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Alternative Fuel, Schmalternative Fuel
New Donklephant contributor Tom Strong injects some reality into the biofuel argument.
While the tiny ethanol and biodiesel industries have seen a mini-boom last year, the market took a sharp hit this past spring. Future growth may speed up again, but there’s a very real limit to how much biodiesel and ethanol we can produce without cutting into our food supply. What’s more, both biodiesel and ethanol are currently subsidized by the federal government – and that’s on top of the subsidies paid for corn and soy, our top two commodity crops.
Hey, who needs corn on the cob and tofu. I can go without. How about you?
Seriously though, I was thinking about this today after watching Daryl Hannah’s (yes that one) new internet series Love Life. True, diesel engines were made to run on fuel that could be grown, but what if a massive drought comes?
Wouldn’t we be screwed?
7 Responses to “Alternative Fuel, Schmalternative Fuel”
I’d be less worried about a drought (compared to rebuilding all of our fuel infrastructure, a decent irrigation and water purification system is easy) as if we run out of oil in the short term (which would be a given for any of the enviro-weenie arguements for ethanol to be viable, so for the rest of this post, please ignore the Alberta oil sands/shale).
Most people don’t know this, but almost all of the fertilizer used by mass growth farms is artificial, and based on oil. There’s some manure-based stuff, and some others, but a majority is very reliant on the crude.
Running out of said oil will destroy pretty much every aspect of ethanal’s viability, as well as ruining a majority of our food supply (look around your house, and tell me how many food items are listed as containing corn in one way or the other. It’s close to 90%, I’d wager.)
Thankfully, that’s not a real issue
Biofuels alone are not likely to solve the energy crisis, but ethanol can help to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Expanded production of ethanol will be great for American agriculture and made in the USA fuel would likely lower the trade deficit.
Ethanol can be made from sugar cane too. Brazil is already producing ethanol from sugar cane. In fact, there is a much greater energy yield from sugar cane than corn.
If biofuels can make farming more profitable, we might have the additional benefit of discouraging urban sprawl which encourages the wasteful use of energy. A farmer in Texas or Florida making an excellent living cultivating sugar cane for biofuels is going to be far less likely to sell out to a developer looking to build another urban sprawl community.
We should not dismiss biofuels simply because they are not a cure all our energy problems. Any potential alternative energy sources that can be part of the solution as well as strengthening critical elements of our economy should be strongly encouraged.
I had heard the arguement for using sugar cane also, but apparently the reason we don’t import ethanol from Brazil is the all-powerful Iowa farm lobby which insists on putting high tariffs on it. This of course, renders it too expensive to be a viable alternative. What ever happened to free markets?
Brazil’s sugar cane production is significantly less than preferable or sustainable. The United States can at least keep going with crop rotation between corn and potatos. Sugar cane production, and the related alteration of land, is a massive ecology killer. Ethanol’s a decent partial short-term solution, but we don’t need a short-term solution, especially not while promoting rain forest destruction.
The hit about ‘free markets’ is a valid one, but look out how the environment is doing in Brazil, and tell me if you really think it’s a sustainable rate.
The ethanol answer is short term at best. Ethanol pollutes so its only benefit is temporary reduced dependence on petroleum products, but it can never replace it.
It is also very hard on your engine and actually decreases gas mileage. You are essentially burning alcohol.
Also the idea of ethanol is not considered investment grade speculation. That’s why the financial world is priming the Midwest dirt farmers to form co-ops and generally become the prime investors. It will immediately collapse as soon as fuel-cells come on line or its obvious pollution characteristic proves unacceptable. Lotta talk, but its all sales.
Fuel cells and electric hybrids are the best answer. Unfortunately there will have to be massive world wide nuclear power plant construction to create enough electricity for making hydrogen. Think about that. Do you really want third world nations running nuke power plants all over the planet?
Actually folks, we are reaping the sorrows of not creating an effective mass transit system less dependent on petroleum products.
But at least the technology exists to improve the CAFE standards. This was recently defeated in Congress, and my guess is due to the decrease in tax revenue resulting from using less gas-or lobbying by the oil companies/and or big 3 auto companies. Anyone know why it failed? That solution would help the environment, cost for consumers and ease our dependence on the Middle East.
There is a better source of ethanol on the plains, it’s called praire grass, and guess what? It’s free to grow, prouduces more ethanol per pound, and harvest twice a year.