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The Energy Spectator
Hold the Oil, Pass the Algae
Welcome to the Age of Biofuels — and the latest Obama crackpot scheme.
(Page 2 of 2)
Nonetheless, ETC has emerged as one of the leading critics of algae and other biofuels, mainly because of the anticipated impact on Third World agriculture. “The problem with biomass is that it has very little energy density,” says Thomas, who works out of Montreal. “It doesn’t even compare well with solar, which is very dilute. Photosynthesis is only 1 percent efficient at turning sunlight into useful energy while a solar thermal plant can manage about 20 percent. The big problem with algae is that you can’t grow it more than one or two inches deep or else you lose the sunlight. So it’s going to require ridiculously large quantities of land. In order to match the output of a single oil refinery, you’d need to cover an area the size of San Francisco.”
With this kind of land requirements, the only place where biofuels are going to make any kind of sense is in the developing world. “The cheapest biomass will inevitably be grown in the forests of Brazil and Central Africa,” said Thomas. “It’s already happening. Right now the search for biofuels by investors is the largest land grab of the last 300 years. Peasants are being pushed off their land. There are conflicts and battles going on and people are even being killed over this issue. Any technological advances are only going to make it worse. Switching from fossil fuels to biofuels is essentially an appropriation of the biological resources of the developing world by the developed world.”
So there you have it, Obama’s brave new world of soft, green energy.
In truth, the current era will probably be looked back upon as a brief episode when crackpot ideas gained the upper hand — when we ruined whole landscapes by littering them with useless windmills and solar collectors and took the preliminary steps toward dragooning the entire world’s biological resources in trying to replace the more dense and useful resources of oil, gas and the atom that nature has offered us. Hopefully, it won’t last long.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (131) | Leave a comment
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Mike Hawk| 4.27.12 @ 6:50AM
Where does the stupid notion come from that Ethanol is somehow a btter fuel than petroleum derived fuels. It simply isn't. The premise is false to start with. PC is all it is.
oldfart| 4.27.12 @ 6:59AM
It isn't a better fuel. Brazil thought it was but a very quietly going back to gasoline as they tape their own oil reserves. Ethanol actually causes more problems that is let on.
LMajito| 4.27.12 @ 10:42AM
and the thing in brazil was that they destroyed thousands of acres of jungle to set up their sugar plantations for the ethanol...
as one who actually lived deep in the amazon during the early 70's, when i saw what they were doing to the jungle i cried...how could humans destroy all those ecosystems without any regrets?
likewise with their gold mines...filling the environment with mercury to add insult to injury...one day they wake up and realize that their once green environment will begin to look more like the sahara...
Dick Nome| 4.27.12 @ 3:41PM
The greater question now that Brazil has discovered oil reserves is, "Why has Obozo subsidized the building of refineries and drilling of Brazilian wells while snuffing out our own."
Jack in Wi.| 4.28.12 @ 11:24AM
I was in Rio last year. There was a huge oil drilling rig, right off shore Copa Cobana beach. We have a huge coastline full of oil, and natural gas that they won't let us touch. With shale gas and coal gasification we have energy for hundreds of years. With nuclear and other energies make that probably thousands of years.
TLP| 4.27.12 @ 9:10AM
It's all about BUYING VOTES in the Midwest. If Iowa wasn't the 1st Primary State, we probably wouldn't even be talking about this crap.
"But it's cleaner!"
No it isn't. From an Environmental standpoint, Ethanolmis an unmitigated Disaster. It uses much more Water than some of the other crops that it has replaced in the Fields. Because of it's Government Subsidies, Forests, all over the World, mare be DE-FORESTED, to make room for the big Cash Crops that are being used in these so-called Bio-Fuels.
It takes more energy to Grow it, Harvest it, Transport it, and Convert it in to Fuel, that it Creates. It uses more Energy to make it, than it Creates. It burns Dirtier in the Engines. It REDUCES the Gas Mileage of the Vehicle it's in. and, it burns TOO HOT, thus reducing the life span of the Vehicle's Engine.
THIS is what Churchill was talking about, when he said that: "Democracy is the worst form of Government, except for all the others."
We have "Learned that we can VOTE Ourselves Money", thus signaling the inevitable END of this Great Experiment.
Too bad.
God has given us everything we need, right here, for the taking. Instead of doing this Naturally, some of us seem to want to go another route.
They want to Burn our Food in their Cars, rather than use the Gift of OIL, that we have been given. They would rather see the world STARVE, than to bow down before God's Wisdom.
He made Women, that they might join with Men, and produce offspring. Our Intellectual Superiors disagree.
HE made us to be Gods, ourselves. Giving us the Mental Capacity to Reach for the Stars. Yet, our Best and Brightest, only see the pursuit of their own Personal Power. As a result, Man's Greatest Quest: The Quest of Manned Space Travel, has given way to Free Conyraception, Free Abortions, Free College, and whatever else this bunch can think to give away for Votes.
Space will have to be Conquered by the Chinese, who seem to Understand their place IN THE FUTURE, even as we seem Determined, to plunge headlong in to the past.
TLP| 4.27.12 @ 9:13AM
Is there a freaking Spell Check Button on this Fcking IPad?
Goddamn it, I miss my Desk Top.
Dixie Pixie| 4.27.12 @ 10:40AM
Download “Open Office” for the Ipad.
Open Office is the “Open Source” alternative to Microsoft “Office”.
It contains the same functionality as “Office” but is free.
Moe Blotz| 4.27.12 @ 5:01PM
TLP, maybe you should get yourself a Funk and Wagnall.
Mike Hawk| 4.27.12 @ 7:49PM
Pick up a copy of EB White's 'Elements of Style' too.
Skippy| 4.27.12 @ 11:56PM
"It takes more energy to Grow it, Harvest it, Transport it, and Convert it in to Fuel, that it Creates. It uses more Energy to make it, than it Creates. "
This is simply a false statement. Pimentel in Cornell is really the only holdout still making this claim and he incorporates all sorts of silly assumptions to arrive at his conclusion such as including the full manufacturing energy cost of all farm machinery. Multiple studies have concluded that modern corn-based ethanol yields 33% more energy than is put into it--excluding solar input of course. This says nothing about land use and availability and ability to scale to the quantities needed to fuel the country, but merely makes a statement about the net available energy.
"It REDUCES the Gas Mileage of the Vehicle it's in. and, it burns TOO HOT..."
Well pure ethanol does have less energy content by volume than gasoline by about 1/3. However, that higher temperature combustion in principle means that a properly designed ethanol burning engine will be more efficient than a gas burning engine. They are both Carnot heat engines and the the higher the combustion temp the greater the efficiency. If you dislike that argument, then look at the allowed compression ratios for the two fuels. Ethanol permits significantly higher ratios which directly affect the efficiency of properly designed engines.
