A detail on the Swedish plan to eliminate oil.

[NNadir]

The Commission writes that Swedish industry should target a 25-40% reduction in oil use by 2020 and that the transport sector should halve its oil dependency. In part, the Commission hopes to achieve this by supporting the production of dimethyl ether (DME) from black liquor waste, with an expansion of DME production in Sweden and investments in sales and distribution infrastructure. The Commission has recommended that the Swedish government does not support the natural gas pipeline that E.on is planning to build together with Gazprom to supply gas to central Sweden. Persson commented that the government could block the project as support for the venture could obstruct the development of alternatives to fossil fuels.

http://www.vattenfall.com/www/vf_com/vf_com/370103press/370135press/385357press/index.jsp?pmid=72550&WT.ac=content

The Swedish plan for the use of DME, a good one, is essentially biomass based, using wood products as a source of methanol.

The creation of a DME infrastructure is flexible, and should excessive reliance on wood cause ecological problems in Sweden, they will be able to adjust that infrastructure accordingly.

This is a piece of environmental good news. Note the resistance to using fossil fuel sources for their DME.

[msongs]

1. resistance to being held captive by the russian energy company too nt

[NNadir]

2. Any reason, good or bad, for not using fossil fuels is fine with me.

Of course, if the Swedes end up using wood as a source of DME, the climate change impact will obviously depend on the rate at which they plant replacement wood, and the rate at which the trees grow.

However the DME infrastructure will give them lots of other options.