Energy Dept: Pumpkins Cause Climate Change

With carbon dioxide already labeled a toxin, we know the “climate change” nuts think respiration causes global warming.

But here’s the U.S. Energy Department wasting time and your tax dollars to inform you that those holiday pumpkins you carve create methane in garbage dumps later on.

“At landfills, MSW decomposes and eventually turns into methane — a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2),” said Energy.gov.

What would the Energy Department prefer in lieu of “pumpkin-chuckin’?” — turn them into fuel.

“The Energy Department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is working together with industry to develop and test integrated biorefineries—facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products. These projects are located around the country and use a variety of materials as feedstocks,” Energy.gov said.

We love when the government “works together with industry.” That’s code for “corporate welfare.” We can clearly hold up the Solyndra case — a solar panel company absconding with hundreds of millions in tax dollars — and the ethanol subsidies, which drove up the prices of both fuel and corn.

Additionally, bio-specific waste will need to be sorted. Californians already have a confusing three-bin garbage system for dump waste, recyclables such as glass, paper and plastic and bio-degradables.

“One of them, Fulcrum Bioenergy’s biorefinery in McCarran, Nevada, will use MSW as a feedstock and use gasification and Fischer-Tröpsch conversion technology to produce “drop-in” biofuel for the military.Fulcrum Bioenergy was one of three companies selected to receive federal investments for commercial-scale biorefinery projects to produce military-grade biofuel that can be directly substituted for petroleum-derived jet and diesel fuel. Another one of these projects, from Emerald Biofuels, will use a different type of waste—fats, oils, and greases—as a feedstock that will be hydro-treated and upgraded at its refinery on the Gulf Coast.

Once in full operation, these two biorefineries will have a combined capacity to produce 92 million gallons of advanced biofuel per year for the military. Fulcrum has since received a $30 million investment from United Airlines and has entered into a long-term jet fuel supply agreement with Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific.”

The question about these processes involves production. How much energy — traditional fossil fuel energy in most cases — goes into manufacturing these products?

Consider ethanol: Corn requires acres of land, fertilizer — a petroleum by-product — pesticides and machinery to plant, water, harvest, transport and convert the product to fuel. The net energy output — and carbon footprint — always ends up far worse than what the product would remove through use.

So, more government favoritism and climate change mumbo-jumbo from yet another government bureau that shouldn’t even exist.