Alternative Energy and BP - Grapes of Wrath and Tomorrow Never Die

Necessity is the mother of invention

(Mater atrium necessitas)

Anon. Latin Proverb, which means Lindsworth Deer, who lived in Rome, said this first

That’s a headline for my article, a play on the Newspaper Tycoon cum villain in the James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997).

It must have come as a surprise to many that there was an under water plume of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico, reputed to be invisible to swim through yet the size of Manhattan, so well dispersed it was, formed after the DeepWater Horizon Oil River off the coast of Louisiana blew its top on Tuesday April 20^th  2010, and spilled its “poisonous” black bile into the water as stated in the article “Major Study charts long-lasting Oil plume in Gulf”, published Friday August 20, 2:18 am ET By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer, Yahoo! News.

Even more surprising that bacteria exist that NATURALLY eat Oil, long having fed on it as it leaked from the cracks and leaks in the ocean floor, as stated in the article “New microbe discovered eating Oil spill in Gulf”, published Wednesday August 25, 10:32 am ET, By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer, Yahoo! News akin to how it was discovered by the lead character in the 1970’s hit show, The Beverly Hillbillies (TV Series 1962–1971).

I say “poisonous” as Oil is an organic compound, and as such is food for some creatures, just detrimental to a few, such as fish in the immediate vicinity and birds with very bad eyesight. The only true casualties of the Oil spill were these birds, many either caked in Oil or died of hunger as the fish, many of who ate the phytoplankton in the area, notice the absence of their food due to the sunlight blocked by the floating umbrella of Oil and the difficult breathing due to lack of oxygen, and so fled the scene and sought food elsewhere.

Thus talk of an ecological disaster that would take years to recover was just that…….talk………. as most of the persons making the most noise were either the politicians themselves looking to get into the Senate on a Presidential bid as stated in the article “Could the spill restore Jindal as a GOP whiz kid?”, published Tuesday June 8, 6:49 am ET, by KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press Writer, Yahoo! News, Republicans looking to get a few kicks in on the Democrats and scientists on their payroll. Thus the fish were fine, probably on vacation as the algae and bacteria dined, a feast fit for a king.

One man’s food is another mans poison, so the saying goes. Meanwhile the algae and bacteria dined on the Oil, which had complexated with the Sodium Chloride or Sea Salt, which also contains traces of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and cobalt and formed heavier-than-Oil molecular complexes that sank but not all the way to the bottom, letting the sunlight through.

Life began to slowly return within a matter of days but unable to thrive deep below, as a cloud of suspended Oil hung like a cloud in hovering midway in the depths, the fish flying over head, a vista much akin to an aircraft flying above the clouds in the sky, only the fish would see black clouds of suspended Oil instead of pearly white clouds.

However, with the nitrates still flowing by the gallon in from the rivers into the sea, nitrates still present in the now clearing cloud of suspended Oil, the oxygen levels begin to drop again as the algae, and nitro-bacteria, re-energized, begin to feast on nitrates in excess, creating an oxygen free zone just ten (10) to fifteen (15) kilometers of the coast, being as the algae and bacteria would eat more peaceful in less disturbed waters farther out to sea as now all the Oil is gone.

Trapped, the fish are forced to swim towards the coast into now more oxygenated waters, eating bacteria and algae along the way to their traditional spawning grounds in the Louisiana bayou………with sharks in hot pursuit.

These Oxygen Free Zones usually become disturbed by the every frequent hurricane, which as meteorologists knows, as fuelled by hot rising moisture from the sea. The hurricane vortex also moves the water, and the churning foam and breakers help to dissolve and absorb more atmospheric oxygen, thus returning the oxygen balance, part of the cycle of renewal that hurricanes bring to the Gulf of Mexico.

The area, ironically, is healed by the Carib God Hurracan, with his strong gusting wind breathing oxygenate life back into the water. A couple good Category 5 hurricanes, John Public, now wearing his Marine Biology hat, muses, chocolate pipe in hand and the balance is restored after the “catastrophe”, thus showing up the Republicans as merely looking for mud to stick on the President, when Biodiversity is doing its job, and thus guaranteeing Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America a second term in office.

Thus the clever Federal Scientists, possibly from NASA (National Aeronautical Space Agency) curious claim that all the Oil has been removed and disappeared, knowing full well the Master Plan, scratching their bearded PhD chins, that the balance of Nature will naturally restore itself in the space of six (6) months to a year.

The oil dissolved or dispersed, possibly even evaporated and only a quarter of the nearly 4.9 million barrels of Oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico remains since the environmental catastrophe, described as “Obama’s Katrina”:, yet Georgia scientists claim that the missing Oil, nearly 80% is still present, just that it is below the surface as stated in the article “Ga. scientists: Gulf Oil not gone, 80 pct remains”, published Monday August 16, 6:30 pm ET, Yahoo! News.

