The Flaws of Obama’s Energy Security Trust

Vortex Tools looks at a recent infographic release from the White House on the Energy Security Trust and explains why it makes a flawed boast.

So the White House recently released this infographic explaining the perks of the Energy Security Trust:

There’s a lot that sounds good here—no extra costs, more clean energy, and supporting American jobs, research and innovation—but there’s an obvious burning question that this style of marketing often misses: If this $2 billion revenue is from profitable oil and gas companies, and it’s used to “shift our vehicles off oil for good,” why would the oil and gas industry support it? Natural gas isn’t enough (as an industry that has yet to recover), and anyone in oil and gas just assumes it’d be next on the chopping block anyway.

If I looked at Bill Gates and said, “I want to take some of your profits and use them to invest in companies that will shift computer use away from PCs for good” I’d expect him to look at me and say, “Um… no.” So when I see this type of stick it to ‘em marketing, I just assume that there’s something dishonest going on. While I’ve run across some in-depth rebuttals already, the short version is this:

• The oil and gas industry is only giving what they have to, by royalties and fees paid to the government for using federal land.
• While there is no increase in the budget for this program, these funds could be used to pay down the deficit.
• These types of subsidies already exist… and many would argue that they already don’t work. I spoke to a guy who got out of solar recently. He said, “We’re all playing a game of last man standing, waiting for the subsidies to stop so that we can cash in after many solar companies crash. The only way to make money as a small, innovative company is to get acquired by the big energy companies, because they’re the ones with the funds to last to the end.” Who are the big energy companies? They’re the ones who’re tied to the oil and gas industry, either directly or indirectly, so you’re just pouring in money to delay the inevitable and still have the guys you don’t like make a profit (if that’s your bent).
• While there’s duplicity for subsidies, not surprisingly, none of the Energy Security Trust is going towards oil and gas expansion in the U.S.

Of course I hope that the Energy Security Trust increases jobs, innovation and clean energy, but when I see flawed tactics covered by iffy marketing, I’m not expecting much.

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

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Al Gore Responds to Current TV Sale Controversy

Vortex Tools shares notes on Al Gore’s recent interview with David Letterman.

I recently covered the sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera and how many viewed it as Al Gore getting a big oil payday from selling off a green media company.

While Gore has only granted interviews to shows that are likely to be easier on him, the same questions keep coming up. Whether it’s MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart or this clip from “Late Night with David Letterman,” everyone sees the same problem… except Al Gore.

Now I’ll be honest: The video isn’t all that interesting or heated. Gore has never been Mr. Charisma and late-night TV humor depends on you being half asleep, but it’s notable that Gore keeps getting the same questions (and giving the same answers focusing on Al Jazeera’s commitment to good journalism rather than Qatar’s connections to big oil).

Notes by time (as the video –with its unfortunate branding — will likely be pulled at some point):

• 0:06: Letterman notes that no one could ever find Current TV to watch it.
• 0:13: Gore cites that he wanted Current to be independent news (it wasn’t).
• 0:20: Gore cites all the awards Current won (read: consolation prize for crap ratings).
• 0:45: Letterman notes inherent suspicion over Al Jazeera in the States, asking if it’s “propaganda for Muslims, violence and terrorism.”
• 1:45: Gore jokingly notes he better Google what Al Jazeera means.
• 1:56: Letterman questions the conflict of interest in selling Current to a “foe” of climate change.
• 2:39: Gore laughs off the accusation and refutes the claim.

As long as he stays away from disgruntled ex-Current employees, it looks like Al Gore will be fine.

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

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Gas Flares Burn Bright in the Bakken Oilfield

Vortex Tools shares an image of the Bakken oilfield from space.

When it comes to American oil and gas fields, the Bakken in North Dakota is booming with activity. However, as regulations to ban flaring (burning) of gas won’t be made until 2015, currently 30% of all natural gas in the Bakken field is burned. This visual from NASA shows how the Bakken is lit up like a city:

As the Vortex tools capture polluting vapors (allowing oil and gas producers to avoid fines) and recover a greater amount of natural gas liquids, North Dakota—with its high liquids rate in their natural gas—benefits greatly from the Vortex, getting the oil vapor values from the natural gas as opposed to burning those values to atmosphere.

