE #51. Mon Dec 19 11:21:34 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

so did we agree that we are using footnotes or endnotes for our references?

MESSAGE #50. Mon Dec 19 8:18:37 2005 . Avi Mayer wrote:

If only because there's no real alternative, I agree -- thumbs up for Yucca in short term.

MESSAGE #49. Sun Dec 18 16:27:13 2005 . Brandon Kopetzky wrote:

Thumbs up on Yucca for the short term.

MESSAGE #48. Sun Dec 18 2:00:53 2005 . Abhijay Nargundkar wrote:

If we're thinking short term, my quick take on Yucca is thumbs up. We need to do something to take care of all that nuclear material just lying around at plants across the country.

MESSAGE #47. Sat Dec 17 20:55:43 2005 . James Idol wrote:

Yucca Mountain: Personally I think that if it isn't too much of a political hassle getting the bill passed or whatever I think it's a good idea. Granted it is a short term solution, but I think that is what we need right now as the storage at plants is become full. Plus there havn't been any more nuclear power plants ordered in how long, if that trend continues Yucca may even be a long term solution. We also are going to have to experiment with long term storage eventually so sooner is better than later.

Also... I said earlier that we should phase out Natural gas but i after researching more it seems that the maturity/efficiency of the market and the size of the already established infrastructure should be used. The alaskan pipeline still seems a little ridiculous but not using the billions we put into our existing pipelines does too.

MESSAGE #46. Sat Dec 17 12:53:45 2005 . Morgan Goodspeed wrote:

Hi all, just a quick question. Yucca: thumbs up or down? I have heard that it is a good start but simply insufficient in the long run and also that it should be avoided at all costs. Any thoughts? If I don't hear feedback either way I felt as if we should lean toward the former for lack of a better option....

MESSAGE #45. Wed Dec 14 18:07:26 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

I would suggest that the people writing the six Task Force chapters post some of their short term and long term suggestions here to help the students who are writing the final chapters. Those writing the final chapters can have the final say on setting US goals, but try to solicit advice on the bulletin board and respond to input that the class posts here as best you can.

In retrospect, I probably should have had you all turn in outlines of your chapters a week ago or so so that we wouldn't have been so rushed at the end. Accordingly, I won't be expecting a "perfect" document since you probably will not have time to read the other chapters before submitting your own.

And to relieve some stress during finals, check out "Solar System Collisions" at http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/impact/.

MESSAGE #44. Wed Dec 14 17:55:08 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Class,

Class Presentations: I felt that these were very well done, so give yourselves a pat on the back. It is not easy to combine three people's input into a single presentation, and you all pulled this off successfully. I've got the presentations graded finally and you should all have received an email from me. A few email addresses bounced, so if you didn't get one, email me and I'll resend.

My plan is to grade homeworks tomorrow and post class participation scores tomorrow or Friday.

DH

MESSAGE #43. Wed Dec 14 12:48:40 2005 . Max Etin wrote:

Morgan I think if you also included funding advertisement to spread information about the facts and encourage use of say avoiding airtravel under 200 miles it might be effective verses just taxing that airtravel more. Also I would add extending tax incentives that are currently in place for buyers of hybrid cars for possibly another decade. We don't want hybrids to just be competitive we want to ultimately lead to a hybrids becoming the standard new car being purchased. (since it is the only automobile technology to really prove it can replace the cars of today). A switch to hybrids by the American public over the next 15 years or so has the potential to double car mpg when only taking into account new cars purchased. (obviously for people who are not interested in purchasing a new car there is nothing to be done.) this is my personal opinion after researching hybrids pretty intensively and is not the opinion of my group so if anyone wants to go against this opinion on hybrids they are ofcourse welcome to.

MESSAGE #42. Wed Dec 14 0:27:32 2005 . Avi Mayer wrote:

Hi all,

All the talk earlier today about making the campus more energy efficient got me thinking and I'm going to start looking into the possibility of putting together some University Senate legislation on the matter.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Best,

Avi

MESSAGE #41. Tue Dec 13 19:15:26 2005 . Morgan Goodspeed wrote:

Hi all! We were a little rushed for conclusions, so here is what the near-term conclusions group came up with after class....Let us know if these are generally along the lines of what you would all like to see!