The President Elect had made it clear that the work of cleaning the Oil is not completely over, saying as much to reporters: “Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf, and it has not been flowing for a month. But I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is”. Then he took Sasha for a swim in the Panama City Beach, Florida as stated in the article “Obama swims in Gulf, says beaches open for business”, published Sunday August 15, 6:57 am ET by Ross Colvin, Yahoo! News

A perfect photo-op and the ultimate evidence that the water were safe for even children, making John Public wonder if the President has been taking acting lessons from Republican Senator Arnold Schwarzennegger. Guess the bacteria will be back as it is “Hasta La Vista” for now.

Thus the next few lines will make Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, realize how good it is to have a few uncommitted voters, in the form of the Green Party, with Majority Whip in the form of Mother Nature and her eons of evolving progeny in the ocean depths, who currently owe the Federal Government taxes for all that Oil they ate and inadvertently helped Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America win a Second Term in Office. Score one for Mother Nature.

I, John Public, Judge in the Court of Public Opinion, of course refer to the delinquent taxpayers that we Marine Biology Students from the University of the West Indies all know, must be closely related to a family of bacteria know as Oceanospirillales.

Students of the Marine Biology Department, John Public is taking over classes today, as these bacteria may be the answer to farm subsidies by the Department of Agriculture being given to Anhydrous Ethanol manufacturers from Silicon Valley and may chart a future for the All-Electric Car revolution, making BP rich in the process. America, taking my cue from the Bernie Mac Show, your Tax Dollars at work!

The recent revelation of microbes, closely related to a family of bacteria know as Oceanospirillales, that have existed for millions of years dormant that NATURALLY eat Oil came as a surprise to many as a surprise to many as stated in the article “Major Study charts long-lasting Oil plume in Gulf”, published Friday August 20, 2:18 am ET By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer, Yahoo! News and expanded on in the article “New microbe discovered eating Oil spill in Gulf”, published Wednesday August 25, 10:32 am ET,By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer, Yahoo! News

The  Oil Plume, whose existence I had predicted some months aback to set of brain-dead Shurpower Engineers in 2009 and on my blog in the article entitled “Obama and the Oilspill - Bacteria and Algae party till the fish come home” is still front page new for Marine Biology people from the University of the West Indies, and bloggers such as myself.

But of even greater interest to science writers like myself is the fact that these bacteria are so well evolved in oxygen-starved waters at such great depth and temperatures, that they consumed the Oil without sufficiently depleting the oxygen levels of the surrounding waters, with oxygen levels being at 59%, whereas outside of the plume it was 67%, as reported by Dr. Terry Hazen at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the journal Science Express.

Guess I need to renew my subscription to Analytica Chimica Acta, as well as my other subscriptions such as Physics and the Biochemical Society, as it seems that I am missing out. Dr. Terry Hazen research team was funded by the usual suspects: Energy Biosciences Institute, a mash up of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois that is funded by a US$500 million grant over a ten (10) year stretch by (surprise!!!), BP. 

The Department of Energy and the University of Oklahoma Research Foundation rounded off the bunch, but the buzzing frenzy of academia does not hide the fact that possibly BP and the Government of the United States of America may have, heaven forbid, orchestrated this whole accident with an aim to test a theory.

Put another way, this may have actually been an experiment, with rather disastrous results magnified by the Media, but interesting spin-off, in terms of the undiscovered tax cheats in the form of unknown bacteria consuming our Oil and its benefit to shrimp, who apparently dined on the remains of these protozoan and algae who had munched on these bacteria, thus food for the shrimp, now bouncing back as implied in the article “Shrimpers report clean 1st day catch after spill”, published Wednesday, August 18, 2010, AP, The Jamaica Observer. What can I say, Media: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)…………

America, buy stock in BP. Cause if I now these Corporate types well enough, they have already reached the Patent Office and Copyright Office to claim the bacteria as being theirs and probably as I write this article, the Energy Bio-Sciences Institute mash up are probably sequencing the genome of these little critters and buying up BP stock, waiting for the stock to begin rallying in a bull run that would make running with the Bulls in the Spanish quarter of Pamplona look like a cakewalk.

Next thing, you will be hearing of a BP Bio-Fuels company with Board Members comprising Government of the United States of America backers and former BP Executives, emerging from embers of BP to begin making Oil on land using these genetically modified bacteria to break down organic material such as municipal waste and even corn, and wheat trash into Bio-Fuels from Bio-Diesel, Anhydrous Ethanol and the usual fractions of Gasoline and Jet Fuel (Kerosene) only without mining for Oil.

Score another point for Mother Nature, paying us back their ill-gotten gains and the taxes for the Oil the bacteria consumed by working for BP and the Government of the United States of America to enable a Global Renewable Energy Framework. America, if you plan to do anything this Christmas of 2010, put this on your Christmas Wish list: buy stock in BP, buy lots of it!!

BP would be involved, the Oil Companies switching technologies to make Oil via Genetically Modified Bacteria to munch on mechanically masticated or pyrolized organic material reduced further to an organic oily mixture to make either Bio-Diesel or Anhydrous ethanol:

1. “A Forest epidemic turns into energy opportunity”, published April 7, 2010 2:04 PM PDT by Candace Lombardi CNET News - Green Tech
2. “Gene-altered bugs to make Bio-Diesel”, published Wed Jan 27, 1:31 pm ET by AFP, Yahoo! News
3. “Researchers coax bacteria to make biodiesel”, published January 27, 2010 3:59 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News – Green Tech.