I'm not saying that we can grow enough corn to meet our fuel needs, but I haven't seen any calculations or thermodynamic arguments that prove that we can't meet most if not all of our transportation fuel needs with cellulosic ethanol in the long term. Perhaps someone has done those calculations but simply hasn't published them and I don't have enough time or interest outside of my day job to calculate the energy required to break the lignin and hemicellulose bounds vs. the yielded energy of the resulting ethanol. I'm personally guardedly optimistic about Coskata's pyrolysis process, but they have to prove they can do it in volume and at a competitive cost. In the mean time we should take advantage of the huge natural gas resources being unlocked by fracking.
TLP| 4.28.12 @ 7:08AM
Really? "Multiple Sudies have concluded that......"
You mean, like all of the "Multiple Studies" that told up that we would be OUT OF OIL, by now?
Like the "Multiple Studies that said we'd be OUT OF FOOD, by now? OUT OF WATER? OUT OF LIVABLE SPACE?
Or, is it like the Global Cooling Studies?
The Global Warming Studies?
What about, the Global Climate Change Studies?
What is it about you people, that you refuse to understand the Nature of things?
God gave us Natural Resources for a reason. He gave us Oil and Natural Gas and Coal, to burn as Fuel. He gave is Corn and Wheat and Barley, to EAT. It's called - FOOD. We EAT it. We don't eat Gasoline, because that would be STUPID. Gasoline if for our Cars. But, you people think that is the Height of Intelligence, to put FOOD in to the Gas Tank.
You want to put Algea in the Gas Tanks. I thought that you were Smart?
Algea is probably second, only to Plankton, in its importance to the Eco System. It is a Major Component in The Food Chain, and a Major Player in the Production of Oxygen in a world that's inhabited by a Species that seems to be Hellbent on hastening its Extinction, by Clearcutting it's Forests, so it can Grow more Food, so it can turn it in to Gasoline, to burn in their Automobiles.
Or, didn't you see THAT Study?
Idiot.
benny havens| 4.28.12 @ 7:32AM
Global warming is not a threat to human civilization, the Environmental Protection Agency is.
CraigTX| 4.28.12 @ 10:44PM
My question would be all about any theories in regards to breaking hemicellulosic binds. Is there enough energy trapped in the bindery? I suspect not very much for conventional means. That being said, a more passive approach, like algae, would be required to extract the sparce energy present in the bio-links.
The only better way is called a nuclear reactor.
Courtesy Flush| 4.27.12 @ 10:58AM
Let's run our cars off pond scum!
Nancy in NC| 4.27.12 @ 11:11AM
I've got a better idea. We could drain the swamp known as Washington, DC , convert the hot air, crap and other excrement to green energy. That would take us at least to the next century.
Teaghan| 4.27.12 @ 12:26PM
Here here!!
I've been gone for a week, saw no teevee news, no online news, only the WSJ and the Financial Times. My stress level was so low and I noticed how angry I get when I come back to it all.
Monkey Overstreet| 4.27.12 @ 11:36AM
The last thing this country needs are non-fossil fuels. There is enough oil in America if we would only dig up the National Parks to last ten thousand years. This whole idea of renewable or green energy is a communist conspiracy.
oldfart| 4.27.12 @ 6:54AM
I think that the entire 'green' movement is missing the most fantastic source of never ending power. All that is necessary is to go downstream on the Potomac from Washington, DC and collect all the bovine excrement (BS or BE for short) that flows from the White House, Capital Hill and the various Government Departments. This collected mass generates massive amounts of methane that may be captured, compressed, and used to power automobiles and power grid generators through fuel cell technology. The by-product from fuel cells is H20. So no pollution!!!! Once the methane is extracted the residue is an excellent fertilizer that may be used to grow crops. After all the Chinese make excellent use of 'night soil' to fertilize their crops – why can't the USA do it?
As the current Government continues to do what it does best – generate BS and BE – in never ending quantities, the USA, with the help of a collection at point the EU HQ, will be able to power the entire planet.
Comments?
Von Mises Jr| 4.27.12 @ 7:13AM
G-d said "I will make all things new again." The left tells us nature is intricate and amazing, except when they look for harebrained schemes to enslave others. Oil is natural, as is manure. The left hates the former and spews allot of the latter.
This is not about carbon. Obama is funding Brazil to the tune of billions to drill for oil. Socialist countries from Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran fund their statist regimes with oil revenues.
Q: Is it logical to conclude that we have the only socialist in the world that hates oil?
A: Of course not. Our socialists are the same as the rest. They hate liberty and free market capitalism.
So the war on oil and carbon is not about energy. It is about fascism. I would bet dollars to donuts that the Obama regime and Congress would drill like banshees tomorrow if they could keep the profits for their regime.
Environmentalism and green energy fanaticism happened in the U.S.S.R. and Nazi Germany. As Orwell wrote in "Animal Farm," there never was and never would be a windmill http://www.americanthinker.com....._care.html
And Solyndra was not about solar. It was a grand larceny by the regime to repay the bundler George Kaiser. Every loan guarantee has a crony and slush fund at its core.
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 11:20AM
We have in the last three years seen the results of setting public policy through Faith rather than with proper analytical methods. Isn't it about time we reject these false promises and certainly public financing of them and allow proper market methods to operate?
Nancy in NC| 4.27.12 @ 11:12AM
You read my mind, OF, or vice versus.
mmercier| 4.29.12 @ 7:58PM
"Night soil" made from Potomac effluent would contain such high levels of vicoden and oxy varients it would essentially destroy the soil.
PattyMor| 4.27.12 @ 7:15AM
As Rush so forcefully stated, what is so noble about taking plant material and trying to make it into fuel. We already have nature which did it millions of years ago. Nature compressed plant and animal material and turned it into hydrocarbons, ie. concentrated energy.
I suspect that the Left doesn't envision any of the these "green schemes" replacing oil, gas, or coal. What they really want is to drive up the price of real fuel (and real food) while pretending to do something about the energy problem. For they don't want cheap energy. They want expensive energy so you can be controlled. Energy is freedom and they don't want you to free to do much of anything, except to pay taxes.
Mike Hawk| 4.27.12 @ 8:19AM
That applies to coal, but oil is abiogenic, naturally percolates up from the pressure cooker of the earth's mantle, thus being renewed by Gaia and should be worshipped by the enviro-whackos instead of shunned.
Dr. X| 4.27.12 @ 7:35AM
I'd like to see Michelle fly to Spain on Air Force Two powered by algae before I try it....
chuck| 4.27.12 @ 8:17AM
I think she could get farther on her own natural gas from her balloon sized ass.
TLP| 4.27.12 @ 9:58AM
Wow, chuck.
You are really in to that Ass, ain'tcha?
If you like ass, and Lots of it? Then she is definitely, where it's at.
She's a regular "Asses Are Us".
Dick Nome| 4.27.12 @ 1:09PM
If you like Moochelle's butt, you'll Hildebeast's ample derrier too. I think Hildebeast has a wide load sign too.
Terrible Ted| 4.27.12 @ 11:04AM
LOL. How did look past those elegantly slender arms flowing out of those beautiful sleeveless dresses? Your focus is admirable.
http://www.google.com/search?q.....87&bih=829
Dick Nome| 4.27.12 @ 3:38PM
A well formed tush is a work of art. A big fat one is notable for other reasons not asthetic. They make you appreciate the nice ones. It a guy thing.