-utilize oil and natural gas resources, but refrain from spending significant sums on new infrastructure that will soon be rendered superfluous by more plentiful, cleaner sources of energy -invest in cleaner techniques for coal because--until renewable, nuclear, or other resources become readily available and more economical--a cleaner coal may act as our primary transitional resource -put R&D monies into renewables (except hydropower, which has mostly been exhausted) and nuclear power (in order to smooth out the many complications, especially from waste), but mostly place them on a back-burner for the not-too-distant future -increase CAFE standards, adjust government funding to be skewed more toward mass transportation, tax flights under 200 miles more heavily, offer hybrid incentives, and generally implement most of the transportation recommendations -policy-wise, place a small national tax on gasoline in order to reduce both demand and excessive profits and invest the revenues in the incentives and R&D mentioned above; Kyoto/international planning as per class discussion; perhaps test a carbon-credit trading program similar to the EU's

MESSAGE #40. Mon Dec 12 20:21:46 2005 . Morgan Goodspeed wrote:

Is the format in message #36 something the class had decided upon? I am just a little wary that including the last two sections (Policy, The Commission's Proposals) will render the concluding chapters extremely repetitive. Perhaps the chapters could focus a little more on resources, costs, and options without necessarily prescribing them so explicitly?

MESSAGE #39. Fri Dec 9 14:50:13 2005 . Elan Mosbacher wrote:

Those conclusions look like a start. I see one slight problem in the current proposal. We seem to want to offer many incentives (i.e. subsidies) for new types of efficient and friendly energy sources, but we need to discuss how we will fund that. What will we tax to raise money? What negative externalities can we tax to fund some of our projects? How will we convince to population to support these ideas?

The main point is, we can't offer subsidies in tax breaks in one area without taking in money from another area. Please be sure to discuss that.

Here is an example for transportation: 89-90% of highway projects receive subsidies while on 50% of mass transit receives money from the government. If we divert funding in highways to funding in mass transit, we can still keep our budget balanced in that area.

See page 5 of the PDF link on this page for more information: http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/20031215_beimborn.htm

MESSAGE #38. Fri Dec 9 11:41:42 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

Oh yea, I am in transportation. We should increase CAFE standards and ensure their implementation; support alternative energy sources in passenger vehicles- hybrids, electric cars, hydrogen fuel cells and the like; discourage use of planes for distances under 200 miles or so; also we should subsidize the mass transit industry alot better and stop subsidizing highways so much to discourage car use. I say we make 3 HOV lanes and 1 regular lane to make traffic so unbearable that people must carpool or take public transportation. But I have not yet received group agreement on this issue.

MESSAGE #37. Fri Dec 9 11:38:09 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

So here are some notes I took yesterday in class for the conclusion section. Please add to them or revise as you see fit, especially things that your group reported. Thanks

A. Nuclear: tax breaks for nuclear power plants; build new, safer, cheaper plants with newer technology; r&d for waste disposal; Yucca is a good start but can't be our only long-term solution

B. Coal: Invest in coal gasification and liquefaction technology; establish pilot plants (??); research application in vehicles

C. Renewables: tax incentives for renewables; advance support- supplement our energy portfolio with a higher percentage of renewables use; focus on hydro-electric in short run since it is sort of a fading trend, and wind power in the long run; research cold fusion, carbon credits

D. Natural Gas: quit investing so much in it; requires too much energy to build the infrastructure for something with less long-term benefits; no Alaska pipeline

E. Policy: increase international cooperation; set goals for 2012 when Kyoto runs out so we can be more prepared to sign a future int'l agreement to lower our energy use; carbon credits; increase CAFE/emissions standards; no Alaska pipeline

Overall: Focus on nuclear as our dependable resource and renewables as our resource with alot of potential; tax gas- allow the market price to rise so it will be less economical, use the tax revenues to invest in renewables research; target China and India for inclusion in energy agreements after 2012; impose our own reforms regardless of what other countries are doing; strengthen influence of the EPA

MESSAGE #36. Fri Dec 9 10:37:24 2005 . Elan Mosbacher wrote:

For the sake of making our commission report one cohesive document, can we decide upon the proper format?