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

Read Full Post »

Green Leader Al Gore Gets Big Oil Payday

Vortex Tools discusses the sale of Current to Al Jazeera and what people think of Al Gore getting $100 million from an entity with ties to Middle Eastern oil.

When it comes to legitimate creations, former Vice President and green movement face Al Gore was responsible for Current, a media company he launched in 2002 with businessman Joel Hyatt. Their goal was to provide independent news for the 18-34 demographic. Of course, independent news goes out the window as soon as money and ratings are involved, and by the end, Current had little credibility in that area.

What Current was known for was short-lived partnerships, entertainment shows that drew more interest than their (sorta) objective news shows, a painful 2009 (financial issues and two of their journalists – later pardoned – each sentenced to 12 years hard labor for entering North Korea illegally), major format changes in 2011-2012, and, in general, not getting much traction with any of it. Keith Olbermann, freshly booted from MSNBC for the controversy surrounding his donations to Democratic congressional candidates, came on board in 2011, but was fired a year later. Gore and Olbermann sued each other while New York Attorney General / Governor / hooker aficionado Elliot Spitzer replaced Olbermann’s show.

And then, as of January 2^nd, 2013, Current was sold to Al Jazeera for $500 million.

Yeah, the Al Jazeera that, up until 2011, was owned by the government of Qatar—a large oil player. Al Jazeera has also had its fair share of worldwide criticism and controversies, as well as having to deal with attacks and censorship.

Gore’s take of the Current sale was $100 million (before taxes), bringing his personal fortune up to $300 million. As others have noted, this means that Al Gore is richer than 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney—a guy grilled for being out of touch with the average American thanks to his personal fortune of $230 million. By way of comparison, pre-green Al Gore—in 2000: the year he lost the presidential election—was worth $2 million.

Reaction from Current staff members was, well… cover your kids’ ears:

On Al Gore not showing up to the press conference announcing the sale:

“Of course Al didn’t show up,” said one high placed Current staffer. “He has no credibility. He’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising—and Al Gore, that bulls***ter sells to the emir?”

And later:

“We all know now that Al Gore is nothing but a bulls***ter,” said the staffer bluntly.

We do stories on the tax code, and he sells the network before the tax code kicked in?

“Al was always lecturing us about green. He kept his word about green all right—as in cold, hard cash!”

(Although both sides tried to get the deal done before the end of 2012, the sale officially went through in early January, with higher taxes in place. Regardless, the green cash joke is an easy one to make.)

Granted the quotes are (not surprisingly) anonymous and promoted mostly on the conservative side of the web, but the sentiments still seem accurate. Even CNN’s Howard Kurtz noted that “there is something unsettling about Gore making off with such a big payday from a government-subsidized channel after making such bad television.”

Since that time, Al Gore has spent some of his earnings on Apple stock. As for Current, Time Warner Cable has already dropped the channel from its lineup for low ratings and an exodus of staff continues. Time Warner has stated that they would be open to Al Jazeera America if it makes sense for their viewers.

In the meantime, let the Al Gorezeera jokes roll.

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

Read Full Post »

E15 Fuel Voids Car Warranties

Vortex Tools looks at AAA and car companies’ concerns over E15 fuel.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) has come out against E15 fuel as it could damage your car engine if your car model is older than 2012. So what is E15 and how does it differ from what we currently have?

Clearly this is an older pic (those gas prices are low — even for now)

E15 is a 15% ethanol, 85% gasoline blend and can be used in your car or truck, but not in all those off-road vehicles, lawnmowers and chainsaws you left lying around. (This is not to be confused with E85: an 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline blend that is for use in flex-fuel vehicles.) Although E15 has only been allowed for use since 2010, E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) has been around for 30+ years and now makes up 90% of the U.S. gasoline market. Approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), E15 is only sold at 10 gas stations in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, but obviously the ethanol market hopes this will grow.

Alongside AAA, car manufacturers disagree (at least for now). Near the end of 2012, five car companies—BMW, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen—stated they would not cover any E15-related damage claim. Here in early 2013, it’s now up to 10 (including Ford, Honda and Mercedes-Benz). Worse than that, some of those car companies have now stated that E15 will void your warranty.

In a recent interview, Lauren Fix “The Car Coach” stated, “The problem is: there wasn’t a lot of testing done.”