Drunken Sailor| 4.27.12 @ 5:15PM
Preach it brother!
TLP| 4.28.12 @ 7:12AM
Yeah. Just ask Alan. He'll tell ya.
He'll probably even SHOW ya.
Although, that's something you should probably try to avoid.
Teaghan| 4.27.12 @ 1:30PM
You guys are cracking me up! You make me glad to be back on line.
karen from NC| 4.27.12 @ 9:06PM
chuck - that comment was really unnecessary
chuck| 4.27.12 @ 10:29PM
yea, well so is Moochelle's damned preaching about what we should eat, and how we should exercise. As soon as she loses about a foot and a half off of that monster ass of her's, stops wolfing down all the crap that she eats on our dime, and stops flying all over God's creature on my dollars, then she can tell me how to live my life.
TLP| 4.28.12 @ 7:13AM
Goddamn right!
numbatdog| 4.27.12 @ 8:17AM
I don't really get the fascination with algae. Assuming it is indeed a good source of energy and can be turned into fuel - it still has to be burned to release the energy like any other fossil fuel. So it wont reduce pollution or carbon, a stated goal of the left.
The only advantage might be it is freely available compared to dwindling supplies of oil but that is another lie. New technologies and discoveries can release massive amounts of cheap gas and oil onto the market. The government spends a lot of time and energy trying to prevent this but it's happening anyway.
So whats the algae for?
Can you say - crony capitalism, act 2?
LMajito| 4.27.12 @ 11:04AM
well blue green algae is a great source of human energy...but my daily dose is minuscule compared to what potus & the salazar crew want to mandate
mnemos| 4.27.12 @ 5:09PM
The point isn't getting the energy out of the algae, it is getting it in. Long chain hydrocarbons are a really efficient way to store energy. If you can get simple plants to generate it - ie. capture the carbon and put it in long chains, and if you can easily get the hydrocarbons out, it would be a good way to capture and store energy in a way that is compatible with our current energy usage - combustion engines. Still a lot of ifs, though.
johnd2| 4.27.12 @ 7:32PM
Algae has gigundo potential as a way of generating fuel without taking it from the ground. In the fullness of time, its cost will likely have about the same cost. Startup companies are making great progress. But they are not there yet for lots of reasons. This all comes down to jumping the gun and squandering public money before the tech is ripe. We now have a cushion of time to develop this stuff. No reason to panic like the Obama administration is doing.
Pecos Pete| 4.27.12 @ 8:17AM
Green Fuel = Greenbacks = Corruption
Indy| 4.27.12 @ 8:32AM
Does anyone else find it frustrating how POTUS flies to all the battleground states burning up gallons of fuel yet lectures us on how "green energy" is the way? Meanwhile gas prices have doubled and I have yet to see an algae station to fill up my car with green slime? If the Left were true to their word about reducing demand for oil, sit in DC and deliver your message via you tube.
Nancy in NC| 4.27.12 @ 11:15AM
Now that wouldn't be fun. You can't completely destroy the country from DC (although he's giving it a hell of a college try). He would rather spend our money by flying AF1 from here to yonder as he can't stay on vacation all the time. He spends money like a pimp with one week to live.
numbatdog| 4.27.12 @ 12:37PM
Nancy, I would rather he spends his time and our money on junkets than sitting in the oval office scheming his next great leap forward.
Whatever he spends it's cheaper than the alternative.
Anthony| 4.27.12 @ 8:33AM
Despite all the fancy b.s. it's still back to "NO FOOD FOR FUEL", except algae, which I hope both Moochelle and Biden eat in huge quantities.
Oh, and the cafeteria at EPA should serve algae exclusively and all EPA employees mandated to eat it each and every working day.
JP| 4.27.12 @ 8:47AM
Several years ago, an engineer calculated the number tilable acres on the globe. average crop yields (corn, soybeans, etc..), as well as the amount of ethanol that could be distilled from one unit measure of the crops. His conclusions were simple: there wasn't enough land available in the world to supply enough fuels to keep the US going for more than a few weeks.
Ditto for wind energy. Most of the calculations can be dome using standard forecast models. Wind is just a function of differential heating between the poles and the equator; the land and the sea, as well as transferable heat energy that exists within the oceans themselves. The total amount of energy cannot exceed our heat budget. Ergo, there is a finite amount of wind energy available. And that energy isn't evenly distributed. The total amount of wind energy needed to produce (or be transfered) a kilowatt of electrical energy can also be calculated. Keep in mind, power utilities cannot "store" power. Therefore to keep a steady state of electrical power available would require a steady amount of wind. To provide power to a city like London or New York would require a steady amount of wind, and the necessary amount of wind mills online.
The engineering problems this entails are not only daunting but impossible to solve. Both wind and biofuels are science fiction.
oldfart| 4.27.12 @ 9:08AM
Reality get in the way of the "agenda"?
Perish the thought!!!
Skippy| 4.28.12 @ 12:12AM
"The total amount of energy cannot exceed our heat budget.
...
The engineering problems this entails are not only daunting but impossible to solve. Both wind and biofuels are science fiction."
While I agree with your conclusions that so called renewables cannot meet our energy needs any time soon, your supporting arguments are incorrect. Look at the energy budget for the Earth and you'll revise that statement. There is more than enough wind and solar energy (PV or solar thermal) to meet all of our energy needs even with poor conversion efficiencies. That's not the problem. Even storage isn't a problem if you're willing to engineer a global system with significant excess nameplate capacity. The problem comes in the economical availability of critical materials such as Rare Earths and the willingness to engineer energy systems on unprecedented global scales: millions of wind turbines; incredibly large fields of solar collectors and mirrors; gigantic synfuel plants to convert excess electricity into transportation fuels or incredibly massive battery production further straining scarce metal resources; transmission lines that dwarf utilities that today the greens already oppose; and, of course, the tens of trillions of dollars required to create these systems not to mention the billions or trillions needed to maintain them.
In short, there is enough renewable energy to meet our needs but there isn't enough money, willpower, or other resources to make it economically feasible.
Mimi| 4.27.12 @ 8:53AM
What it comes down to is ...His lies are not dealt with...and COURAGE needs to rise up in the Media and both parties to call him out on this..not to be tolerated anymore! The ENERGY lies are more Bold and evident!
P.S. Made it thru Aneurism surgery...had severe Hemorage in I.C U. after...saved by Strong young hands and all your prayers...THANK YOU ALL ...Now at home...Love, MIMI
Drunken Sailor| 4.27.12 @ 10:00AM
Glad to hear your on the mend Mimi. Rest up for the fight ahead.
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 12:29PM
Glad to know it went well Mimi. We've missed you
chuck| 4.28.12 @ 8:20AM
Mimi,
I thank God, and those young hands that saved you.
I pray that you're recovery goes smoothly.