I propose the following:

Times New Roman, Size 12 font, 1.25 margins.

Then, the sections should look like this, for example:

V. TRANSPORTATION

A.MODERN HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED STATES Construction of Canals Railroads Highways Runways B.CURRENT OVERVIEW AND POLICIES C.THE FUTURE IN TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY D.POLICY RECOMMENDATION E.THE COMMISION’S PROPSOSAL CAFE Standards Funding Policies R & D

All of these headings are bold. Main headings are all caps, sub headings within A,B,C, etc. are lower case.

At the beginning of each chapter there should be a one paragraph introduction/summary in bold.

In the bottom right of the footer write "HONR268A Commission on Energy Policy".

Any dissenters to this format can have their dissenting opinion and format published at the end of the commission report.

MESSAGE #35. Thu Dec 8 17:57:56 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

I forgot to ask you all to please fill out the online class evaluations. HONR classes have a high student participation rate which they are justifiably proud of. Tell the world what you think of about Energy Class!

Thanks!

MESSAGE #34. Thu Dec 8 13:48:15 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Way to go Adam! I'll be very curious to see what comes of this. I think that Bonus Points are in order!

Check out http://www.energystar.gov/ for lots of interesting tips on saving energy including insulating houses and choosing lightbulbs and appliances wisely!

MESSAGE #33. Wed Dec 7 1:29:28 2005 . Adam Optican wrote:

Hey guys, I had lunch with Dr. Mote on Friday to bring up my idea for an energy incentives program to get kids involved in the University's effort to conserve energy. He loved the idea. The thing he liked most about it was that by using a web site posting data on how much energy each dorm is using, there can be inter-dorm competition to conserve. Me and a few of my friends are gonna follow through with this probably by contacting the RHA Vice President for Student Affairs (Linda Clement) after Dr. Mote discusses the program with her.

MESSAGE #32. Mon Dec 5 22:08:51 2005 . Abhijay Nargundkar wrote:

A while back in class, we were talking about the oil companies' record profits this year and whether a "windfall tax" should be instituted. Conservative columnits George Will addressed the subject in a column in Sunday's Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201748.html).

"ExxonMobil...made 9.8 cents per dollar of sales, much less than the 21.2 cents made by a company selling another fluid that lubricates American life -- Coca Cola."

I thought that was an interesting counter to some of the policy ideas we'd discussed, though how valid Will's arguments are, I don't know. Something to discuss?

MESSAGE #31. Fri Dec 2 14:48:00 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I've started posting your presentations on the "Taskforces" page linked from the class website. Can someone please send me the Coal presentation?

Thanks!

MESSAGE #30. Tue Nov 29 19:01:20 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

Hi everyone. The professional music sorority (of which I am a member) is holding a Prom for Parkinson's on December 13 (the last day of classes - the next day is the study day). I'm posting the info here, and I will make an announcement in class on Thursday and have tickets if you are interested in buying one. Thanks :-)

SAI's Prom for Parkinson's
December 13, 7:30pm
Colony Ballroom, Student Union
Formal Attire
Tix: $12, donations accepted
more info: http://www.sai-ge.org

MESSAGE #29. Sun Nov 20 21:53:55 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

I think that that is a great idea Adam! Best of luck convincing the president!

The person that I had hoped could come in an speak to the class, Carl Bovill from the Architecture school, recommended this website: http://www.eere.energy.gov/ - it looks like a good one!