Well, that’s actually not true. E15 is the most tested fuel in EPA history and they’ve stated that there’s no difference between E10 and E15. According to Fix, however, “There’s all kinds of damage to emissions systems, fuel systems, and engines.” She also notes that E15 is corrosive to gaskets.

Along with AAA and several car companies, this is not a unique opinion. So if E15 was tested extensively by the EPA, how did they miss this?

According to AAA, the EPA’s “research focused primarily on exhaust emissions and associated components such as catalytic converters. While this research was consistent with the EPA’s mission, it never fully examined whether E15 might damage engines and fuel systems.”

This doesn’t mean the EPA didn’t do their job. It means that E15 hasn’t been around long enough for the major flaws to start showing up (that this many flaws have shown up this early is alarming). It’s the same reason I don’t own a hybrid car – there isn’t enough data on the true cost of maintenance over the car’s lifespan yet.

AAA wants to make it clear they’re not opposed to ethanol though: “AAA believes that ethanol-blended fuels have the potential to save Americans money and reduce the nation’s dependency on fossil fuels. The problem is that available research, including the EPA’s exhaust emissions tests, is not sufficient evidence that E15 is safe to use in most vehicles.”

I can see them wanting to take the neutral approach, but I’ll state that there are plenty of problems with ethanol. Although it’s better for the environment than gasoline, at least when it comes to how mainstream cars are currently made, ethanol is not as fuel-efficient, so even if you pay the same price at the pump, you’re filling up more, and this is before you get into damaged engines and voided warranties…

Additionally, corn ethanol is not nearly as efficient as other ethanol processes (like Brazil’s sugar ethanol), and the standard for U.S. corn ethanol production remains above what can actually be created. There are also issues with how subsidies shape the industry, as well as how few places can use the extensive amount of water used to create corn ethanol.

Finally, corn ethanol detractors have their own share of misinformation. The oft-cited ‘food or fuel’ debate (basically: food costs more because we’re using our crop spaces for ethanol) is inaccurate, as the two don’t directly compete. If corn ethanol is to blame for rising fuel prices, it’s way, way behind a lot of the other contributing factors.

Here’s what we do know: E15 could well be the future of cars, but it’s too harmful and unproven in the present. The fact that it’s sold without these warnings (even minimally) is unfair to car owners who don’t know any better. Thus far, car companies seem unwilling to move towards E15 – especially as it forces them to make parts to deal with the corrosive nature of ethanol – but you know how a government mandate can change things.

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

Read Full Post »

Natural Gas Flare Sounds Like a Jet Engine

Vortex Tools shares a video of a natural gas flare in North Dakota.

One of our key U.S. oil & gas markets is the Bakken field in North Dakota where, currently, they’re burning off (or flaring) 30% of their natural gas. In the aftermath of the 2012 election, flaring will be regulated down in the upcoming years. As Vortex Tools has a solution that increases and captures the natural gas liquids energy entrained in the gas, the flare burns smaller and cleaner, allowing oil & gas producers to increase their profits while remaining in compliance with environmental regulations.

This brief video, taken by one of our partners in North Dakota, captures the jet engine sound coming from the flare (without Vortex):

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Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

Read Full Post »

Cleantech Open Mega Post: Top Five Summaries and Every Post on the CTO

Vortex Tools qualified as a semifinalist in the Cleantech Open—a global competition to accelerate green technologies—for their application in turning harmful CO2 waste from oil and gas wells into recovered high-value energy. This series of blogs was designed to chronicle our experience going through the 2012 Cleantech Open as a reference point for future applicants. Every post — as well as the top five best and worst things the Cleantech Open has to offer — is listed below.

