America needs therapy

[Harmon Seaver]

Eugene Leitl wrote:

> On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Harmon Seaver wrote:
>
> > Not true at all. Biodiesel is being marketed in the US today at
> > competitive prices, and obviously, like anything else, economies of
> > scale would bring down that price. Ethanol is another one. Brazil run
>
> Biodiesel and bioethanol are horribly inefficient as far as conversion of
> solar energy and agricultural area is concerned. Large scale agriculture
> is not exactly environmentally neutral. They're extreme niche or gimmick
> fuels at best.

     Where do you get that from? Are you saying that farmers aren't growing
canola oil at a profit? Farmers are also growing corn and that corn is turned
into ethanol at a profit.

http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html

> Ethanol is a highly efficient fuel. A study by
>                                   the Institute of Local Self-Reliance in the
>                                   US found that using the best farming and
>                                   production methods, "the amount of energy
>                                   contained in a gallon of ethanol is more than
>                                   twice the energy used to grow the corn and
>                                   convert it to ethanol".
>
>                                   The US Department of Agriculture says
>                                   each BTU (British Thermal Unit, an energy
>                                   measure) used to produce a BTU of
>                                   gasoline could be used to produce 8 BTUs
>                                   of ethanol.
>
>                                   The non-profit American Coalition for
>                                   Ethanol says ethanol production is
>                                   "extremely energy efficient", with a positive
>                                   energy balance of 125%, compared to 85%
>                                   for gasoline, making ethanol production "by
>                                   far the most efficient method of producing
>                                   liquid transportation fuels".
>
>

      If you are refering to the paper done by Pimental, that study was
seriously flawed (so much so that one might think it was paid for by big oil)
and thoroughly debunked.  See:
http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol_energy.html

--
Harmon Seaver, MLIS
CyberShamanix
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