Quote:
Originally Posted by einreb
I just dont get the ethanol boom... 25 lbs of corn to make a gallon of the stuff. It just seems like it takes an absurd amount of effort and land to produce.
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Sure you do B. Put your blinders on along with the darkest shades you can find...that's the what the buyer-on's are doing. Besides, if it's good for one group, it's got to be good for everyone, right?
It's capitalizing on the current energy scare. The same reason you hear and see so many commercials for coal these days. No one has come up with a method to cleanly burn coal, yet there are numerous efforts the we all pay for. There is no efficient method to burn one of the highest sulfur containing fuel sources. Pulverize it, scrub the combustion gas...you name it...it's still the same stuff you started out with. You can't magically make matter disappear without energy and byproducts.
Now they are talking nuclear power plants again. That's fine, just leave it to smart engineers and physicists to do it, and keep ignorant lobbyists, politicians, business developers and accountants out of it.
There's too much short and narrow sightedness amongst the people involved. Now they are talking a big leap in fuel economy that promises to save drivers so much money per year on fuel…yet that's just a solution that won't solve the problem…lack of good comprehensive solutions to everyone driving everywhere. Where is the effort to develop a good public transportation infrastructure that will curve our dependence on cars and planes that consume so much hydrocarbon based fuel? I would love to leave my house and arrive at the office without having to depend solely on my car…and getting stuck in traffic every day.
The world is at a technological stand still when it comes to transportation, because all the effort is aimed toward making the worst solution more efficient. Sure I love driving and riding my combustion based vehicles, but I'd gladly give a large portion of it up for a convenient, clean and cheap method of getting somewhere. I'd love to just use my cars and motorcycles for pleasure driving or riding.
Think about it. What is the root of all our problems? The problem of depleting fuel sources? The problem of environmental pollution, the problem of food chain disruption, the problem of ecosystem damage….it's all related to our dependence on the existing archaic mode of transportation!