Posted on 08/01/2007 10:55:22 AM PDT by finnman69
The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn.
Ethanol, of course, is nothing new. American refiners will produce nearly 6 billion gallons of corn ethanol this year, mostly for use as a gasoline additive to make engines burn cleaner. But in June, the Senate all but announced that America's future is going to be powered by biofuels, mandating the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. According to ethanol boosters, this is the beginning of a much larger revolution that could entirely replace our 21-million-barrel-a-day oil addiction. Midwest farmers will get rich, the air will be cleaner, the planet will be cooler, and, best of all, we can tell those greedy sheiks to f*ck off. As the king of ethanol hype, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, put it recently, "Everything about ethanol is good, good, good."
This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullsh*t. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
Simply put, the eniroweenies are pushing for a de-industrialized world. But the article is right on re: corn ethanol:
"Nor is all ethanol created equal. In Brazil, ethanol made from sugar cane has an energy balance of 8-to-1 -- that is, when you add up the fossil fuels used to irrigate, fertilize, grow, transport and refine sugar cane into ethanol, the energy output is eight times higher than the energy inputs. That's a better deal than gasoline, which has an energy balance of 5-to-1. In contrast, the energy balance of corn ethanol is only 1.3-to-1 - making it practically worthless as an energy source. "Corn ethanol is essentially a way of recycling natural gas," says Robert Rapier, an oil-industry engineer who runs the R-Squared Energy Blog. "
This from the Rolling Stone? What has happened to the icons of liberalism?
As soon as you figure out how to get a nuclear reactor to power my Durango you let me know.
L
YEAH, if ethanol is so grat, why not just make it from natural gas, and clean up the ozone pollution? C2H6 + O3 = C2H5OH + O2. I can sell you the secret recipe....
WELL, WELL, WELL! HOORAY FOR ROLLING STONE!.............NOW MAYBE SOMEBODY WILL “GET IT”!...........
corn you see is “made in america” while sugar is “foreign.” There is a reason why high fructose corn syrup has replaced sugar in so many products....lots of govt involvement.
raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.
World Hunger
Tropical Forests
Cool the planet
Global Warming
Seems like he hit the major talking points.
The power of solar energy here on earth and the enviroweenies don't want it because they consider it not to be natural and at the same time as nature takes it's course and the sun changes the climate of Earth, they blame human progression on it.
A bag of nuts is sprouted every day.
Natural Gas can be converted to hydrogen via Steam Methane Reforming. Though there is an energy inefficiency in this transformation, it is carbon free (the resulting hydrogen, that is). The Carbon Dioxide produced by the Steam Methane Reforming could be pumped into underground reservoirs (there are capacity for trillions and trillions of Cubic Feet of Natural Gas existing).
By being able to store the Carbon Dioxide underground, if there is TRUTH in global warming, this is a solution.
Alaska, besides ANWR, has a STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE where Natural Gas can be found as well as NORTH SLOPE.
There has been an effort to build a natural gas pipeline to the continental 48 United States, but this effort has stalled...
What we need besides nukes is a way to make ethanol from other stuff like agricultutal waste products etc. There has to be ways other than corn.
The flux capacitor is the big winner but nobody wants to see it. ; )
“The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn’t that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after “solutions” that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn.”
Bears repeating.
I agree on nuclear - and disposal isn’t a significant problem.
Everyone knows that the following is the real solution to our energy needs:
Pedal Powered [Electric] Generator (Energy of future?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871516/posts
This is a very good article. Send this to your friends.
-—This is not just hype — it’s dangerous, delusional bullsh*t.-—
Say it like it is, brother! (If I may use such a turn of phrase without being accused of racism and hate speech.)
What we need is to drill every single square inch of the country that has recoverable oil underneath it.
L
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