It is amazing what a skilled surgeon is able to do. I recently severely cut my wrist on some tile I was removing, severing 9 tendons, the artery, and the ulna nerve. Six hours of microscopic surgery later, and it was all sewn up. It's been 3 months, and I've gotten probably about 80% back in the hand, and the feeling is slowly returning. It's just amazing that the surgeon could do what he did!
I pray that your recovery goes smoothly. Prayer does help, I know I had a lot of people praying for me, and I want you to know that there are many people praying for you too.
Mimi| 4.29.12 @ 6:27PM
Chuck....I 've vowed I'm going to vote in Nov. to send the "O" on his way ! Thanks to you and all for the well wishes. The vascular guys know their stuff..no one knows the new methods are saving lives and $ too!
John| 4.27.12 @ 8:55AM
"A brief episode when crackpot ideas gained the upper hand." Tucker will be laughing out of the other side of his mouth when scientists extract sunbeams from cucumbers. They are making great progress in this field at the Academy of Lagado.
Louis Jenkins| 4.27.12 @ 9:14AM
Excuse me, Mr. Obama, but can you pass me the Algae? I'd really like some algae, I just can operate my Escalade without it. Oh come on, Mr. Obama, what do you mean you don't have any algae? You're out of Algae? Lordy, Lordy, what am I gonna do? The president don't have any algae. (And never will.)
Ground Control| 4.27.12 @ 11:25AM
For the last several decades, the federal government has engaged in a program known as "wetlands enhancement" or "wetlands recovery." The purpose was to recover wetlands in coastal areas to promote low-level water-borne plant life growth in estuaries, or biomass, such as algae. Now Bozo the Clown wants to harness that aquatic biomass and burn it up as alcohol fuel.
Are there ANY adults in Washington?
squalis| 4.27.12 @ 9:19AM
A new left wing PETA group on the horizon:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Algae
fmm| 4.27.12 @ 9:51AM
Best comment of the age.
hardcard| 4.27.12 @ 9:47AM
Mimi.... God Bless and stay strong!
kwan| 4.27.12 @ 10:03AM
The left's war against oil is in reality the war against CO2 because in leftist mythology CO2 will turn our planet into a fireball. Although reputable scientists have proven this leftist claim to be non-valid the left ignores the facts and is trying to sell this "green energy" nonsense. Now Obama is using the EPA as his KGB/Gestapo operatives to close down refineries with ridiculous regulations. Refineries are what convert crude oil into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The left wants to shut down our economy and what better way is there than attacking the energy source that fuels our economy and replacing it with something as idiotic as algae, swamp moss, cockroach guano, and fairy dust.
Dick Nome| 4.27.12 @ 3:34PM
I exhale and fart CO2 just like a dairy cow, only not as much. Is EPA going shut me down too.
chuck| 4.28.12 @ 8:23AM
They probably try to shove a CO2 scrubber up your ass.
I'm thinking Alan might like that, though!
Red Ryder| 4.27.12 @ 10:11AM
Another significant problem with ethanol it the amount of fresh water needed to produce it. The process can take as much as four gallons of fresh water to produce one gallon of ethanol.
Ground Control| 4.27.12 @ 11:19AM
Advocates of "biomass fuels" clearly do not see the consequences of their advocacy, or if they do, their advocacy turns from the merely stupid to the villainously evil. Farming, at the elemental level, is a process that harnesses the Sun's energy. Food is merely a carrier system for this energy which is what sustains life. Farming recycles biomass, from the earth to food to waste to fertilizer. Inedible biomass, stems, husks, and such, are directly recycled into the soil. Taking this biomass and converting it to alcohol fuel REMOVES it from the recycling process and BURNS IT UP into the atmosphere. That is, the more biomass that is converted into fuel, the less biomass there will be available to recycle back in to the soil to harness more of the Sun's energy and grow more food, and so on. Ultimately, you run out of biomass and the farm lands become depleted. Try growing more "fuel" then!
Mass production of alcohol fuels is virtual suicide as the human race burns up its food supply and its farming capability up in its engines. Alcohol fuels are ultimately UN-sustainable not only as fuel, but also for food production needed to sustain human life altogether.
Todd S| 4.27.12 @ 1:18PM
You are very correct about the insanity of using foods as fuel. I worked as a Research Analyst in Indonesia covering a palm oil plantation company so I have seen exactly how this works. Some bureaucrats in Europe decided that biofuels needed to be mixed in with diesel because it would be "environmentally friendly" much like we use ethanol here. This was highly beneficial to the palm oil industry since it was the best source for such biofuel and almost all Palm Oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia. The end result of the decision to use palm oil as fuel was a mad rush to clear out wide swaths of forests and a drastic increase in palm oil prices that hurt the poor the most since it is a staple of their cooking. All for making a meaningless contribution to fuel supplies so they could pat themselves on the back for doing something for the environment. The irony was there was a pushback from environmentalists complaining about the destruction of rain forests because these idiots never consider the unintended consequences of their feel good environmentalism.
Victoria| 4.28.12 @ 1:31PM
Clearly said with no hyperscientific sounding wordage. And true.
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 11:24AM
Can anyone explain to me why we should be exporting say a hundred tankers a day from one port while importing a hundred tankers a day through another? The national security concerns of having our military capability dependant on imports of oil and fuel alone should be enough to stop the practice. Oil exports should cease (export taxes perhaps?) until domestic production is sufficient to meet our domestic and military needs. New refineries, new exploration and development of known resources would answer the import depemdancy problem in short order. Sadly our current administration has a Faith based aversion to the very commodity upom which we depend.
johnd2| 4.27.12 @ 7:35PM
Makes perfect sense economically. Read a book about business.
buckeyeman| 4.27.12 @ 11:34AM
Who will say it? Only me, perhaps. Virtually all of these issues would disappear if there were FEWER PEOPLE! No, no, no, I'm not talking about genocide. But what if we applied our wonderful technology to worldwide population control? Not killing people, mind you, just population control. Mexico City has a population in exces of 20 million, higher than New York City. Scan through the list of the 100 highest population cities and I think you'll find that you have never even heard of a lot of them. What if we developed a high potency birth control chemical and just put it in beer? Worldwide? Wow.
Tommy Frisco| 4.27.12 @ 1:58PM
Buckeyeman,
I liked your joke, but don't give them any ideas about messing with our beer.
Seriously, you've pinpointed the primary goal of the Left...reducing the population. That explains why they want to limit our energy supplies which is the lifeblood of our economy, it's why they want to control our healthcare, and it's why they promote abortions, gay marriages, etc., etc..
I suggest we drink more beer so the women look better...so we can get that birthrate back up.
Tim the Enchanter| 4.27.12 @ 3:20PM
Just what we need- "Strange Brew- The Sequel"!
ebonystone| 5.5.12 @ 1:40AM
Overpopulation is almost entirely a problem of the 3rh World. Almost all the developed countries are at ZPG; any growth they've had is due largely to immigration.
