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Thanks. I have had it. Of all the people in the world who would engage in this kind of humiliating, backwards assed, self-destructive, pandering to terrosists, it makes me sick to the pit of my gut that George Bush won't put his foot down.

Since when did compassionate conservatism come to mean self-destructive spineless energy policies?

We bitch and whine about how the working and lower middle-class are disappearing. Think about this

In 1980-1985, an uneducated, hard-working young man could get a job in the oil fields, making $20.00 per hour or more, working drilling rigs and production. In today's dollars, thats got to be at least $60 per hour. Today, if you can even find an oil field job, you're lucky to find one paying more than $12-$15 an hour to start, and topping out in the $20's.

Who is the jackass that thinks that's good for our country? Our economy? Our family structure?

We give those jobs away, to terrorists, meanwhile we leave the working class to wither and die on the vine.

Then, you take a moron like Obama, who panders to the poor (while making fun of them in his rich gay elitist inner circles in San Francisco) - by empathizing about jobs shipped overseas. His solution? TAX THE COMPANIES. Hey moron, how about this solution - KEEP THE JOBS HERE.

We're not learning from our mistakes concerning our dependence on foreign oil.

I'm keeping an eye on developments in biofuel production.

First, the bad news about ethanol. Ethanol fires are evidently harder to control than gasoline fires.

Ethanol fires hard to control 1
Ethanol fires hard to control 2

Hopefully, ways will be developed to make controlling ethanol fires easier.

On the brighter side concerning ethanol, there's now evidence that people might get as much, or more, bang per buck for their gas dollars with gas / ethanol mixtures.

Gas-competitive gas / ethanol mixtures

Also, I was surprised by the introduction of a machine (popularly known as a still) for making home-made ethanol.

EFuel100

In stark contrast to the 1700 gallons of water required to make one gallon of corn-based ethanol as indicated by the OP, the EFuel100 uses only 170 gallons of water to produce 35 gallons of ethanol In other words, the EFuel100 uses less than 1% as much water as corn ethanol, under five gallons, to produce one gallon of ethanol (corrections welcome).

But watch out for fines for violating biofuel regulations.

Fines for violating biofuel regulations

Also, progress is being made in the development of other non-corn ethanol production technologies as well.

Non-corn ethanol

Finally, I've also been hearing good things about biodiesel production but need to find some links.

Did you see this article today on President Bush' comments? US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that a hike in oil output by Saudi Arabia would not solve American energy problems. "It's not enough, it's something but it doesn't solve our problem," Bush told reporters in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Bush said he was "pleased" with a Saudi decision taken on May 10 to increase its oil production by 300,000 barrels per day in response to customers, but said that he was "also realistic" about what the Americans should do. "Our problem in America gets solved when we aggressively go for domestic exploration. Our problem in America gets solved if we expand our refining capacity, promote nuclear energy and continue our strategy for the advancing of alternative energies as well as conservation," he said. "One interesting thing about American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity."

Wow, sounds familiar!