This is in keeping with the general trend of Large Oil Companies backing “experiments” with a view to the future of Oil Manufacturing, such as Indian Oil’s investment in PetroAlgae’s processing algae-eating fish as stated in the article “PetroAlgae signs deal with Indian Oil”, published November 5, 2009 6:55 AM PST by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech.

But the real benefit would be in farming. Currently, Senator Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, has showed his faith, both in photo ops as well as his wallet.

The Obama Administration under the watchful eyes of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy is investing billions of Taxpayers dollars in the Bio-Fuels Sector in a bid to find alternatives to corn-based ethanol still receiving Federal and state subsidies as stated in  the article “'Green' gas and Diesel get boost in Biofuel grants”, published December 4, 2009 12:33 PM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech.

Albeit All-Electric Vehicles will be the next big thing in the Summer of 2011 (that’s right folks, my mind is already in 2011!!), possibly to the displeasure of Brian Cooley, Senior Executive Editor at CNET and host of the CNET Car Tech, he must at least be comforted by the fact that Flex-Fuel Vehicles will most likely be getting a big push.

The design for the drive train for the Chevy Volt, which uses a Range Extender, a fancy term for an Inverter connected to a Gasoline Generator, with the electronics switching power output from one set of batteries so as to selectively recharge another set of batteries

Thus extending the range of the batteries, a design trend that will be copied by almost every automaker in the USA, much as the Apple iPhone is being copied by HTC over which Apple is currently suing them since March 2010 as stated in the article “Apple sues HTC over iPhone patents”, published March 2, 2010 7:00 AM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Wireless.

Such Generators, possibly of a much more fuel efficient design, will preferably need clean, cheap, Renewable Bio-Fuel, and best of all, because the generator serves the purpose of recharging the batteries, the motor can be Flex-fuel, thus eliminating the need to be selective about using E85, E100 (Anhydrous Ethanol) , with additives to prevent engine corrosion.

Even LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) as is the case in Costa Rica, and as is now being introduced in Jamaica by Challenger Transport Company Ltd (926-6414), which had made their debut on based on the presentation made on “Smile Jamaica Morning Time” broadcast 8:15am March 16^th 2010 on Television Jamaica, can be used as fuel in such vehicles.

America, by the Summer of 2011, thought they may seem expensive now, it will look like a deal, not to mention an appropriate second ride, giving your kids that other gas-guzzler while you as the Man of the House and Mother of the House scoot about in the All-Electrics or EVs, the wave of the future.

A strong wallet, Check Book or Credit Card, (whichever you prefer, sir!) message to the Government of the United States of America as to what you think of Oil as so subtly opined in the article “The Electric Car might be the Perfect Second Ride”, published  August 3, 2010, 4:35PM EST By Ed Wallace, WALLACE'S WORLD, BusinessWeek.

Best of all, it would create jobs in the Energy Sector of Silicon Valley for Americans, my oft repeated mantra by the Summer of 2011 when production and demand for All-Electric Vehicles ratchets up, just like the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPad, possible with shortages of Aluminum.

Signaling a comeback for the precious metals and the fortunes of Bauxite mining in Jamaica and plans to use LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) from the People’s Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to mine and process Bauxite into Alumina and then have it smelted at the Alutrint plant into Alumina Ingots as stated in the article “LNG for Jamaica a national priority - Manning”, published Friday June 26, 2009, The Friday Gleaner, by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, The Jamaica Gleaner.

This chain reaction will signal a return to manufacturing and pride in the statement “Made in the USA” putting money back in peoples’ hands and innovation on their minds thereby solving the problem of Research and Innovation for Export to the People’s Republic of China as stated in the article “The Other U.S. Energy Crisis: Lack of R&D”, published June 17, 2010, 12:01AM EST by Peter Coy, POLITICS & POLICY, BusinessWeek and in the prior article “America's Green innovation Problem”, published May 3, 2010, 4:41PM EST By Rob Atkinson and Devon Swezey, BusinessWeek – VIEWPOINT.

Thus, the organic waste, such as sewage, and left-over grass and corn trash and vegetable compost and even dead animals, literally the stuff that comes out of your rear end, can be munched on by these delinquent taxpayers related to Oceanospirillales and wean America off a dependence on Foreign Imported Oil.

America, Uncle Sam wants you to buy All-Electric Vehicles and support Science and Technology Research and its long term benefit to the United States of America, specifically as it relates to our future sources of Energy.

Plus, Jamaican men gets some nubile Trinidadian beauties in the island, since we soon have Oil as stated in the article “Sagres yet to commit to Jamaica Oil drilling”, published Friday, September 03, 2010, The Jamaica Observer and the article “Wright affirms Oil potential”, published Friday September 3^rd 2010 by The Jamaica Information Service, The Jamaica Financial Gleaner.

For you see Senator James Robertson, Minister of Energy and Mining, if America doesn’t recover, then talking it straight like Bernie Mac, neither will the Rest of The World. Just remember that Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)……..