In 1960, the ten largest countries were:
[1] China -- still #1, its pop. increased by ~100%
[2] India -- still #2, pop. increased by 160%
[3] U.S -- still #3, pop. increased by ~ 70%, mostly due to immigration
[4] Russia -- now #9, pop. increased by 17%
[5] Indonesia -- now #4, increased by 140%
[6] Japan --now #10, increased by 35%
[7] Germany -- now #15, increased by 14%, much of that due to immigration
[8] Brazil -- now #5, increased by 175%
[9] Bangladesh -- now #7, increased by 185%, despite millions emigrated to India
[10] U.K. -- now #22, increased by 17%, largely due to immigration
The present top ten:
[1] China
[2] India
[3] U.S.
[4] Indonesia
[5] Brazil
[6] Pakistan -- #11 in 1960, increased by 237%, despite millions having fled to India
[7] Bangladesh
[8] Nigeria -- #15 in 1960, increased by 255%
[9] Russia
[10] Japan
Louis Jenkins| 4.27.12 @ 11:59AM
The good author said that indegenous people are being thrown off their lands to make room for algae plants? Both Steel and Concrete and the aquatic kind? I thought Obama was for the little guy. You know, the man who lives in a grass hut, and slings a spear at what he is to eat. OOOPs. I forgot. His half brother, or uncle, lives in a grass hut in Kenya, but its rather obvious, Obama doesn't care about him. Throw them out. Why ain't the greenies upset about that?
It's all smoke and mirrors. It's hiding the true agenda of Obama and his ilk. Any excuse, lie, or confabulation, in a storm. Get the people off of his back. Let them chase that dream and billions to fund it. Then when the house of cards crashes down don't say a word. Dad used to say, to get to the truth sometimes you've got the cut the snake's head off. WE don't need Obama to have another term. Maybe then the "unbelievable lies" will be finished.
gene| 4.27.12 @ 12:28PM
Here's a little secret that the Green Fantics do not want you to know about. Oil is not a "Fossil" Fuel.
The use of the term "Fossil" is ideological and not scientific.
MXLord327| 4.27.12 @ 4:15PM
Exactly, I have been saying that same thing, call them what they are - hydrocarbons!! The term fossil fuel is just a tool of the left to demonize them.
Bob| 4.27.12 @ 2:10PM
Great article, but 100,000 square miles is not the equivalent of Iowa, it is equivalent to nearly twice Iowa.
William Tucker| 4.27.12 @ 2:51PM
You're right. 110,000 square miles is the entire corn crop but the portion devoted to ethanol is about the size of Iowa - 56,000.
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 4:12PM
"Mighty mighty pleasin, my pappys corn squeezins...ohh, white lightnin."
cicero| 4.27.12 @ 2:28PM
All you folks are arguing logic, biology, chemistry, and common sense. When has any of that had anything to do with religion. The fools who are running our country are "environmentalists". Theirs is a religion just as surely as any other. It has nothing to do with science, but everything to do with their insular beliefs. Don't try to convince them with the facts,. They know with certainty that if they clap long enough and loud enough Tinker Bell will live. It is about time for the adults to take the ship of state back, and tell the kiddies to sit down and be quiet. If we don't, and give in to the tantrums and pouting, there can only be one result. And it won't be pretty for anyone.
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 2:41PM
Cicero:
You hit it on the head. Environmentalism is a religion. It is the idolotrous worship of Earth, Gaia, environment or whatever name is used. Faith trumps facts and logic, at least in the world of The Left.
DTOM!| 4.27.12 @ 3:24PM
Do not dignify those dolts' collection of myths and superstitions by calling it 'religion.' These are the true Luddites, the Flat-Earthers, the superstitious incapable of seeing reality as it truly is.
These guys are shamans, they are witch doctors, they are indoctrinated ignoramuses! It's not religion, it's SUPERSTITION!
DTOM!| 4.27.12 @ 3:27PM
Ethanol is as effective as the witch doctor's eye of newt. Unreliable renewable energy, solar energy, wind power is as effective in affecting the climate as any witch's spell. It's time to call the spade a spade!
The emperor is buck naked! Joe Biden even says he has a big stick!
Can't we just laugh these clowns outta town? Let's try!
Don't Tread On Me!
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 4:10PM
DTOM:
There is however, a reason my screensaver reads, "General Ludd was right."
Enjoy your weekend.
Monkey Overstreet| 4.29.12 @ 11:48AM
Environmentalism is a religion, just like Satanism, and it should be destroyed, if not by God's avenging angels then by conservative Americans. The first step is to punish the environment. Pollute the rivers, cut down the trees for starters. Greens are all going to hell.
Frank Natoli| 4.27.12 @ 2:41PM
For the purpose of this debate, let's assume there's a miraculous way to produce algae in sufficient quantities to equal or exceed the energy content available from petroleum. Problem solved?
Nope. Algae is carbon based. The energy derived from algae is from the combustion process of converting the carbon to CO2. That in and of itself is mortal sin to the environmental maniacs. So even if the algae was available in sufficient mass, the environmental maniacs wouldn't let us burn it.
This is not rocket science. So why the hoopla about algae, if it can't solve the problem, no matter what its production rates?
The answer is that it's deliberately a diversion, deliberately a canard, all meant to make it look like the Administration is really, really trying hard.
But it's all a lie, convincing all those willfully ignorant voters who take it hook, line, sinker, rod, reel and boat.
davelnaf| 4.27.12 @ 2:43PM
O is not serious about bio-fuels. They are just another weapon he can use to harm the country. The Stimulus, the war on the real energy industry, Obamacare, etc. are all designed to change the country by irreparably harming it.
TexasMom2012| 4.29.12 @ 1:35PM
More cash for Obama's campaign bundlers via 'green energy algae loans', great, another O slush fund....
Al Adab| 4.27.12 @ 2:48PM
Hey, maybe we could each just distill our lawn cuttings into ethanol and make our own fule. Might make mowing the lawn a more worthwhile and rewarding chore. The stuff would ferment and distill rather nicely if its not against the law too many places. Anybody know how big a yard might produce say fiftey gallons a month?
Bill| 4.27.12 @ 2:55PM
Let drive the price of gasoline to $5, and you'll see how the Dems will be scrambling for their political lives. Drill, baby, drill.
DTOM!| 4.27.12 @ 3:34PM
In September 2008, oil was trading at $145/bbl.
Gasoline had just crossed over to $4/gal.
Little Geo Bush announced "We're going to expand offshore drilling!"
By December 2008, oil had fallen to $40/bbl,
gas was $1.90/gal.
Obama started lobbying for $9/gal gas in November 2008.
Want $2/gal gas? Elect a President who announces that we will be energy independent in 10 years - it's hell of a lot easier than going to the damn moon! Cheaper, too. You'll have $2 gas in a month... It worked 3.5 years ago. It'll work again - as long as the President who announces it is not known around the planet as a famous LIAR!
Don't Tread On Me!
It works every time it's tried!
Bill| 4.27.12 @ 3:54PM
Right on!