MESSAGE #28. Wed Nov 16 15:55:41 2005 . Adam Optican wrote:

I and a friend will be having lunch with President Mote to discuss students' roles in dealing with the University's energy issues. Our basic standpoint is that all students have an some degree of obligation to conserve; if the University were to provide incentives to conserve, then students will do so (afterall, it is basic economics that people respond to incentives). In recognizing a collective duty towards the responsible use of energy, the student body might even foster a small sense of unity and teamwork. As far as incentives go, I believe the administration should provide each dorm with an expected cost of expenditure for utilities. If over a semester, the dorm conserves and does not spend as much money on utilites, then the university should give the dorm a check for half of the difference between expected cost and actual cost for utilities. This way, the university would save money if residents conserve, and the residents will gain money to either buy food or furniture for their dorms, or they can even put the money gained towards purchasing energy and water efficient appliances so as to make even more money the next semester. I would appreciate your thoughts on this. If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me at aoptican@umd.edu . Thanks

MESSAGE #27. Thu Nov 10 13:14:30 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Class,

I've put up a new Nuclear Energy Study Guide link from the "assignments" webpage. I'll continue to add to it as we read more chapters of Megawatts and Megatons.

On Extra Credit, I plan to have one more 4-point assignment toward the end of the class. I gave an extra four points to two students who went above and beyond the call of duty - one wrote to Richard Heinberg to get his opinion of "Ending the Energy Stalemate" and the other made a gingerbread solar house. Up to four points extra credit available to anyone who comes up with something equally creative and innovative!

See you in class.

MESSAGE #26. Tue Nov 8 15:07:12 2005 . James Idol wrote:

How are there 8 possible extra credit points possible now???

let me in on the secret!

MESSAGE #25. Mon Nov 7 22:14:18 2005 . Vsevolod Burmaka wrote:

Hah, you think that's a good mole website?? Try this one.. I made it myself for a project.

www.geocities.com/k9archmage/moledance.html

MESSAGE #24. Mon Oct 31 23:09:01 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

Dear Lord, everyone MUST visit this website for its crucial information regarding moles. I have never spent a more useful 5 minutes of my life. Seriously. Go. Now.

www.moleday.org

MESSAGE #23. Mon Oct 17 23:34:10 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

Maryland's team came in 8th overall. I was there on friday when the awards ceremony took place. Colorado won again, with cornell coming in second and Cal Poly in third. I believe Maryland may have won the Voter's Choice award, but i haven't been able to find anything online about that yet, so that's an unconfirmed rumor for now.

MESSAGE #22. Mon Oct 17 20:48:24 2005 . Adam Optican wrote:

The Honors listserve reported that there will a "conversation with Dr. Ronald Walters" about Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and our oil interests in that region. It will be on Wednesday 10/19/05 3:00 to 4:00 in St. Mary Hall's multipurpose room.

More info at: http://www.diamondbackonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/22/43325a58d0d03?in_archive=1

MESSAGE #21. Sun Oct 16 17:07:00 2005 . Max Etin wrote:

anyone find out who won the solar decathlon and how UMD did?

MESSAGE #20. Tue Oct 11 21:36:41 2005 . Jonathan Pace wrote:

Just wanted to double check if anyone knew for sure... is the assingment for the solar houses due this thursday or next thursday?

MESSAGE #19. Tue Oct 11 0:49:51 2005 . Abhijay Nargundkar wrote:

I second the claim made below. I went Monday afternoon, leaving campus around 1:45 and getting there by 3 o'clock (I got off at L'Enfant and walked...if a train is available to Smithsonian from L'Enfant, it's much quicker to take the train!)

The exhibits do close at 4 pm every day (see schedule @ http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar_decathlon/schedule.html) The crowds are really quite heavy, so if you're only planning on getting there by 3-3:30, you're not going to be able to tour many houses.

I waited in line for 35-40 minutes to get into the Maryland house, and by then, it was about closing time. The best you can hope for is to quickly walk past all the houses, and if you can, bypass the line by going through the back doors of the houses.

Sorry my schedule didn't allow me to go with you guys on Tuesday; that would've been fun I'm sure. Anyway, Dr. H, if you need proof I went, I took photos. Some of them are online at http://www.wam.umd.edu/~anargund/solardec05.html

Bonus points for riding a biodisel bus to the train station and taking the mass transport Metro? Haha...see you guys Thursday!

-- Jay Nargundkar

MESSAGE #18. Mon Oct 10 16:49:02 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Hi Class,

A friend of mine checked out the Solar Houses over the weekend and says that there are long lines to get into each house and that they are open and working even in the rain. This message from Elan is more worrisome though. It looks like they close at 4pm! So I suggest the following:

Let's shift everything by an hour (even if it rains!).

