Welcome to the Fuel Matters Blog

Canada has an emphasis on minimizing their carbon footprint. Recently they committed to $20 million for the construction and distribution of small modular nuclear power plants. These single, small, modular power plants would be able to produce up to 300MWe (megawatt of electric capacity). For reference, that would be enough to power 150K to 200K homes. The benefit of these units would certainly be the transportation flexibility for more isolated communities with minimal waste.

Seattle is making an attempt to move aggressively towards cutting the city emissions.   In September, Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a bill that would tax home heating oil an additional 24 cents per gallon.  This tax would be on top of the existing 10% heating oil tax that currently exists for the residents of Seattle.  This tax will take effect starting during the summer of 2020. 

For those of you who may not remember, in 2015 auto giant Volkswagen AG was found guilty of intentionally installing sensors to “cheat” or “pass” the Clean Air Act emissions tests. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports, complicit companies had to pay settlement monies out of over 10 billion dollars. Those dollars went in two directions, the first went to pay to remove all of the non-compliant from the road and the second went to produce green alternatives.

Alternative energy is certainly an interesting concept in many aspects. Often referred to as “Clean Energy,” alternatives can also include solar, wind and water based production. As our current world tries to push for a change on how power is sourced, there has been an effort and an investment to change from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gasses towards alternatives to create sustainable and inexpensive options for energy production.

Growing up with four brothers who always had to have the newest and latest in automobiles, one of them came home with the coolest car ever! An Oldsmobile ninety-eight, diesel, black, moon roof, four doors, loaded.  You name it, it had it. Boy did I think I was “it” when I trolled my neighborhood. Everyone’s head turned to see who was driving this black beauty.  Were those head turns because they thought I couldn’t handle the car, or were they trying to make sure they weren’t going to inhale what was spewing from the tail pipe?