The next boondoggle? Turning water into wine, and other Green agenda miracles?

[Elliott]

I've only driven through Lakeview, OR a half dozen times, but wow was I surprised when I saw this industrial sized refinery in a two gas station town located in eastern Oregon. A day before I drove by Crestent Dune, quietly collecting dust in the Nevada desert (some of you may recall this is a $1 billion boondoggle that has Speaker Nancy's fingerprints all over it (don't believe the media denials).

So I'm approaching this nice little community which is mostly farm land adjacent to a shallow lake and I see this!




So here is the "Project."

"Project: Convert approximately 166,000 dry tons of waste woody biomass into 16.1 million gallons/year of low-carbon, renewable jet and diesel fuels.
Site: Lakeview, OR is ideally situated amid abundant feedstock and excellent access to highway and rail infrastructure.
Process Technology: Gasification, Fischer-Tropsch refining, and hydroprocessing. Yields ASTM-approved fuels in use around the world today.
Fuel Offtakes: World-class logistics/marketing partner and airline partners."


Here's the media story:

"LAKEVIEW — Emerging like a phoenix from the ashes of a failed renewable energy project gone awry, Lakeview is already seeing economic benefits from the development of an over $320 million renewable fuels facility now under construction.

Once a town dominated by the timber industry, with as many as seven sawmills operating simultaneously, Lakeview has been reduced to just one mill, which itself has curtailed operations several times. Lake County appeared to be shifting toward becoming Oregon’s leading source of renewable energy when almost a decade ago in addition to geothermal and solar projects, Iberdrola Renewables began construction of a $100 million biomass facility in Lakeview. However in 2011 the project came to a sudden halt, and the promise of as many as 250 jobs in a community of only 2,000 quickly disappeared with it."

Sorry if I'm a skeptic. This location in southeastern Oregon doesn't have a magical source of 'energy' to make all this happen. I read a old article that someone was once concerned with 'air quality.' But I suspect this will need a ton of energy to convert biomass (?) into jet fuel. Call me naive, but isn't it easier to crack crude oil pumped out of the ground into jet fuel? It will take some time, but at some point they will have to fire this plant up and after a year or so (like Crestent Dune) we will find out the un-economics of the process. There are lots of podunk communities in the areas rural in Oregon, Nevada, and California and they are just fine as they are. Sorry to see Lakeview fall for the hype. I'm sure its approved by John Kerry for his carbon footprint and private jet.

 

[Stone]

Do you have a link to the media story? Sorry if I’m a skeptic, but unattributed stories don’t mean much.

 

[Elliott]

No problem:

https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/red-rock-takes-shape-in-lakeview/article_1134127d-3f89-5327-bf61-c076b1bfe5d2.html

 

[nauthead]

The largest biomass plant in the country is located just north of me in Gainesville FL. It has been a complete disaster, and by the time thing thing gets closed for good the local taxpayers will be on the hook for almost 1-billion dollars. Austin, TX has a similar situation, over 500-million and counting on their money pit.

 

[Mark K]

The new construction jobs promised by DC will be more of this. Construction jobs to build and eventually, construction jobs to tear it down when if flops. If the facilities manage to continue in business its only because of continued Fed support (our tax dollars), just like the ethanol plants.

 

[Elliott]

I did some hillbilly math and got to the point that it would take 1500 of these plants at a half trillion dollars to replace our existing jet fuel capacity, so imagine every southern state (needs solar panels) with about 80 or so of these plants. There was concern a decade ago about pollution, but little talk now....the one is Lakeview (a mountain valley area already with stagnant air issues) will produce 32 tons of small particulates per year. And where's all this biomass coming from? Seems like chasing your tail if you ask me.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Fischer-Tropsch refining,

Hitler would be proud.

 

[Elliott]

Hitler miss out on getting his hands on Russia's oil. I wonder if China's inferiority complex is because it has less than 2% of the world's oil reserve, Japan had a similar wonderlust to its demise. Hubbert's peak didn't work out either. There is just so much energy in a barrel of oil.