Those of you that can, meet me at the College Park metro at 1:30. Please email me if you can do that. Otherwise, meet other students there at 2:30. If you can't leave until 3:30, you will probably have to go another time.

I'll meet people at the Terp House on the mall at 3:30.

Sorry for the mixup - I thought the Solar Houses would have normal museum hours. :(

Hope to see most of you tomorrow! Doug Hamilton

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 16:18:59 -0400
From: Elan Mosbacker:

I went in D.C. for the Solar Decathalon. I just wanted to let you know that from what I can tell the exhibit hours are only from 11am to 4pm. Additionally, the lines to get into each house were a good half hour. If student plan on leaving at 2pm they may only get into 1 or 2 houses, and the students who leave when class starts may not get in at all.

-I hope the news isn't as bad as it sounds, or that I'm just making a mistake, but the schedule and info booklet they handed out say it closes at 4pm.

-Elan Mosbacher

MESSAGE #17. Thu Oct 6 17:14:55 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

Here is a copy of the email from Mr. Heinberg:

Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 09:40:45 -0700 From: Add To Address Book | This is Spam Subject: RE: To: "Laura Brewer"

Laura, I think most of their recommendations are good as a start. However, I believe that their goal, "to ensure that clean, secure, and affordable energy will be available in the quantities required to sustain long-term economic growth for the United States and the world," is inherently unrealistic, in that such quantities of energy will not be available; and that even if it were, unlimited growth on a finite planet is impossible and the effort to produce it will result in a crash and die-off of unimaginable proportions. We need instead to power down the economy--reducing the scale of energy and material throughput, per-capita consumption rates, and, ultimately, the size of the human population. I hope your class is also examining the Hirsch Report, www.thehirschreport.com. Best wishes, Richard

-----Original Message----- From: Laura Brewer [mailto:lbrewer@mail.umd.edu] Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 8:39 AM To: heinberg@museletter.com Subject:

Hello Mr. Heinberg, I am a student at the University of Maryland taking a course called Terrestrial Energy, Resources, and Policy, and we are reading your book The Party's Over right now. I am very interested in some of the comments you make, and I was wondering if you've read the 2003 Energy Commission's report, Ending the Energy Stalemate, another text we've read for the class. It makes some interesting points and was published around the same time as your book. If you have the time, my class and I would be very interested to hear your reaction to it. Thanks so much,

Laura Brewer

MESSAGE #16. Fri Sep 30 20:33:12 2005 . Petro Nungovitch wrote:

I mentioned that Georgia's governor asked the public schools to shut down for a couple days to conserve energy. I lived in Georgia for eleven years...this goes to show how much the state cares about it's public education. (Just kidding.) Anyways, here's a website and such:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9469334/

p.s. I feel our class is kind of rude to Mr. Hamilton in terms of being talkative and stuff, and I would like to just put it out there that it bothers me as well. He seems to be a very good natured guy and his patience is definitely running thin...Just have some fricking courtesy and pipe down in class when he's trying to talk. That's all I have to say, thanks.

MESSAGE #15. Wed Sep 28 21:01:44 2005 . Maura Lafferty wrote:

wow so i've never used my student id number before...

the renewable energy house tour is this saturday (Oct 1). Info here: http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/getinvolved/event_detail.cfm?id=8 it includes a tofu-powered lawn mower & solar-power baked cookies, among other exciting inventions. i'm going to go over after the football game. let me know if you want to join me.

i'd like to reiterate how unbearable chapters 5 & 6 are.

MESSAGE #14. Wed Sep 28 10:57:31 2005 . Elan Mosbacher wrote:

I was just reviewing Chapter 4 for the quiz, and I came across to statements that at first seemed to tell different stories. Figure 4-10 on page 57 states that in 2003 24% of non-carbon electricity generation came from hydro sources. Then on page 62 the report states that 10% of U.S. electricity comes from renewable energy, the bulk of which is from hydro electric plants. Is the distinction that the first refers to non-carbon and the later refers to all resources? I would assume so, but does anyone have any other ideas?

