Pouring Biofuel on the Fire
Hunger. Corruption. Bankruptcy. Other than that, the green-fuel boom has been a smashing success.
UPDATE: Join us for an expert-led reader forum April 13-17 on MotherJones.com around the question: Is organic and local so 2008?
Click here to return to Why Biofuels Are the Rainforest's Worst Enemy.
Henry Ford envisioned ethanol as the "fuel of the future"; his Model T ran on ethanol and petroleum.
The International Energy Agency forecasts that conventional oil production will peak by 2020, with massive price increases preceding the peak.
Before Congress passed expanded ethanol subsidies in 2005, the US produced nearly 4 billion gallons of corn ethanol. In the first 9 months of last year, production reached nearly 7 billion gallons.
Archer Daniels Midland controls 10% of the US ethanol market.
Former adm ceo Dwayne Andreas, whose donations to Nixon were linked to the Watergate break-in, is one of the nation's top political contributors. Since 2000, adm, its pacs, and its employees have given $1.4 million to Democrats and $2.1 million to Republicans.
As a senator, Barack Obama sponsored ethanol legislation and flew twice on adm's corporate jet.
Food prices have risen 130% since 2002. The World Bank estimates that up to 75% of the increase is due to demand for biofuels.
There were food riots in at least 30 countries in the past 2 years. More than 40 people were killed when Cameroonians protested rising prices.
The US government spent $9.2 billion on ethanol subsidies in 2008. It spent $1.5 billion on food aid.
Clearing grasslands to plant biofuel crops releases 93 times as much greenhouse gas as will be saved by the fuels grown on the land each year. Destroying Indonesian peat bogs releases 420 times as much.
New European Union guidelines limit subsidies for biofuels that don't comply with environmental standards; Switzerland only subsidizes fuels that emit 40% less greenhouse gas than fossil fuels.
After ethanol prices fell by nearly half last year, several just-built plants filed for bankruptcy.
Obama's staff has consulted the Renewable Fuels Association, an adm-led trade group, on how to craft an ethanol bailout.
Page 1 of 1 
This is hilarious. Green
This is hilarious. Green fuels cause global warming, but vegetarianism is the Earth's savior. I can't wait to see how eco-vegans reconcile this one.
Its all about the benajmins baby
Ethanol is a poor fuel and causes more issues than it solves. It's low energy content makes folks think theyre getting a deal at the pump because theyre paying a slightly lower cost per volume. Now watch what happens to your mileage per tank on ethanol. There are better solutions out there, but none with a better lobby in Congress. Who would that be? The most overpaid subsidy in the world: The corn growers of america. Heres a simple test to make you gasp. Take the total amount (in bushels) of corn produced in america and divide it by the amount of subsidy the corn industry receives in a given year. Now theyre getting even more as a provider of "energy independence." Its a racket and it's all about the money.
Going about biofuel production much differently
I think there's an approach that'll let corn growers have their cornbread, and drive it too. Answer? Stop thinking of farms as large expansive areas maintained by guys in hover-hauls driving air-conditioned mega-tractors, and start thinking in terms of the public getting involved, and borrowing some unused square footage in that 2-car driveway for micro-farming, or just maybe even being sort of eco-radical and tilling under all that picture-perfect Scott's Turfbuilder(MLS-approved), and putting down 5 or 6 rows of corn right in the former front yard, along with radishes, carrots, rutabegas, spinach greens, and other things that just might add up to one less trip in the Family Truckster to the grocery store, which would be Very Eco-Groovy all by itself.
For that matter, there's a creative use for parking lots and otherwise unoccupied flatbed trailers. I have no earthly clue what the weight would be of 40X10 square area x 6" to 12" high worth of potting soil, but those trailers were built to haul something like 80,000 pounds, so chances are they'd stand up to it, just park it in some parking lot where there's empty space and let the sun shine in, so to speak, and I think you could probably turn out some basic ethanol stocks with that kind of setup, put a little water tank with it and a solar-driven computerized watering system with a little scale version of one of the Silent Running(Bruce Dern, 1973 or thereabouts) robots, Huey, Louie, or Dewey waddling around to oversee the condition of the plants. The more people across the United States that own a garden spade and the will to succeed, the better, in my opinion, these corporate entities want to play market futures games and try to monopolize this or that, and, well, it's just gotten ugly, and the public isn't nearly as stupid as they seem to think, so, let's get about it with the energy independence concept models, and put them into practice. If, on the way, the major corporations happen to realize some profits, that's great, that's a good reward for producing something that there's a real market for, and also on the way, if we happen to become another 40% less dependent on foreign countries for our energy needs, well that'd just be spectacular. Long overdue, too.
Klaatu marachas necktie
The problem is that the
The problem is that the growing of biomass for biofuel production, such as canola, exhausts the soil very much. Therefore, more and more planting of such crops are engaged outside of US and EU, in developing countries.
wedding dresses
When the economy became a bit less predictable, more women started looking for ways to make their wedding dresses a little less costly. Some women opted to donate their used wedding dresses to other brides-to-be. Others still choose to cherish this garment, saving it for future daughters or granddaughters to wear in their weddings.
The new shop, designer wedding gowns, is almost directly opposite his existing ready-to-wear and couture boutique, at No. 27, which opened in 1984.
The models this week were nine divorcees who were willing to give their designer wedding dresses major makeovers! The designers had to turn old wedding dress into a hip outfit they “can wear in the next chapter of their lives.”
withlouie vuitton outlet.
withlouie vuitton outlet. Instead, it is aboutLVshoes. cheap louis vuitton If you are a Kanye fan, orLVfan, then here is a good piece of news for you: this time, cheap louis vuitton Bags he threw himself into the fashion world by announcing his collaboration on a men's shoes line withLV.
Our comapny has been
-
tagged as:
- result
Our comapny has been providing quality luis vuitton replicas with cheap prices for more than 6 years, all our items will arrive in perfect condition to your hand and come with free hassle return and exchange policy.Your satisfication is guanrateed louie vuittonand please shop with confidence.
Links: replica handbags fake
