Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra, Ron Paul and Vote Hemp lobbyist Ben Droz pose for the record on new hemp farming bill.

May 18, 2011 IntraCom UCANX Board Update: Vote Hemp - Finding Roots - Board Building - Energy Building

A few updates to the board, in brief.

1. Vote Hemp

Congratulations to everyone involved with the successful efforts of the Hemp Industry Association and Vote Hemp supporting the introduction of the "The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011, To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude hemp from the definition of marijuana, and for other purposes", signed by its sponsor, US House Representative of the 14th District of Texas Ron Paul, around 1 PM, May 11, 2011, and introduced to the US House of Representatives to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 112th US Congress.

As I posted on realNEO, last Wednesday:

 

Development of the Hemp Farm Act has been orchestrated by the Hemp Industry Association and their Vote Hemp political action organization - an open community of "hempsters", as Hemp Industries Association (HIA) President Steve Levine says - with members who have started and developed significant businesses in the hemp industries - increasingly worth $ billions - and who have driven and funded legislative change at the state and Federal levels to legalize growing hemp in America, for decades now. Their lobbying organization, Vote Hemp, has been leading this charge in DC, and has had great impact in the past few years, leading to a Hemp Act that will now pass through Congress into law.

Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra and lobbyist Ben Droz have done a great job bringing industrial and legislative forces together - and across the aisles - in support of developing the hemp economy in America.... and in support of Ron Paul's Hemp Farm Bill. The bill has 21 original co-sponsors! This year, the Hemp Farm Bill and other government action will lead to the legalization of farming industrial hemp in America, and you have always read that here on realNEO first.

At this point, I believe there are more than 21 co-sponsors, and this bill is well positioned to rewrite our laws regarding growing hemp in America. Congratulations to all who worked so hard to make this a reality.... http://realneo.us/content/ucanx-industrial-hemp-farming-act-2011-amend-controlled-substances-act-exclude-hemp-definiti

2. Finding Roots

Cleveland-based IntraCom Board members have had many discussions planning a Northeast Ohio regional and state of Ohio package of economic development strategies that will ensure IntraCom and the cannabis industries are provided with sufficient local, regional, state and national foundation, NGO and government support to attract 10x in private investment, to quickly grow the cannabis industries beyond the $ billion level in Ohio, so the cannabis industries may quickly take root, grow and thrive in America - to be blunt, if Ohio does not provide basic industry development support, other states shall.

We are floating a basic state-wide Next Frontier strategy to incent $1 billion to be invested in development of cannabis cultivation and industry in Ohio through 2014, taking statewide private industry investment over $1 billion annually then after.

We are seeking tiers of support, which will start at the $100,000s level, within weeks, and reach $2 million from Northeast Ohio sources, and $8 million from state and federal sources for Northeast Ohio development, within two years... with a total of $90 million driven into cannabis industry development for other regions of Ohio, drawn 20% from within those regions, and 80% from the state and the federal government, as with for Northeast Ohio...  for development of cannabis industries statewide - $100 million in Ohio-dedicated regional, State of Ohio and Federal muscle to drive a total of $900 million in additional private investment here... $1 billion in new-found investment in Ohio by 2014.

That will create 10,000s of new jobs, all over Ohio.

The first step to Ohio locking IntraCom into long term development here, to develop Ohio as the center of the cannabis economy for the world, is securing agreement from local leaders in Cuyahoga County that they want this based here, and will promote the development of the cannabis industries here and throughout Ohio, as they should. That endorsement and support must be combined with support at the state level, to the Governor's office, and we expect to secure that level of support within 15 days... by the end of May... or we shall open region/state selection to addition appropriate communities.

There is interest from leadership in other regions of Ohio to take the statewide lead developing the cannabis economy in Ohio, and those regions are suitable and deserving. Ohio board members will make recommendations to the global board about development opportunities in Ohio. The board will have ultimate say in approving any agreements and sources of funding.

We are also in discussions with investors interested in supporting private cannabis industry development in Ohio, and getting in as venture capitalists on the ground floor of important businesses in these new economy industries, so it seems we are already motivating, from investors here, private-market capital for those in the hemp industries or otherwise seeking to establish new cannabis economy operations or expand in Ohio - that is how we will drive $ billions to be invested here.

We will have many more local discussions about all this, over the next few days, and I will keep the board informed of developments.

3. Board Building

I previously mentioned some members of our board have nominated additional board members for IntraCom, and have nominated existing board members for officer positions. I encourage both these actions. We will certainly welcome new board members, and we need to elect officers - please keep suggestions and feedback coming, and we'll have an internal discussion and vote on this within the next two weeks... before the Board needs to vote on any contracts or legal agreements.