MESSAGE #13. Wed Sep 28 9:30:20 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

Here is a related activity on campus. MaryPIRG's campus climate challenge. Read about it here:

http://marypirgstudents.org/mdcampus.asp?id2=18855

And sign the pledge here:

http://marypirgstudents.org/mdstudent.asp?id=1198

MESSAGE #12. Wed Sep 21 22:51:48 2005 . Adam Optican wrote:

If you want to read about how the measurement "horsepower" was invented, go here:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower1.htm

It has a drawing of a horsie :) But as it turns out, 1 horspower is actually 150% of the actual power of a horse. (one real horse can pull 22,000 ft-lbs per minute, while 1 horsepower is 33,000 ft-lbs per minutes.

MESSAGE #11. Wed Sep 21 20:05:44 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

So I know I'm a little late on this, but I am having some issues with the homework. Particularly part c of #3 and all of #4. If anyone happens to check this tonight and can help me out at all can you call me or im me? Thanks soooooo much! Laura

MESSAGE #10. Wed Sep 21 16:05:49 2005 . Brandon Kopetzky wrote:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050921/tc_nm/telecoms_verizon_energy_dc

It is interesting to see that companies can already save money with fuel cells. I wonder if the savings to Verizon comes from the funding help by the DOE though.

MESSAGE #9. Tue Sep 20 13:37:54 2005 . Avi Mayer wrote:

Hey guys,

There's an event at noon this Friday in the School of Public Policy (Van Munching Hall) about energy efficiency. Skip Laitner of the EPA will be speaking.

Energy Efficiency Talk

See y'all later!

Avi

MESSAGE #8. Tue Sep 20 10:30:50 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

What is a British Thermal Unit (BTU)?

MESSAGE #7. Mon Sep 19 22:35:44 2005 . Laura Brewer wrote:

I remembered reading this article in Smithsonian before school started and it is especially relevant to this chapter. It's about the popularization of biodiesel and the like. Biodiesel Article

MESSAGE #6. Sun Sep 18 18:15:50 2005 . Morgan Goodspeed wrote:

Hey all! I remember that somebody mentioned something in class the other day about taxis going hybrid, and today I happened to stumble upon a column about that from the NY Times. It's at Hybrid Taxi Column. I thought that the concept mentioned was intriguing, so I researched it a little further and found the actual proposals at the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission website at Taxi Commission Proposal . Enjoy! --Morgan

MESSAGE #5. Sun Sep 18 12:24:14 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Dr. Richard Alley, a global climate specialist, has an upbeat message about Global Climate Change.

MESSAGE #4. Thu Sep 15 17:46:57 2005 . Avi Mayer wrote:

Hey guys,

Check out this fun-filled guide to why SUVs are the environment---and your pocket's---best friend. Then go to http://www.hybridcars.com/suvs-minivans.html and check out the MPG achieved by these big guys. Not bad.

Take care,

Avi

MESSAGE #3. Wed Sep 14 21:11:09 2005 . Elan Mosbacher wrote:

I was doing some research on gas prices and came across this helpful website. It is essentially a database of gas prices all over the country.

Gas Price Watch







Enjoy
Elan Mosbacher

MESSAGE #2. Wed Sep 14 19:14:41 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Here is another interesting link: History of CAFE standards.

MESSAGE #1. Tue Sep 13 18:03:52 2005 . Prof. Doug Hamilton wrote:

Welcome to the class bulletin board!

This is a place to discuss energy issues with each other and to point out cool links on the web. For instance, take a look at this article about UMD's entry in the Solar Decathalon conetest to design a solar house: Terp Solar House.

You can post your own links by using this HTML command:
<A HREF= "YOURLINK">LINKNAME</A>
where you replace YOURLINK with the full web address (e.g. http://www.astro.umd.edu/~hamilton/HONR268A/) and LINKNAME with a descriptive title. Post your links and thoughts on the HONR268A Bulletin Board for the whole class to see!

But wait, there's more! Act before Oct. 1 by posting a message and earn 4 juicy bonus points!

Enjoy!

Return to the HONR268A main page