After five months and now 10 posts on the Cleantech Open (or clean tech open if the search engines are slacking), it’s time I get back to things that are ongoing, like my disdain for Captain Planet. Before I go, however, here’s a post of the top five best and worst parts of the Cleantech Open, as well as every post of what to expect from each section of this green business accelerator:

Top Five Best Things in the Cleantech Open

1. You get your money’s worth: Despite the initial cost, with the extensive networking, volunteer services, and yes, free swag, you’ll get more value than what you put in. Based on time input, though, that’s a whole other angle. For more on this, see posts I and III below.
2. Rapid education for new small business people: If you’ve just started a company or you just have an idea, the Cleantech Open is for you. Established companies should stay away. For more on this, see post III, IV and VII below.
3. Excellent business clinics: Currently these are only in the Rocky Mountain region, but with the caliber of support and the expertise of the specialists, they should be expanded to every region. For more on this, see post IV below.
4. Cleantech Open volunteers genuinely want to help every team succeed in business: With the networking alone, you’ll start to connect to some of the right people (though networking is always a numbers game and you never know its true value until later). More than that, however, Cleantech Open volunteers want to see innovation succeed. For more on this, see post II below.
5. Win or lose, your company messaging will improve: Whether it’s your elevator pitch, legal needs, target market or customer connections, the Cleantech Open will point you in the right direction. For more on this, see posts III, IV and V below.

Top Five Worst Things in the Cleantech Open

1. Very disorganized; needs more staff support: This was the true constant in the Cleantech Open. If they want to grow, they need to invest in the proper infrastructure, but those costs could well change its value. For more on this, see posts I, II, IV and VI below.
2. Not all regions and personnel are created equal: Whether it’s the amount of finalists, the engagement of personnel, or what state you’re in (in proximity to where the regional events are held), your experience can vary. Call up past semifinalists in your state and check. For more on this, see post III below.
3. The worksheets are frustrating and have little value (especially to an established company): Whether it’s meaningless deadlines, shifting requirements, or the sheer amount of busy work (especially with the webinars) for a product that doesn’t have that much value in the Cleantech Open or the business world, the worksheets — at least with their current form and emphasis — are a waste of time and effort. Additionally, much of the education materials throughout default to the lowest common denominator, meaning the more basic info you know, the less you learn. For more on this, see posts IV and V below.
4. Some judges will continually miss the value of your product: People mess up and have biases, and since the judges in the Cleantech Open are no different, it doesn’t matter what you say, some will miss or misconstrue what you present (even if those worksheets were supposed to help ease that problem). This can happen as early as the application phase or as late as final judging, but it will happen. For more on this, see posts I, VI and VII below.
5. Final judging bias overrules overall competition effort: Although the Cleantech Open says overall competition participation is important, it feels more like you can shrug off the first 80% of the competition and hope to hit the judges niche at the end. Rather than sending on the best teams, it feels like they send on the teams that safely fit the Cleantech Open mold. For more on this, see posts VI and VII below.

Process Posts: What to Expect from the…

I. Application

II. National Conference

III. Regional Academy

IV. Webinars (part one) and business clinics

V. Webinars (part two), worksheets and mock judging

VI. Final judging and the awards ceremony

VII. Final thoughts on the Cleantech Open

Misc. Posts on the Cleantech Open

VIII. Five insights to the current state of green energy in the U.S.

IX. Vortex Tools clip from the Cleantech Open

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If you have any questions or comments, please email me at blog (at) spiroflo (dot) com

Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

Read Full Post »

Final Thoughts on the Cleantech Open

Vortex Tools qualified as a semifinalist in the Cleantech Open—a global competition to accelerate green technologies—for their application in turning harmful CO2 waste from oil and gas wells into recovered high-value energy. This blog covers Vortex Tools’ final placement and all the things we couldn’t (or shouldn’t) have said along the way.

After nearly five months, the 2012 Cleantech Open has wrapped. In writing these final thoughts, I wanted to give it some time so that I’d be fair. Inevitably, if you win, it’s hard to not come across as wearing rose-tinted glasses, and if you lose, it’s hard to not come across as sour grapes. As this entry is long (and I’ve covered the complete process over a half-dozen other entries), I’ll post a complete summary soon.

Throughout the Cleantech Open, I’ve tried to be fair about both the good and the bad, even if it’s just my opinion. Hopefully this blog is no different:

1. Vortex Tools Placed As a Runner-Up in Both Categories 

In getting picked as runner-up in both sustainability and the overall competition, we had two avenues to mercilessly threaten the winning teams to get to the national finals, but for all the horse heads we left on pillows, no one dropped out to allow Vortex Tools to go on. As both these runner-up nods indicate that the Cleantech Open thinks somewhat highly of our product, we should be satisfied, right?

Well… we’re not. Before I get the “you’re just disgruntled because you didn’t win” line, let me explain:

Let’s get ready to rrruuuuumble! 