4. Energy Building

I have sent the communication below to Arizona Public Service, in response to their RFP Event 25571 : 2011 Small Generation projects.

In brief, I am proposing APS may take the same route we propose for DP&L to enter and lead the hemp industries for electricity generation (still an active proposal), with a focus for APS on development of hemp bioresources and generation technologies in the APS service territory, in open source collaborative development with DP&L and other electric power generation partners to follow.

To put this distributed development model in perspective, I previously worked with scores of the same utility companies we now seek as hemp industry stakeholders, including APS and DP&L, I believe, developing and conducting an industry-wide internal quality improvement comparative benchmarking analysis of literally everything a utility does - from power generation to maintaining private aircraft fleets. Rather than have one utility pay $3 million for R&D and implementation of such a broad-benefiting project, we had scores of utilities pay $10,000s each..

The utilities then spent their $ millions to address any opportunities we surfaced through our inexpensive collaborative engagement.

In further consideration, while many utilities are investor-owned, and utilities "compete" in many ways, they are also all on the same mission, to bring power to the people as safely, cleanly and efficiently as possible. To be successful at that, utilities work closely together to develop and deploy new technologies... often out of necessity, as they must all operate on common, shared grids, and must interact to address trans-boundary issues, to exacting performance standards, under strict regulatory enforcement. When utilities are ineffective, people may die.

I do not believe utilities will have a problem with pooling their resources for new R&D for something as unusual yet opportune as hemp energy optimization. I believe this is the best way for them to proceed.

I look forward to spreading this vision industry-wide, and enlisting the support of all possible electric utilities in collaboration to develop the hemp industry for energy across America and world-wide. Below is the next step, taken with APS, yesterday

I will keep you posted of next steps with APS and our greater electric utility community.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Norm Roulet <norm [dot] roulet [at] gmail [dot] com>
Date: Tue, May 17, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Subject: RFP Event 25571 : 2011 Small Generation RFP for IntraCom Co., Ltd.

Dear Arizona Public Service,

I am registered on PowerAdvocate to bid on your RFP Event 25571 : 2011 Small Generation RFP, as Norm Roulet, of IntraCom, Co., Ltd.

As our proposal is exceptional, and goes beyond the scope of your request in many ways, I thought it best to submit this by email to you.

IntraCom, Co., Ltd., is the Cleveland-based holding company organizing the United Cannabis Exchange - UCANX - which was founded by a small group of thoughtful people who are committed to changing the world for the better, by bringing hemp back into large scale industrial cultivation and processing across America, and worldwide, for 10,000s of applications, including many energy uses. The Board of Directors of IntraCom includes leading experts in the world on hemp and related energy and material technologies.

Through the relationships of our board members, IntraCom may offer to utility companies like Arizona Public Service (APS) the ability to participate at the world-class and first-on-Earth levels in the development and realization of what will become the most important agricultural and industrial re-transformations in American and world history, by supporting growing a plant which was necessary for the "discovery" of the "new world" - working with all Americans today to reintroduce to their aging world a crop native to it, which will clean up lands harmed by industry, in the process undoing many industrial wrongs which led to the elimination of hemp from American soils, since the 1930s, which has caused great global environmental harm.

Hemp will be made legal to grow again in 2011 - 2012 at the latest - and is imported to the USA by the $1,000,000s today. Hemp is the most profitable crop for farmers to currently grow, where legal, and you will find hemp will offer the best possible bioresources for many renewable fuel applications for APS, like for your 2011 Small Generation RFP, while being an optimal energy crop for your environment, restoring industry-harmed lands, the cultivation of which will employ 1,000,000s of farmers and other workers in America, making renewable energy that is truly green and of the new economy, in partnership with APS.

To accomplish this to a scale that is sustainable for major industrial customers, like APS, the United Cannabis Exchange is being developed as a non-profit cooperative global commodities exchange aggregating the resources of 1,000s of farmers across the country, and putting in their hands the best supply chain, enterprise resource planning, and commodities trading capabilities possible, as is the case with any effective industrial farming.

Mission:
The United Cannabis Exchange (UCANX) is founded by farmers with a shared mission to supply the world with fair trade cannabis crops, for industry, energy, food and health-care, grown with and for environmental, economic and social justice for all. UCANX connects fair trade cannabis farmers with fair industrial cannabis customers, worldwide.

"The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011, To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude hemp from the definition of marijuana, and for other purposes", signed by its sponsor, US House Representative of the 14th District of Texas Ron Paul, around 1 PM today, May 11, 2011, and introduced to the US House of Representatives to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 112th US Congress, is the most likely vehicle for legalizing industrial hemp in America, and defines hemp.

