U.S. Energy Information Administration Conference

I will be attending the U.S. EIA conference in Washington, DC on April 6 & 7th, 2010. Both the head of the EIA and also the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu will be speakers.

There will be several sessions on Climate Change, Biofuels, Energy Outlook and Energy prices. Also there will be sessions on Natural Gas, Smart Grid, Energy Efficiencies along with Energy and Water Implications.

VOCs analysis for Mexico City Metropolitan Area

Dr. Eric Apel who is with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado published a paper in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Dr. Apel is also an advisor to Energy Scienomic, Inc. This paper is attached and can be downloaded using the following - link

This paper deals with the Volatile Organic Compounds, (Air Pollution) which are produced mainly by cooking gas, automobiles and somewhat by industrial chemicals in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. These produced VOCs are changed in time in the atmosphere by the sun through photochemistry to produce different air pollutants.

The prevalent wind is to the northeast and can reach the United States. The amount and concentration of the air pollutants were analyzed by flying planes with measuring instruments into this plume as it flows to the northeast. This paper reports the data from these flights.

The United States has done a good job with technology of reducing these emissions from vehicles. However in the east and southeast of the United States, there are still large power plants that, although they don’t emit VOCs, they do emit other pollutants which results in air quality that does not meet EPA Standards in the summer.

More papers will be published on the results from other industrial cities such as Shanghai and Mumbai, along with results from analyzing the atmosphere over the North Pole.

It appears that by purchasing goods from these countries that do not have the same air pollution controls or requirements as the United States, we are obtaining lower cost goods by exporting air pollution that will return on the wind.