2. The Best Teams Did Not Win

Bear in mind, throughout this process, you will connect with many other teams. If you’re like me, it’s possible to enjoy people, but still be objective about their strengths and weaknesses. Of the three teams picked as finalists in the Rocky Mountain region, one was clearly the favored pick, as they won both the finalist slot and the sustainability slot. This threw off the other teams in the region — as we thought there were four finalists, not three — but upon questioning this, we were told that the Cleantech Open judges like it when the same team wins both categories, as it shows that a winning team can also be sustainable. It should be noted that this is a 2012 rule update (in previous years the same judges divided these categories).

As sustainability is supposed to be 20% of your final grade, I figured each of the finalists would have a strong sustainability component, but all of them seemed surprisingly lacking, especially as several other teams excelled in this area. Worse than that, the sustainability finalist was a terrible pick. I’m not saying this just from my viewpoint, but also by the stated Cleantech Open guidelines. At mock judging, the sustainability judge told us that sustainability was graded based on a triple bottom line, meaning that the technology has to provide a profit, as well as benefiting both people and the planet. We were also told that Vortex led in this category, because as of the mock judging stage (as in two weeks before the competition was over), no other team had incorporated sustainability into their presentation. That’s right: in a green competition not one team save Vortex had green benefits noted in their presentation. Seemed pretty nuts to me, too.

I won’t list the finalists’ names (as that would be unfair to them based on what I’m about to say), but of the three winning teams in the Rocky Mountain region:

• The favored team didn’t show up to several “required” events, but was a shoo in as they’re a safe pick, had won prior green competitions, are involved in academia and nanotechnologies, but not in-revenue (all Cleantech Open soft spots). One of their team members noted that the Simon Cowell judge knew him from another competition and was excited to see him again (not surprisingly, this was one of the few teams that judge didn’t grill). Most judges would understand the need to remove bias and recuse themselves, but I’m assuming the Cleantech Open doesn’t have the support for that kind of personnel switch. In the end, it just serves to note that the green world is as much of an insider’s club as the good old boy industry agendas they despise. It’s okay; networking is that way of the world. We’ve benefited from it as much as it has hurt us.
• The second finalist is easy to pick apart, but as they worked hard and are a different take on what clean tech means, I’ll actually give kudos to the Cleantech Open for selecting a great long shot pick.
• The final team though — that’s the one that highlights all the issues with the Cleantech Open judging: This team struggled throughout the process, was unprepared several times (but allowed to fix things after deadlines), and didn’t even finish their final presentations. As a result, I have a hard time believing they came out ahead of most of the other semifinalists. For as harsh as that may sound, consider this: Even the leader of this team was surprised at being picked as one of the winners.

So if there were better teams in the Rocky Mountain region, how did we get these three finalists? 

3. Cleantech Open Biases Come Out Late in the Game

As far as the 2012 Rocky Mountain region is concerned, there were certain obvious biases (covered above), but there also seemed to be judge opposition towards in-revenue companies and dirty industries (oil and gas, clean coal, biofuels, landfilling, etc.) – regardless of how much innovative companies improve these areas. I say this because most of the best teams in the Rocky Mountain region fell into at least one of these categories and didn’t win. Every team that won hasn’t sold anything yet.

At the beginning of the competition, we thought we had a chance to do well in our region, but not at the finals for a couple of main reasons:

1) This is a clean tech competition: Inevitably, we figured we’d run into the kind of green crowd that hates that we work in the oil and gas industry, even if we’re trying to improve it. Do you really see a clean technology competition picking an oil and gas company as their winner? As crass as an example as it may seem, it’d be like a mainstream beauty pageant picking a plus-sized model as their winner. It should be possible — as beautiful is beautiful regardless of size and there are a variety of factors in those competitions (like the verbal horror of the question and answer sections) – but in the end, whether it’s stated or not, we all know what they’re looking for.

2) Chevron was the main sponsor: Yes, you read that correctly: one of the six supermajor oil and gas companies was the largest corporate sponsor of the Cleantech Open in 2012. While some might think this should have improved Vortex’s chances to win, large “dirty industry” companies promote green activities to A) keep a pulse on innovation; and B) improve their image. Again, with the latter, there’s no way they’d pick and oil and gas company to win a green competition. Everyone would assume it was rigged by sponsor dollars.