In a statement for Hemp History Week, Paul stated "The federal government should change the law to allow American farmers to grow this profitable crop as American farmers have through most of our nation's history."

There are over 20 co-sponsors to this act, both Democratic and Republican, representing citizens across America. Hemp may be legalized by the Congress, or with a pen-stroke from Washington DC, nearly any day now, for many reasons.

Our objective is get American farmers and industry ready for this agricultural and industrial revolution.

Through the relationships of our board members, IntraCom may offer to utility companies like Arizona Public Service access to 1,000s of farmers who are committed to growing hemp in America, as soon as possible, as farmers are the ultimate beneficiaries of this commodities exchange.

Through the relationships of our board, IntraCom may offer to utility companies like Arizona Public Service the ability to develop new, truly innovative green energy solutions that best leverage the development of hemp crops for energy, in many forms.

For Arizona Public Service, through relationships of our board, we may meet the needs of your RFP for small generation power plants, and do that in a way that best benefits all your stakeholders, including shareholders, and the planet.

And, we may provide renewable, locally sourced, green fuel for new small generation plants you contract, and to cofire with coal in your existing coal power plants, to reduce their emissions and the carbon impact of their fuel sources.

And, through relationships of our board, we may take APS forward as a co-innovator and leader in developing the industrial hemp energy economy, at no significant risk, starting at nominal cost, in collaboration with other utility companies, sharing the costs and benefits of open source research and development, and collectively harvesting the fruits of your resourcefulness for all of society.

With IntraCom, and our associates, the utility industry is about to catalyze the creation of 1,000,000s of new rural and urban jobs, and $100,000,000,000s in economic activity, by helping develop the hemp economy to generate power in more economically and ecologically beneficial ways.

For Dayton Power and Light, IntraCom associates have proposed:

In response to the March 3, 2011, Dayton Power and Light Company Request for Proposals for Biofuel Supply - Biofuel Proposal Requisition #DPLRFP-2011  - Hargrove Engineering. LLC, a 25-year-young, Cincinnati-based, service disabled veteran owned small business [SDVOSB] and minority business enterprise [MBE] architecture and engineering firm, with extensive experience designing and building complex energy solutions, proposes Dayton Power and Light (DP&L) begin your second century of service excellence as a global innovator and world-leader with renewable energy for power generation by cofiring the O. H. Hutching station with fuel products manufactured in Ohio from renewable biomass including hemp.

We do not know of any coal-fired power plant in the United States, or the world, that has a sustainable, locally-sourced system for cofiring coal with hemp biomass, although science, economics, and demonstration projects with hemp used for energy development support the use of hemp as biomass for cofiring with coal, as DP&L specifies. The greatest obstacles are legal barriers to growing hemp in the United States, which are being addressed in many ways today, and the resulting limited current global supply of hemp, which is routed into "higher value" uses like seed for food.

Recent demonstration projects referenced herein show pellet made from just hemp stalk has a high energy content, at 7,890 Btu per pound.

For test and demonstration purposes, our proposal to DP&L is to legally import hemp straw from Canada, where growing hemp is a legal and booming industry. The straw has been sourced and is immediately available. The greatest cost and environmental burden of this demonstration project will be transportation of the hemp bales from Canada to Dayton, Ohio, where it will be processed as fuel for DP&L.

Hargrove Engineering shall establish facilities for processing, transport and testing of the hemp fuel product for DP&L, as specified in Attachment 1.

The cost of this demonstration project shall be fixed, and shall include importing and processing sufficient hemp bales to provide DP&L with 1,000 tons of biofuel for burning at the O.H. Hutching Station, with testing of fuel and delivery to O. H. Hutching as scheduled and specified by DP&L, to establish operational compatibility for the subject station.

Hargrove Engineering will apply for Federal grants to offset these costs.

The project cost also funds planning and delivery of specifications for a Phase 2 hemp biofuels delivery system we expect to be cost-competitive with other sources of biofuels, while being sustainable and locally sourced, creating significant job growth in the DP&L service territory. Planning a renewable hemp biofuels system for DP&L now, to establish operational standards in Phase I, with plans for Phase II licensing to grow hemp in Ohio for DP&L in the near future, shall position DP&L to be first in the world with energy from hemp today, and tomorrow.

> With DP&L, tomorrow starts today - Dayton Power and Light

It is Hargrove Engineering's expectation hemp will prove to be a cost-effective, ecologically-ideal biomass for the O.H. Hutching Station, and we look forward to the opportunity to prove that with DP&L, as proposed herein.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss this proposal further, and for governmental, scientific and economic clarifications.

