>Biodiesel has the same problems as ethanol; we don't have enough arable land to grow enough crops for it.<
Biodiesel can be made from used cooking oil. There's enough of that in US restaurants to make a sizable dent in our dependence on ME oil supplies. It takes less energy by far to produce biodiesel than it does ethanol, because of the recycling.
Biodiesel can be made from used cooking oil. There's enough of that in US restaurants to make a sizable dent in our dependence on ME oil supplies. It takes less energy by far to produce biodiesel than it does ethanol, because of the recycling.
That might be so; but it's still not enough. It would take several
acres of soybeans to produce enough biodiesel for one car for a year. We're talking about hundreds of millions of acres of crops. As you say, that can be reduced by using waste cooking oil, but it simply won't be enough.
The only long term solution is electric cars and nuclear power. A company called
Tesla Motors makes an electric sports car which can be charged overnight and has a range of 250 miles. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that this car is practical. It's $90,000 price tag and somewhat experimental design means that, for now, it is nothing more than a novelty. I have a pretty long commute to work, but even so, if I owned one I could drive to and from work and run all my errands on one charge pretty easily.
As I said, this vehicle is a novelty, but it's practical cruising range serves as proof of concept that an all electric car is a feasible alternative. The power that car runs on did not come from any source in any way related to the middle east.