Even with these factors in mind, Vortex figured we’d enter to network and prove that the oil and gas industry can do better environmentally (reducing CO2 emissions) while doing so economically (increasing oil vapor and natural gas liquid recovery for greater profit). Up until the final judging, we thought we were wrong about these initial assumptions and the aforementioned biases, but it was really disappointing to be proven right in the closing days.

As a clean coal company won the Rocky Mountain region in 2011 — but got ripped apart at the national finals — we thought we had a chance, but it turns out the only reason that clean coal company went to the finals at all was because one of the safe companies took the prize money and immediately dropped out of the competition. You can bet your pocket lint that little payday flub got fixed this year. As a result, the biases we noted above have remained consistent over several years.

4. Come On, Are You Sure You’re Not Just Bitter?

With this much criticism, I imagine a number of you must be thinking: “Why don’t you just say you should have won?”

Okay, I’ll say it: Vortex Tools should’ve been one of the finalists.

Angry cat: More socially acceptable than I am in this situation

It’s one thing if we say it — we could easily be delusional about how good we are (watch the tryouts for any talent show on TV) — but the problem is others were saying “Vortex should win,” too. This includes some of the other semifinalists, the volunteers who helped teams with their messaging, and even Cleantech Open personnel. When Vortex didn’t win and the wrong company did (above a field of stronger competitors, not just us), the Cleantech Open personnel said things to us like, “I don’t know what happened”; “I don’t get it, but we have no pull on the judging team”; and bluntly: “You should have won.”

As I’m as direct in private as I am publicly, Vortex discussed this with some of the more open Cleantech Open personnel. One high up volunteer told us, “You only lost by half a point” (hence the runner-up status in both categories) and that we were leading the competition until late in the day. The problem is that two of the teams who beat us presented early and the last one was the weakest team. As genuinely supportive as the Cleantech Open is to each company throughout (and even after) the process, there are still hidden standards and expectations for their winners.

Final judging should not be able to override what was a good process, but as of this year in the Cleantech Open, it does. Pick the wrong judges and they’ll send on their bias rather than consistent teams. In the end though, it’s their competition; they can judge it however they like. However, people also have the right to judge the way they judge — especially when they don’t follow their own guidelines — and we’ve come to the conclusion that Vortex’s runner-up nods were given as platitudes for a dirty industry team that wouldn’t be allowed to win a clean tech competition.

I’m guessing that I’m not the first person to feel this way, but if the Cleantech Open doesn’t want a repeat of Vortex Tools in the future, it needs an update. The easiest ways I see to do this are A) have pre-revenue and in-revenue companies compete for different finalist slots; B) place “dirty” technologies in their own category that they can actually win; and/or C) rewrite the entry rules so that a team like Vortex can’t slip through the initial process.

Inevitably, whatever the Cleantech Open is at this stage — a small business accelerator, a positive image shift for large sponsors, or a way to feel good about supporting small green startups  — it’s not a business competition.

5. The Bottom Line: Knowing What We Know Now, Vortex Tools Wouldn’t Have Participated in the Cleantech Open

It’s safe to say that Vortex got more out of the Cleanteach Open than we put in. There are many good parts, including:

• Lots of networking opportunities
• Several great Cleantech Open staff volunteers, including David Talon, Rex Northen, Cindy Jennings, Jerry Healey and Jennifer Mayes
• Excellent business clinics (every region should have these); and
• The ability to improve your marketing message, especially with volunteer companies like Posit Partners involved

So then… what’s the problem?

The problem is that you can do all the above with far less commitment. You can be intentional about networking; you can work with business clinics and marketing groups more specifically (even if you have to pay for their services, they’re worth it); and guess what? Usually it doesn’t take a four-month commitment and you don’t get all the bad we’ve covered either.

Early on, we knew the Cleantech Open would be a hefty commitment, but we chose to dedicate the resources. This meant working early/late and on our vacations. It meant that as a company already selling a patented and proven technology into growing markets, we had to spend our resources carefully, so to get a late game bait and switch from the Cleantech Open feels like a rip off.