As we are pleased to promote to the world, "We do not know of any coal-fired power plant in the world that has a sustainable, locally-sourced system to cofire with hemp", and we offered that first-on-Earth status to Dayton Power and Light as their RFP was the first to come up that could optimally be addressed with hemp.

Your Arizona Public Service RFP is the second we have seen that fits our objectives:

The knowledge and initiative to make this conversion to hemp bioresources possible is already coordinated within the hemp industries, through UCANX.

We propose to APS a ramp-up strategy similar to and consistent with our development strategy for DP&L, and other electric utilities, and will share that with you in confidence if of interest to you.

From the Hargrove proposal to DP&L, I'll close with many more reasons why we feel this should be of interest:
 
>
> "If a utility wants to generate electricity from a renewable resource, it should look at coburning that resource with coal, in an existing plant, as opposed to building a new plant that generates power entirely from biomass."

Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine - Densified Biomass for Cofired Energy Generation 
>
> In Massachusetts, a developer sourced the hemp he used for product evaluation from Canada where the crop is legally grown. Jim Pillsbury of Framingham, Mass., is developing hemp for heating pellets. In 2007, Pillsbury had a Canadian prototype biomass research facility, ViFam Pro Services of Kirkland, Quebec, test hemp leaf biomass for heating pellets which were then analyzed at the Twin Ports Testing Labs in Superior, Wis.
>
> This past year, the tests were repeated using hemp biomass, stalk and leaf. Two pellet samples were evaluated - one comprised of a composition of half leaf and half stalk, the other pellet was made with 100 percent stalk. Pillsbury said the mixed pellets performed similar to the first round of tests done the previous year. The hemp pellets have a heat content similar to wood pellets at 7,247 British thermal units per pound with a 19 percent ash content. The pellet made from just hemp stalk had a higher energy content and lower ash content at 7,890 Btu per pound and nine percent ash content. Pillsbury added, in both cases the hemp fiber used in textiles and paper production had been removed, and the remaining biomass pelletized. ViFam is currently doing a cost analysis for developing a unit that would separate and pelletize hemp on the farm.
>
> Pillsbury predicts President-elect's Barack Obama's administration will lift the ban on growing hemp in the United States, and pointed out that it's being grown in many other countries. "The new administration has a solid commitment to bring new and old ideas to the table for renewable energy," he said. Industrial hemp is an ideal bioenergy, Pillsbury said, citing figures from Canada that show straw yields of 6 tons per hectare (2.47 acres) and 1.5 tons of fiber, in addition to 200 liters (50 gallons) of oil pressed from the seed.

Biomass Power and Thermal Magazine - U.S. industrial hemp development continues - November 2008
>
> If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance. 
>
> Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!

Orville Wright

 
>
> Ohio is one of the most energy-dependent states in America. Our state imports 89 percent of its natural gas, 61 percent of its coal, and 97 percent of its oil and petroleum. Each year, Ohio sends billions of dollars out of state to support our addiction to those fossil fuels. In 2001, for example, Ohio spent over $29 billion on energy, and $16 billion of those dollars were exported to other states or nations.

 
Environment Ohio
 
>
> With total GHG emissions of 299 million metric tons of  CO2e, Ohio is the largest emitting state in the Midwest and fourth largest nationally. This is principally due to the size of Ohio’s population and economy, and its reliance on coal-fired electricity production.

CHARTING THE MIDWEST: An Inventory and Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in America’s Heartland
 
>
> Demand for coal power is being steadily eroded by competition from energy efficiency and renewable energy, which are benefiting from rising policy support, growing public investment, advancing technologies, and often-falling prices.
> United States coal prices are rising and could be driven much higher by soaring global demand and shrinking reserves.
> Coal plants, new and old, are losing the cost advantages they once had, and lack the operational flexibility that will be increasingly valuable as the power grid evolves to integrate more sources of clean but variable renewable power.
> Coal power faces the financial risks posed by its many environmental impacts. The continuing damages that coal power poses to our air, land, and water—and our health—are a major financial liability that remains unresolved.
> Coal plants emit air pollutants that still kill thousands of people yearly, costing society over $100 billion per year, by one estimate (CATF 2010).
> These plants are also a leading source of mercury, which threatens children’s brain development;
> Coal plants create vast quantities of toxic ash, which require careful handling in order to prevent leakage;
> Expected regulations would reduce many of these costly harms, but as several recent financial analyses point out, much of the nation’s coal fleet is already old, inefficient, and ripe for retirement. Rather than retrofit them, it makes greater economic sense to close them.
> Finally, there is the unavoidable financial risk associated with coal’s critical role in destabilizing the global climate. Given the increasingly dire nature of global warming, climate legislation is still widely expected in the years ahead, with inevitable cost implications for coal plants.

