![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For those in search of something to read while I’m packing and heading to Madison, WI, may I suggest this article by Robert Zubrin. It's exceptionally timely as everybody packs to go somewhere for the long weekend while holding their wallet in pain from $4/gallon gas prices. At any rate, Zubrin argues that
1) Biofuels are not driving the cost of food up. For example, a pound of corn costs 9 cents as of the writing of the article. A box of cornflakes costs around $3 – so you do the math.
2) US agricultural exports have not decreased, but actually increased over the past few years. Much of the food price problems are over rice, which is up to do a near-failure of the Australian crop.
3) The much-vaunted study claiming that making ethanol takes more energy then it produces is a crock.
4) Making all US vehicles flex-fueled would not be difficult to do (a sensor and some programming to change the ignition timing) and would greatly boost the demand for ethanol and methanol.
Now, I’m not fond of the recently-passed farm bill, which I think offers too much in the way of subsidies. However, I had a conversation with a Brazilian student a few weeks back, thanks to Rotary (she was an exchange student). She reminded me that Brazil has had 100% flex-fuel vehicles for years. She tells me that in Brazil, if ethanol is cheap, that’s what you buy, and if gas is cheap, you buy gas.
Bottom line – the solution to our current energy crunch is not to go to Saudi Arabia hands cupped out and say, “please may I have some more?” The solution is to develop alternative resources.
1) Biofuels are not driving the cost of food up. For example, a pound of corn costs 9 cents as of the writing of the article. A box of cornflakes costs around $3 – so you do the math.
2) US agricultural exports have not decreased, but actually increased over the past few years. Much of the food price problems are over rice, which is up to do a near-failure of the Australian crop.
3) The much-vaunted study claiming that making ethanol takes more energy then it produces is a crock.
4) Making all US vehicles flex-fueled would not be difficult to do (a sensor and some programming to change the ignition timing) and would greatly boost the demand for ethanol and methanol.
Now, I’m not fond of the recently-passed farm bill, which I think offers too much in the way of subsidies. However, I had a conversation with a Brazilian student a few weeks back, thanks to Rotary (she was an exchange student). She reminded me that Brazil has had 100% flex-fuel vehicles for years. She tells me that in Brazil, if ethanol is cheap, that’s what you buy, and if gas is cheap, you buy gas.
Bottom line – the solution to our current energy crunch is not to go to Saudi Arabia hands cupped out and say, “please may I have some more?” The solution is to develop alternative resources.