I will say this: If you’re just starting a business (pre-revenue), the Cleantech Open is worth it. You’ll get a rapid business education, technology development, market help, a level of credibility for your company, extensive networking and many other good things. As a company actually doing business, however, we got a basic business education we already knew and are far beyond, resources we could get elsewhere more efficiently, and the final jab of watching weaker teams stumble into awards with less effort.

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In the next (and final) Cleantech Open blog, I’ll provide links to every Cleantech Open blog I’ve written as well the top five pros and cons of the process. If you read all of this entry, you get an e-high five. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at blog (at) spiroflo (dot) com

Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

 

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What to Expect From the Cleantech Open: Final Judging and the Awards Ceremony

Vortex Tools qualified as a semifinalist in the Cleantech Open—a global competition to accelerate green technologies—for their application in turning harmful CO2 waste from oil and gas wells into recovered high-value energy. This series of blogs is designed to chronicle our experience going through the 2012 Cleantech Open as a reference point for future applicants. Today’s blog: What to expect from final judging and the awards ceremony.

Of note: I’m writing points 1 and 2 before we find out if we’re selected as one of the Rocky Mountain region finalists—it feels like I’ll be more objective that way.

After four months, we’ve completed all the regional activities in the Cleantech Open. If Vortex is selected as one of the finalists in the Rocky Mountain region, I’ll blog onward. If not, you’re on your own, dear souls. As usual, these are the opinions of one participant going through the process in 2012:

1. Even Volunteers are Frustrated by the End

I’ve mentioned throughout these blogs that there’s a degree of disorganization that needs to be addressed in the Cleantech Open. Thankfully, as the competition progress to the final stages, things mostly run smoothly for the companies. However, this doesn’t mean that the volunteers aren’t still stressed. We happened to catch a high-up volunteer on an honest day and he expressed his frustration that nearly every “this will not be moved” deadline was extended and that, with the current structure, even the simplest tasks took far too long to be completed.

In coming to the end of this process, one of the last tasks is to upload your presentation about 10 days before the final judging day. This is good, as since the Power Point deck of your presentation cannot be changed, you get a week-and-a-half to get your final presentation polished. There’s just one catch: Throughout this process, we tried to turn our work in early. This meant we didn’t get the shaft from website overload issues and that I didn’t flog my teammates as the deadline rapidly approached (it’s only happened three or four times, I swear).

In seeing that the deadline was on a Sunday—the worst day for an online deadline, as there’s all the issues and none of the technical support—we elected to wrap up two days early. Unfortunately, the Cleantech Open website wasn’t accepting any documents, as the organizers hadn’t opened the submissions back up after the worksheets were due. Apparently nobody else tried to submit early, or at the very least, they hadn’t complained. It’s these kinds of minor oversights that can cause major issues, but once you get the last of your materials in, it’s time to present:

2. Some Judges Will Be Harsh

In the Rocky Mountain region, both the mock judging and the final judging were held at Faegre Baker Daniels, though the judges and the rooms were different each time. When it comes to final judging, you have to arrive 30 minutes early. You get 10 minutes to present, then there’s 10 minutes of Q&A followed by five minutes of feedback. In the Q&A you’re graded based on how you answer questions and in the feedback you’re graded based on shutting up. Although two people can present, only one can answer questions while the other is a scribe. There are six judges in the room (it can be hard to tell who’s who) along with a few more familiar faces.

At this stage in the Cleantech Open process, no matter how much you’ve enjoyed the connections or the ways it has helped you refine your company message, you’ll be ready to be done. With this is mind we elected to go first. Why wait a few more hours?

Simon Cowell

We’d received positive feedback throughout the Cleantech Open, but since they’re preparing you to go against other finalists from other regions, some of the judges can be tougher on you. For the most part, we appreciated the criticisms, but there was one judge who was the equivalent of Simon Cowell, where even if the heart of the criticism was fair, his delivery was not. It seemed like it was his job to get a rise out of you, but we survived him fine. Unfortunately, this was the first time we felt we experienced a bias in the Cleantech Open process—something that was wonderfully absent before.

As for the other judges, one of the earliest frustrations comes back again, in that even if the information was a part of your presentation, they can miss or misconstrue that info. In some ways it felt like they hadn’t read our worksheet materials and executive summary at all, lowering their value in the competition, but with 16 other companies still in our region (down from 20 total at the start), I can see the need to cut them some slack, too. In updating your presentation to earlier rounds of judging, you either, a) get criticism that’s the opposite of what the last judge wanted; or b) get new criticism based on the flaws that are left. Inevitably, a 10-minute presentation is designed to have gaps. In the real world, this type of presentation is designed to leave people wanting more. In the Cleantech Open, it’s a never-ending edit-fest, but that’s the parameters in this type of competition.