Mike Hawk| 4.27.12 @ 6:28PM
If gas hit 9 dallars, deisel would be approaching 10 and so would home heating oil. Jet fuel and Kerosene higher yet. As people quit driving, trucks would be parked and aircraft quit flying. Asphalt and plastics would make road builing and food costs prohibitive along with anthing else made with plastics.
I don't think it would happen. The economy would come to a screeching halt at 5$ well before 9 could be reached.
Lee Ghume| 4.29.12 @ 11:18AM
Not to mention the cost of women's makeup, as well as plant fertiliser.
Bob S| 4.27.12 @ 3:42PM
Why would the 17th and 18th centuries be called the Age of Physics when the most significant advances in physics only occurred in the past 100 years?
Richard Baker| 4.30.12 @ 8:49PM
Bob S:
Probably because most of the fundamental physics that make our modern science possible were discovered during this time.
Carlisle Johnson| 4.27.12 @ 3:56PM
Kill the corn/ethanol subsidy. Import sugar cane based ethanol at 1/7th the price.
Mike Hawk| 4.27.12 @ 7:03PM
I couldn't drink that much white lightnin' without destroying my liver. Forget it.
Richard Baker| 4.30.12 @ 8:52PM
Mike Hawk:
Being from Virginia, my advice is don't drink any unless you know the old boy who made it or you get it from someone you trust.
WM| 4.27.12 @ 4:29PM
The biofuels movement is also destroying lives here. These biofuel do-gooders are telling young people that they can be green energy entrepreneurs and make money while being good for "the environment." They tell these naive kids that there is all kinds of money available for it, but when you inquire further, it turns out that despite all the happy talk about venture capital, the money is all coming from the Department of Energy.
In five years, these kids will have wasted several years of their lives with nothing to show for it. Who is going to hire them then?
Of course, the kids are responsible for their actions as well. They overlook the scientific and moral objections because they want to believe, so they will have had it coming.
Bill| 4.27.12 @ 4:32PM
Veep short list:
1. Bob McDonald: the South
2. Jeb Bush: Sunshine Guru
3. kelly Ayotte: Women votes
4. Mitch Daniel: Rush-Belt fiscal hawk
5. Chris Chritie: Straight talker, no apology
Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, macro Rubio do not want the VP job.
My pick: Kelly Ayotte
Why: GOP must win the women votes.
TexasMom2012| 4.29.12 @ 1:37PM
Didn't work last time, although so far Romney seems to be a better candidate than McCain
TexasMom2012| 4.29.12 @ 1:38PM
Didn't work last time, although so far Romney seems to be a better candidate than McCain
Marc Jeric| 4.27.12 @ 5:11PM
This search for "green" energy reminds me of those medieval princes maintaining their alchemists during centuries while trying to transform lead into gold. Go for it, Mullah Obama!
cbinflux| 4.27.12 @ 5:54PM
Haven't you heard?? Obama will have the non-nuclear half of the Navy running on camelina by 2015. It only costs a few pennies per gallon.
Straight from the horse's ass.
Senior Chief| 4.27.12 @ 6:50PM
Two words: Soylent Green
Maybe that's the ultimate energy source the Obama Regime has in mind.
Vasu Murti | 4.27.12 @ 10:16PM
A Vegan Economy Would Be Easier to Implement
In A Vegetarian Primer (1983), Canadian tennis champion Peter Burwash compares human anatomy with the other terrestrial vertebrates (carnivores; omnivores; frugivores [the primates, whom he refers to as our ancestors]; and herbivores), He concludes humans are suited for a plant-based diet.
Olive oil is popular with vegans looking for a cruelty-free alternative to butter and other dairy products. Agave nectar is popular with vegans as well, as a cruelty-free alternative to honey. Animal byproducts like milk and honey can be obtained nonviolently, but usually aren't!
And its doubtful if even animal byproducts could be produced cruelty-free on a massive scale to satisfy the demands of the world's affluent consumers, even if they can afford these luxuries. A transition to a vegan economy makes perfect sense.
Elsewhere in A Vegetarian Primer, Peter Burwash writes favorably of Gandhi and says the world's human population has long since passed the point at which everyone could be comfortably fed on a meat-centered diet, so it makes sense to eat lower on the food chain -- an argument first popularized by Frances Moore Lappe in her 1971 bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet.
Easier Journey: A Vegan Economy is Easier to Implement Than Space Colonization
In his novelization of the screenplay to the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke depicted space colonization, beginning with a lunar colony, not as the next war zone, but rather as the path to peace:
“Here on the moon were the same arts and hardware of underground living, and of protection against a hostile environment; but here they had been turned to the purposes of peace. After ten thousand years, man had found something as exciting as war.
“Unfortunately, not all nations had yet realized that fact...
“…there would still be scope for those who loved freedom, for the tough pioneers, the restless adventurers. But their tools would not be ax and gun and canoe and wagon; they would be nuclear power plant and plasma drive and hydroponic farm.
“The time was fast approaching when earth, like ...all mothers, must say farewell to her children…”.
****
Leonardo Da Vinci was a vegan five centuries before People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Leonardo Da Vinci was designing flying machines in the fifteenth century.
Given the rapid rate of progression in flight and aerospace technology, beginning with the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903, through jet travel and the start of the space race in the middle of the 20th century, observers say we should have established colonies on the moon and Mars by now.
Why hasn't it happened?
Maybe there's some truth behind skepticism about the lunar landings.
With a world population now at seven billion, colonizing space is not a realistic solution to the pressures of overpopulation and armed conflict over dwindling resources on earth. Nor will it directly address the threat of global warming; global hunger; nor the energy, environmental, population and water crises.
A vegan economy would be easier to implement.
Newt Gingrich could learn a thing or two from Dennis Kucinich!
The threat of “overpopulation” is frequently used to justify abortion as birth control, but on a vegan diet, the world could easily support a population several times its present size. The world’s cattle alone consume enough to feed over 8.7 billion humans.
****
The following points and facts are excerpted from Please Don’t Eat the Animals (2007) by the mother-daughter writing team of Jennifer Horsman and Jaime Flowers:
One study puts animal waste in the United States to between 2.4 trillion to 3.9 trillion pounds per year. The United states produces 15,000 pounds of manure per person. This is 130 times the amount of waste produced by the entire human population of the United States.
Factory farm pollution is the primary source of damage to coastal waters in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Scientists report that over sixty percent of the coastal waters in the United States are moderately to severely degraded from factory farm nutrient pollution. This pollution creates oxygen-depleted dead zones, which are huge areas of ocean devoid of aquatic life.
Meat production causes deforestation, which then contributes to global warming. Trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, and the destruction of forests around the globe to make room for grazing cattle furthers the greenhouse effect.
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations reports that the annual rate of tropical deforestation has increased from nine million hectares in 1980 to 16.8 million hectares in 1990, and unfortunately, this destruction has accelerated since then. By 1994, a staggering 200 million hectares of rainforest had been destroyed in South America just for cattle.
Agricultural meat production generates air pollution. As manure decomposes, it releases over four hundred volatile organic compounds, many of which are extremely harmful to human health. Nitrogen, a major by-product of animal wastes, changes to ammonia as it escapes into the air, and this is a major source of acid rain.
