It comes from all those and oil. We need to do what we can where we can. We are trying to do something about all those other factors, too.
Two and a half decades elapsed before annual corn-ethanol production reached 5 billion gallons, as it did in 2006. But now Congress is demanding that the cellulosic-ethanol business magically produce many times that volume of fuel in just 15 years. It's not going to happen.
That's because it's mostly dependent on private enterprise that needs to see profit on a short-term basis. You're all going to scream at me for this, but ...
Fans of energy independence argue that if the United States stops buying foreign energy, it will deny funds to petro-states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Hugo Ch¿vez's Venezuela. But the world marketplace doesn't work like that. Oil is a global commodity. Its price is set globally, not locally.If the U.S. develops alternative energy sources, then the demand for oil drops/the supply of energy increases, and the price drops. And that means less money for people selling oil, many of whom are against everything we stand for. So in this case, I consider energy a national security issue and believe that government expenditure to improve our energy supply is justified.
Remember that oil is not a purely rational market. Much of the supply is regulated by people like Chavez and the OPEC rulers who maniuplate the supply for non-economic reasons. They can choke off the supply and take losses - the people they rule are subjects, not citizens, and thus their rulers don't have to act rationally from either a political sense or an economic one. A purely economic analysis of this issue is not valid.
5 To see why [Energy independence will mean a more secure U.S. energy supply] is a myth, think back to 2005. After hurricanes ravaged the Gulf Coast, chewing up refineries as they went, several cities in the southeastern United States were hit with gasoline shortages. Thankfully, they were short-lived. The reason? Imported gasoline, from refineries in Venezuela, the Netherlands and elsewhere. Throughout the first nine months of 2005, the United States imported about 1 million barrels of gasoline per day. By mid-October 2005, just six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, those imports soared to 1.5 million barrels per day.
And prices jumped up. And they haven't come down as much as they went up. Sure, we were able to get gasoline from elsewhere. But we paid for it. Wait until China and India's demand for oil really spins up. See how easy it will be then to get more gasoline then if another hurricane hits N.O. or Houston square on.
So we're woven in with the rest of the world -- and going to stay that way.
Exactly my point. We are tied in. So when our supply goes up faster than our demand, it affects the rest of the world. Energy becomes a little cheaper for everyone. Other energy producers make less money and require less extremely expensive intervention on our part. And our energy supply becomes less dependent on non-rational decisions by foreign leaders.
Remember, the world's population is growing at 57 million people a year [the size of Italy] and will continue to do so until at least 2050. Remember that the growing affluence of India and China will increase demand significantly. Remember that the population of the US increased 100 million since 1970 and 21 million since 2000. In another 23 years we will add another 60 million and by 2060 another 167 million, 105 million from immigration. We are going to have to run to stand still if we want to maintain the same standard of living.
The demand for oil is going to increase, not decrease, no matter what we do in the short term.
While in Beijing there are still 2.4 million people who ride their bicycles to work every day, nearly 1,000 new cars hit the streets daily. China's roads are expected to be clogged with 170 million vehicles by 2020 says the World Bank -- by which time the country would have surpassed the United States in total car ownership.
"No one is doubting that more and more Chinese people are going to reach that threshold of affordability -- to buy their own car," said John Humphrey, manager of China operation for the U.S.-based car industry consultants J.D.Power Asia Pacific. "The pace of change we have seen in China's auto market is astounding but demand is still growing." Seven million cars are sold in China each year. That means China this year left Japan behind to become the second-largest car market in the world after the U.S., where more than 16 million cars are sold annually
Keep in mind that a fossil fuel is more energy-efficient than any of these “alternative fuels,” which makes it all that much more difficult to replace oil, natural gas, coal, etc.