3. Awards Ceremony: See How Far People Have Come / Haven’t Come

And then the big day…

In our region, the awards were held at the University of Denver’s Cable Center and were hosted by Emmy award winning news anchor, Cheryl Preheim. She graciously skipped the 60-year anniversary of her own network, 9 News, to host the Cleantech Open awards.

Before that though, teams were required to show up by 2 PM (most by 1 PM) in order to set up a presentation table and get parking validated (never miss an opportunity to avoid paying for that kind of thing). At 2:30 we went through and practiced our three-minute pitches. What was strange about this is that A) some teams did not show up for this practice and had a hard time getting through their actual pitch; and B) very few teams made a specific three-minute slide deck. Many had either just a single screen or had just put in the 10-minute version, which they’d have no hope of getting though. Despite the standard claim that you wouldn’t be able to change your presentation, several companies were allowed to do so, because deadlines mean nothing in the Cleantech Open. Every deadline throughout this four-month process was amended/extended.  

Before the pitches, there’s essentially a small trade show in the main area of the Cable Center consisting of the Rocky Mountain finalists. Like the original national conference, you get a 6’ table for anything you can fit on there (electricity is extra). From 3-4, the sponsors come in and from 4-5 it’s open to anyone with a ticket—likely your friends and family who like you enough to pay $60 per ticket. There’s an open bar and “heavy appetizers,” which means random hors d’oeuvres and a feeling you should’ve eaten a bigger lunch. All in all, 170 people attended the event.

After this, you’ll hear a few brief speeches before moving into the auditorium for the three-minute pitches and awards. The teams will sit up front to get in and out easily. If you don’t complete your pitch in three minutes, the sound booth will turn up that fancypants orchestral awards music until you get the hint (though some speeches sure did seem longer than that limit). As usual, you don’t know who you’re in the room with, so present your best.

Like everything else in the Cleantech Open, not all regions are created equal. The original western region in California—which started it all and is still a hotbed of green activity—gets six entrants to the finals (one in each category). The Rocky Mountain region gets three entrants (and can pick multiples from the same category) whereas the new pilot region in Texas only got one finalist this year (based on the number of entrants). Each region also picks a winner in sustainability that gets to go on to the Global Forum/finals in California the following month. Each winner gets prizes in cash and services.

After the awards are handed out, you’ll spend the last hour back out by your table meeting and greeting people again, this time with dessert. By 8:30-9, things wrapped up and it’s tear down/pack up time. In the end, no matter who wins, you’ve built some great relationships and you’re happy to see whoever go on…

…but if you’re like me, you’ll have some opinions on who does and does not go on and why. I’ll cover those next time.

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In the next blog, I’ll reveal Vortex Tools’ placement in the Cleantech Open and will share my closing thoughts on the semifinalist process. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at blog (at) spiroflo (dot) com

Colin McKay Miller is the VP of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

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Ending Tax Breaks: Obama on Oil; Romney on Green Energy

SpiroFlo looks at a clip from the first Presidential debate where the candidates discuss ending tax breaks for oil and green energy.

Last night, President Obama and republican candidate Romney debated a number of issues. One of the most quotable lines, however, came from Mitt Romney on President Obama’s decision to put $90 billion or “fifty years worth of (tax) breaks” into green energy, namely solar and wind. Romney cited such failures as Solyndra and Ener1. Tesla and Fisker (and their flaming car) also got lumped in as implied wastes of money.

The real zinger from Romney to Obama: “You don’t just pick winners and losers, You pick the losers.”

Of course, this was couched as being a friend’s opinion, not Romney’s. Early in the clip, Obama confirms that he believes that the 100-year oil tax breaks should go: “It’s time to end it,” he said:

However frustrating you consider these opinions, you can take comfort in knowing that you probably have more control over these politicians than moderator Jim Lehrer did last night.

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Colin McKay Miller is the Vice President of Marketing for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.) and safe movement of materials (including potash and soda ash).

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