Worldwide, livestock produce over thirty million tons of ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide, another chemical released from animal waste, can cause irreversible neurological damage, even at low levels.
Livestock production affects a startling 70 to 85 percent of the land area of the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union. That figure includes the public and private rangeland used for grazing, as well as the land used to produce the crops that feed the animals.
By comparison, urbanization only affects three percent of the United States land area, slightly larger for the European Union and the United Kingdom. Meat production consumes the world’s land resources.
Half of all fresh water worldwide is used for thirsty livestock. Producing eight ounces of beef requires an unimaginable 25,000 liters of water, or the water necessary for one pound of steak equals the water consumption of the average household for a year.
The Worldwatch Institute estimates one pound of steak from a steer raised in a feedlot costs: five pounds of grain, a whopping 2,500 gallons of water, the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, andaabout 34 pounds of topsoil.
Thirty-three percent of our nation’s raw materials and fossil fuels go into livestock destined for slaughter. In a vegan economy, only two percent of our resources will go to the production of food.
“It seems disingenuous for the intellectual elite of the first world to dwell on the subject of too many babies being born in the second-and third-world nations while virtually ignoring the overpopulation of cattle and the realities of a food chain that robs the poor of sustenance to feed the rich a steady diet of grain-fed meat.”
–Jeremy Rifkin, pro-life AND pro-animal author, Beyond Beef: The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Culture, and president of the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation.
“Carl Pope could probably affect the world more by being a vegetarian than through his job as president of the Sierra Club,” quipped Jennifer Horsman in Please Don't Eat the Animals, the 2007 book she co-authored with her daughter Jaime Flowers.
The number of animals killed for food in the United States is nearly 75 times larger than the number of animals killed in laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal pounds.
“If anyone wants to save the planet,” says Paul McCartney in an interview with PETA’s Animal Times magazine (ironically from 2001), “all they have to do is stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it.
“Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. Let’s do it! Linda was right. Going veggie is the single best idea for the new century.”
TLP| 4.28.12 @ 7:40AM
We have Canines. We have Eyes in THE FRONT of our heads, and not on the sides. That Idiot Canadian Tennis Player, surely knows that every Paleontologist agrees, that the Eating of MEAT, is what Increased the Size, and the Capacities, of our Brains.
If the Libs wanna graze in the fields? Let'em. They're already SHEEP, and they would like nothing better, than to be led around by a Strong leader, who will Feed Them, and House them, and take care of all of their needs, in exchange for their Wool.
HITLER was a Vegetarian.
But, you already knew that, didn't you?
It makes perfect sense, if you ask me.
And, even if you don't.
I think that Vasu should just go back to his little Apartment, that surely reeks of Incense, and grab himself a handful of some of that delicious Yellow Potato Mash, that's smothered in Ginger, and mixed it with a little of that yummy Currie, and smear it all over a nice big (not too big) flavourless, tasteless, unbelievably PRETENTIOUS, Rice Cake.
And I think he should eat it in the Cab, on his way to the Airport, so he can GET THE HELL OUTTA MY COUNTRY!
Now, where's that STEAK I ordered?
TexasMom2012| 4.29.12 @ 1:48PM
TLC, ditto! I am doing my part for the environment, as Ron White said, "I'm eating the cows!" LOL
chuck| 4.28.12 @ 8:32AM
Vegetarian diets are the worst possible thing for human anatomy. We need animal fats and proteins.
But if you want to eat like Bambi, knock yourself out! You'll look like a damned toothpick! Or a starving Ethiopian.
skip| 4.30.12 @ 10:28AM
"I'll be honest with you: we humans can't end abortion until we cease to kill animals"
Vasu Murti | 2.9.12 @ 4:25PM
. . . hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare . . .
I never would have thought vasu and murti in sanskrit means pathetic and despicable until reading this miserable excuse for a human.
Ground Control| 4.30.12 @ 5:56PM
Humans have survived for thousands of years as omnivores, eating plants and animals. We haven't run out of food yet. If humans had adopted "veganism" say 2,000 years ago, the species would have died out.
ebonystone| 5.5.12 @ 1:52AM
"The world’s cattle alone consume enough to feed over 8.7 billion humans."
Perhaps. But most of what cattle eat -- grass -- cannot be eaten by humans. And large areas devoted to cattle grazing -- e.g. in the American West -- are not suitable for growing crops edible by humans. Cattle are one way of getting food out of areas which otherwise would not produce any food. Cattle convert the inedible plant-life into edible beef.
TeaPartyPatriot4ever| 4.27.12 @ 10:33PM
Article:
"GREEN VS GREEN: ENVIRONMENTALISTS WIN FED BACKING TO SHUT DOWN 4 HYDRO POWER PLANTS"
by JENNY ERIKSON - Breitbart.com
"Environmentalists have persuaded the Department of the Interior to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. These dams not only provide clean, green energy to the Klamath community, they sustain area ranches and farms with continual access to water. An environmentalist’s dream, right?" unquote
-
So much Green Energy, as this just exposes the left's hypocritical argument for what it really is, a political agenda to destroy America from within as the powers that be in Washington DC, ie; Obama and the hard left radical lunatics, use the DOE and EPA to wage this war.
POST American| 4.27.12 @ 11:03PM
We're ourselves turning green with
impatience as capstone FAKE OP media
continues to feed us '90's Show' sap screens
for Goldman Sacks backed, former Kissinger
aide, Princeton/Harvard 'innie'
-------------'BAR--Rockefeller' H. Obama.
EGYPT is being 'RA--dick--ALL--ized'.
Greece and Italy are being occupied,
dishonored and rendered.
Europe's being overrun.
RUSSIAN troops, even as we write,
are in joint exercises with Americans
in Colorado to 'take on American terrorists'.
DHS is buying hollow point rounds of ammo
by the HUNDREDS of MILLIONS in one
month alone.
Pelosi commits a chilling act of TREASON
and SEDITION by calling for full-spectrum
surveillance of the American people from
within history's most awesomely genocidal
state across the Pacific.
Our Rockefeller rotten, capstone infiltrated,
government co-opted churches have become,
even beyond their decades of sodomy,
abortion, and EUGENICS ops --instruments
of surveillance and submission.
The GMO food Halocaust is being soft soaped
and further entrenched across the boards.
Gates-EUGENICS weaponized shots are
being administered, even without parental
consent in California and elsewhere with
moves afoot to make them compulsory.
CHEM--trails choke the skies and FUKISHIMA
fallout STILL doesn't exist.
-------------AND O.J. himself is getting 'on board'
to help us find ---the REAL terrorists.
"When the Globalists are FINALLY
brought to justice, history will look
back on this time as the greatest covert
GENOCIDE mankind has ever witnessed.
It's US--or them. We CAN'T afford to lose."
