Gov. Brian Schweitzer To Be On Sixty Minutes Tonight

[ruggerson]

Talking about energy policy, amongst other things.

Try to watch!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/24/60minutes/main1343604.shtml

CBS) The governor of Montana says he can turn the billions of tons of coal under his state into enough diesel fuel to greatly reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

And there's an added benefit, says Gov. Brian Schweitzer: the United States will be sticking it to the "rats and crooks" who run the countries that sell oil to us.

Schweitzer speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl this Sunday, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

[Vincardog]

1. Did he mention that it takes more energy to turn coal in to diesel

than you get out of the diesel?

[ruggerson]

4. Here's their idea:

"The fuel from coal costs about a dollar per gallon to make, burns cleaner and doesn’t require burning the coal to create it — a big plus.

"The Fischer-Tropsch (method of creating) diesel is a superb fuel. Not only is cleaner than conventional diesel, but it also leads to improved engine performance," said Dr. Robert Williams, senior energy scientist at Princeton University.

There is one drawback, however, says Williams. "The process would entail carbon dioxide emissions that would be twice the green house emissions of other fuels." But Schweitzer has a plan for that, too. "This spent carbon dioxide, we have a home for it — right back into the earth, 5,000 feet deep." Schweitzer says he can sell this to the oil industry, which uses it to increase the amount of oil it can extract.

Some complain that the huge pits dug to mine the coal will become scars on the landscape, because the mining industry has not been kind, historically, to the state. But Schweitzer says a law will force companies to bury and replant the pits."

[havocmom]

17. Have seen the new coal mine areas AND the restored land

It is amazing and very surprising.

[Strelnikov_]

22. False. Coal Liquefaction Has A Proven EROEI Of 5-6

That said, we need to kick the fossil fuel habit as soon as possible.

Coal liquefaction should be ramped up for a 20 year run to provide process energy for the transition to carbon-neutral energy sources
and to prevent economic collapse.

Economic collapse, you ask? How much longer are we going to be able to afford importing foreign oil? How are we going to afford imported LNG as the North American natural gas grid collapses, an event which is probably less than 8 years away?

[NNadir]

2. Except of course, that the conversion of coal into liquid fuels is a

disaster.

[Warpy]

6. Yes, but right now it will buy us time

until we clean the stink of the GOP and DLC out of Washington and can get back on track for renewable energy plus alternatives like TDP at our full and leaking landfills, time that we won't spend beholden to people who should never be able to hold anything over us.

Of course, all that coal diesel shouldn't be wasted on SUVs and penis extender pickup trucks, it should be used in rebuilding our industrial infrastructure.

I'm beginning to think the best thing that could happen to this country is worldwide economic sanctions. That would be just the reality check we need, that importing cheap consumer crap while letting our own industries wither and die is a stupid long term strategy for the country.

Stupid is well on his way to making the rest of the world disgusted enough with the US to do it, too.

[ruggerson]

9. exactly

n/t

[swag]

3. That should give some more kick for Montana Dems,

hoping to unseat the crooked Burns and move the state legislature forward.

[joanski0]

5. I saw the Governor on Washington Journal this

morning, and I was impressed. He knows what he's talking about. He said he was a Soil Scientist.

[havocmom]

18. He worked in Arabia for a time, helping develop farming industry there

He knows his business in soils. He is a scientist and a pragmatic one. He knows you have to dream big for the future but also live while the best solutions are being planned and developed.

He know we have to get food grown and to the markets for the immediate future. Alternative sources of disel fuel will help that while better long term solutions are being sought.

[montanacowboy]

7. Brian was great on C Span this am

The country needs leaders like Brian Schweitzer - he would make an outstanding President - free from the stench and stink of the DLC - new and fresh ideas, environmentally conscious - he is aware of Montana's unique beauty, its unqualified majestic vastness and seems prepared to protect it. He is also a repuke ass kicker and takes no prisoners.


So this is why I am convinced he would be an outstanding candidate for President in 08.

PS any man who takes his dog to work with him is worth a second look!

[ruggerson]

11. I think you Montanans should lend him to us

because I think he can be elected.

[havocmom]

19. While I think Jag would make a GREAT First Dog, let us keep Brian a bit !

We have 16 years of GOP Corporate-Lapdog administrations to overcome. Racicot (who went on to lobby for ENRON, the RNC, and bush/cheney) and his lieutenant, Martz, really left Montana a nearly bankrupt disaster. Let us keep Schweitzer for a term or two.

Besides, he needs a little bit of a record to run on ;)

[formernaderite]

24. I would love to vote for this guy

alas...I think the dem leadership has other ideas for 08.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Tell him not to bother. The South Africans have already harnassed

solar power.

[wyldwolf]

10. he just called Hugo Chavez a "crook, rat"

:)

[bklyncowgirl]

13. I listened to the 60 minute interview & I didn't hear Chavez or Venezuala

He talked about Saudi Arabia & Nigeria but I don't recall him mentioning Venezuala.

I may have missed it but I don't think so. I didn't have any problem with the countries he did refer to as crooks and rats.

[wyldwolf]

14. TiVo'd, :20 minutes in

Shweitzer: "... why wouldn't we create an economic engine that would take us into the next century and let those sheiks and dictators and rats and crooks boil in their own oil."

Host: "rats, crooks?"

Shweitzer: "Hugo Chavez, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria... how about the countries that end in 'stan?"

[high density]

12. Heard him on Franken's show

He was pretty good. Very funny.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I can along with his plan, with one add-on .........

We put an additional, special tax on the stuff he proposes we make and every bit of that special tax goes directly into developing a replacement fuel for even that stuff.

I saw the whole 60 Minutes piece and while it all sounds nice and rosy, and assuming it works even better than he says it will, and assuming and assuming ...... it ain't renewable ... and it is only clean**er** ..... I want clean***period***.

But as a stop gap and as a way to end our dependence on non-US fuel, I am all for it .... assuming what he says is true.

[president4aday]

16. "rats and crooks" Canada and Mexico supply 75% of our imported oil.

He reminds me of what the late AL governor George Wallace said after he lost an election.

"They out-n******d me"

[havocmom]

20. Did he mention Canada and Mexico? He did not.

He has worked in Arabia and has an admitted dislike of the rulers there.

[president4aday]

23. Do you think he would compare any other

nations government, whether or not
he had an admitted dislike for (and with whom we
are officially on good terms) as ....Rats ??

Do you not think that the people of those nations may take such a slur
as meant for them as well? Does it occur to you that Schweitzer evidently
does not care if it maybe so interpreted?

This is what we need, another reason for people to hate us.

[Wetzelbill]

27. so instead lets support

people who waffle on ME policy, the Iraq war and any viable solution to anything.

[ruggerson]

21. The best thing about Schweitzer

is that he's so friggin' likeable.

He has that friendly twinkle in his eye, he's incredibly optimistic, he has an infectious grin.

Name me other Democrats on the national stage who exude that. The only other one I can think of is Edwards.

[SHRED]

25. He doesn't impress me

Strip mining is a disaster.

No such thing as "clean coal".
You still have to mine it and the waste and the runoff and the mountain top removal...and...

Brian Schweitzer has the demeanor of a car salesman.
I did not get a good first impression.

[Wetzelbill]

26. probably well, not probably he is

the most progressive governor in the country.