A Risky Proposition: The Financial Hazards of New Investments in Coal Plants
>
> The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource that will eventually run out, and even before it runs out will get more and more expensive to extract from the ground.  We can’t afford it when the costs to our economy, our country, and our planet are so high.  Not when your generation needs us to get this right.  It’s time to do what we can to secure our energy future.
>
> And today, I want to announce a new goal, one that is reasonable, one that is achievable, and one that is necessary. When I was elected to this office, America imported 11 million barrels of oil a day.  By a little more than a decade from now, we will have cut that by one-third.  That is something that we can achieve. We can cut our oil dependence -- we can cut our oil dependence by a third.
>
> Now, another substitute for oil that holds tremendous promise is renewable biofuels -– not just ethanol, but biofuels made from things like switchgrass and wood chips and biomass. 
>
> If anybody doubts the potential of these fuels, consider Brazil.  As I said, I was just there last week.  Half of Brazil’s vehicles can run on biofuels -- half of their fleet of automobiles can run on biofuels instead of petroleum.  Just last week, our Air Force -- our own Air Force -- used an advanced biofuel blend to fly a Raptor 22 -- an F-22 Raptor faster than the speed of sound.  Think about that.
>
> In fact, the Air Force is aiming to get half of its domestic jet fuel from alternative sources by 2016.  And I’m directing the Navy and the Department of Energy and Agriculture to work with the private sector to create advanced biofuels that can power not just fighter jets, but also trucks and commercial airliners.
>
> So there’s no reason we shouldn’t be using these renewable fuels throughout America.
>
> And just like the fuels we use in our cars, we’re going to have to find cleaner renewable sources of electricity.  Today, about two-fifths of our electricity come from clean energy sources.  But we can do better than that.  I think that with the right incentives in place, we can double our use of clean energy. And that’s why, in my State of the Union address back in January, I called for a new Clean Energy Standard for America:  By 2035, 80 percent of our electricity needs to come from a wide range of clean energy sources -- renewables like wind and solar, efficient natural gas.  And, yes, we’re going to have to examine how do we make clean coal and nuclear power work.
>
> But more broadly, a clean energy standard can expand the scope of clean energy investments because what it does is it gives cutting-edge companies the certainty that they need to invest.  Essentially what it does is it says to companies, you know what, you will have a customer if you’re producing clean energy.  Utilities, they need to buy a certain amount of clean energy in their overall portfolio, and that means that innovators are willing to make those big capital investments.
>
> We’re already paying a price for our inaction.  Every time we fill up at the pump, every time we lose a job or a business to countries that are investing more than we do in clean energy, when it comes to our air, our water, and the climate change that threatens the planet that you will inherit -– we’re already paying a price.  These are costs that we are already bearing.  And if we do nothing, the price will only go up.
>
> So at moments like these, sacrificing these investments in research and development, in supporting clean energy technologies, that would weaken our energy economy and make us more dependent on oil.  That’s not a game plan to win the future. That’s a vision to keep us mired in the past.  I will not accept that outcome for the United States of America.  We are not going to do that.
>
> We need you to dream big.  We need you to summon that same spirit of unbridled optimism and that bold willingness to tackle tough challenges and see those challenges through that led previous generations to rise to greatness -– to save a democracy, to touch the moon, to connect the world with our own science and our own imagination.
>
> That’s what America is capable of.  That's what you have to push America to do, and it will be you that pushes it.  That history of ours, of meeting challenges -– that's your birthright. You understand that there’s no problem out there that is not within our power to solve.
>
> I don’t want to leave this challenge for future Presidents. I don’t want to leave it for my children.  I don’t want to leave it for your children.  So, yes, solving it will take time and it will take effort.  It will require our brightest scientists, our most creative companies.  It will require all of us –- Democrats, Republicans, and everybody in between -– to do our part.  But with confidence in America and in ourselves and in one another, I know this is a challenge that we will solve.

President Obama, from his speech at Georgetown University introducing the Blueprint for A Secure Energy Future - Blueprint.

Best regards,
--
Norm Roulet
IntraCom - ICEarth - realNEO - real coop
norm [at] realneo [dot] us
216-688-5221

Financials withheld. Feedback welcome. Comments on realNEO closed for this posting - email norm [at] realneo [dot] us.