-ALEX JONES
In this, the 11th hour of the CFR---RED China
handover, takedown, TREASON, OPCCUPATION
and FINAL EUGENICS OP
ON this, the again 'mysteriously overlooked'
60th Anniversary of the RED China/ Globalism
and EUGENICS 'unfriendly'
----------------KOREAN WAR--------------------
----INDEED WE CAN'T. . .
Minuteman78| 4.28.12 @ 8:15AM
This whole energy debate comes down to simple flippin CHEMISTRY! Complex molecules, when they have their bonds broken, release energy. Gasoline is primarily Octane, 8 carbon atoms, so you have 7 bonds. Comparatively, Ethanol is just 2 carbon atoms, so there's only 4 bonds to be broken given the same number of atoms. That's why Ethanol is so damn inefficient! For every 4 gallons of gasoline, it takes 7 gallons of ethanol to generate the same energy, at a minimum. But there's a huge factor that's not discussed as much as it needs to be and that's the primary source of ethanol is edible crops, while there is no 'penalty' for harvesting octane, their IS for harvesting ethanol. So there's a HUGE double-whammy going on. A push for more ethanol in the 'gas' you put in your tank makes your MPG go down and your per mile costs go up because you are burning fuel with less inherent energy by volume, and the diminishing corn crop drives food prices higher. So it's a lose-lose! All to make the environmentalist dreamers happy.
If I was benevolent dictator of North America, (like Obama apparently thinks he is), I would put all these environmentalists on a one-way plane to ANWR. In shorts and flip flops.
Moe Blotz| 4.28.12 @ 1:07PM
Excellent suggestion for sending the kooks away. Adding a note to your fuel argument, the bio-additive to diesel is soybean oil or corn oil. The vegetable oils have nothing in their makeup to lubricate moving parts in a diesel engine. The fuel pump and injectors receive lubrication from sulphur contained in straight diesel, but EPA has mandated the removal of that element to dangerously low levels. (15 ppm) Dilute the petrol diesel with vegetable oil and you lose that much more lubricity. In a truck running 100,000 miles a year that can add up to a huge expense in worn out fuel pumps and injectors, unless you spend an extra $15.00 every fill-up for an additive. Fill up 80 times a year and you spend an additional $1,200.00 to keep mechanical parts from wearing out. Bio diesel has a lower cetane rating as well and fuel mileage suffers.
chuck| 4.28.12 @ 6:00PM
Plus ethanol is already partially oxygenated, with an OH molecule attached to the carbon chain. Therefore, when it is burned, which oxygenates the carbon to CO2 and the hydrogen to H2O, less energy is released.
Minuteman78| 4.28.12 @ 8:15AM
This whole energy debate comes down to simple flippin CHEMISTRY! Complex molecules, when they have their bonds broken, release energy. Gasoline is primarily Octane, 8 carbon atoms, so you have 7 bonds. Comparatively, Ethanol is just 2 carbon atoms, so there's only 4 bonds to be broken given the same number of atoms. That's why Ethanol is so damn inefficient! For every 4 gallons of gasoline, it takes 7 gallons of ethanol to generate the same energy, at a minimum. But there's a huge factor that's not discussed as much as it needs to be and that's the primary source of ethanol is edible crops, while there is no 'penalty' for harvesting octane, their IS for harvesting ethanol. So there's a HUGE double-whammy going on. A push for more ethanol in the 'gas' you put in your tank makes your MPG go down and your per mile costs go up because you are burning fuel with less inherent energy by volume, and the diminishing corn crop drives food prices higher. So it's a lose-lose! All to make the environmentalist dreamers happy.
If I was benevolent dictator of North America, (like Obama apparently thinks he is), I would put all these environmentalists on a one-way plane to ANWR. In shorts and flip flops.
Mike Hawk| 4.28.12 @ 2:41PM
Shorts and flip-flops. Those must be those clowns I see at the local Super market in January-February (and other colder months). They can't tell January from July.
TexasMom2012| 4.29.12 @ 1:51PM
Well to be fair it can be in the upper 70s here at that time of year!
jimzinsocal| 4.28.12 @ 12:53PM
Good article. Obama likes to think his administration is forward thinking with algae research but its simply not true. As we see here..yes others have been researching for sometime and frankly Id trust XOM conclusions because they would be more reality based.
http://www.businesswire.com/po.....ewsLang=en
Scott| 4.28.12 @ 1:43PM
Until Obama opened his yap, algae-based biofuel was taken seriously as a potential alternative to fossil fuels. The main advantages was that it wouldn't involve burning our food or even using arable land, and after the oils were extracted for conversion to biofuel, the leftover material could be processed as feedstock. Would it have worked? Who knows; there were issue about industrial level production that needed to be overcome (the same issue with using GM organisms like yeast to simply produce oil as a waste product), but, again, it looked promising. Now, unfortunately, it will forever be tarred by associate with The One.
DTOM!| 4.30.12 @ 8:51AM
Scott - considering how much real estate any meaningful quantity of algae - based energy production would consume, its permanent welding to the Obama is a GOOD thing. The whole idea is childish and ridiculous! Give it up! If you don't, that tooth you put under your pillow is never going to turn into a quarter!!!
Get real, willya?
Scott| 4.30.12 @ 1:00PM
To completely replace all oil currently used, it would take a cultivation area about the size of New Mexico, according to some estimates I've seen. That's a lot of land, but it's more effective than ethanol, which gives lower yields and eats up land needed for growing food.
And, of course, we don't need to completely replace existing oil use, and, in fact, we shouldn't because being overly reliant on any one source is foolish.
I'm sorry that you think that a diverse energy base is childish and ridiculous, but it's really you who should grown up and get real. The oil fairy won't refill the wells indefinitely, and won't keep the oil from being in the hands of people we really ought not to be enriching.
Ground Control| 4.30.12 @ 2:14PM
Plant life ceases to be "renewable" when you start burning it up in the atmosphere. Converting any kind of biomass (algae, corn, cellulose) into fuel burns large portions of that biomass up and removes it from the cycle. Ultimately, you deplete the soils and lose the ability to grow food. Large scale alcohol fuels are frankly, stupid and should be stopped.
Large scale clearing of rainforests in Brazil make usable farmland for only a few seasons before the soils are depleted, leaving a wasteland. Buring up crops as fuel will ultimately do the same here. This is suicidal.
Russell Seitz| 4.28.12 @ 11:00PM
Given the reality of present US fuel ethanol production ,Bill's assertion that :
"From Lovins' own figures, it was clear that growing crops to replace one-third of our oil consumption would mean cultivating an area three times the size of the continental United States"
seems quantitatively implausible.
Could he please show us the math ?
Mrs. Vito| 4.29.12 @ 5:22PM
I'd like to see the Greenies get a 747 off the groundusing corn cobs dipped in algae!!
Marc Jeric| 4.30.12 @ 12:49AM
Doec anyone remember those medieval princes who maintained their stables of alchemists trying to transform lead into gold? That is exactly the case with our Mullah Obama; he believes that Allah will invent the fuel out of algae.
Scott| 4.30.12 @ 1:01PM
It's been done. The issue is producing it in sufficient quantity at a reasonable prince.