ethanol NOW! (mineral rights, sales, how much)

[isthistaken]

i dont understand WHY in the world...especially in rural areas.....that with the price of gas, we dont have ethanol or gasonol readily available at the pumps...im curious as to what the cost of fuel is doing to our friends in north and south dakota...or iowa even. arent WE in charge of this country??dont WE elect our officials?i am still in florida, and the other day at the pump i read "this fuel is 10% bio-fuel." ????? so why is it stil 3.50 a gallon? willie nelson has bio fuel at truck stops....we as the people NEED to do SOMETHING!!i think as the public we have become generally apathetic because our efforts in the 60s were defeated and fallen on deaf ears.we have adapted the attitude,"oh well, nothing we say matters," but can that really be true?im just shocked that in nepa, or anywhre in pa, has not been offered bio fuel.there is so much rich farmland!!when in iowa or the dakotas, there are some gas stations that dont even offer "real gas".wouldnt gasonol plants make more local jobs, revive a fallen community and end the war in iraq??oil=blood. ted turner made a statement a few weeks ago saying that all of our resources will be gone in 20 years if we keep this up...is there anything the people of rural areas can do??i dont mean to vent, but i believe i am speaking to an intelligent group of americans,being you all of the nepa forum.

[Summering]

Why it has been on a back burner all these years is quite beyond me.
I guess it shouldn't be. Its the big bucks companies that over ride what the public wants.
I did hear recently that Branson ( of Virgin Air) is working on a new fuel........
He has the gusto to do something like this, and the means to go about it.
It would be nice to hear more on whats up with that........I think we would all contribute to its success.

[samvit]

I'm all for alternative fuels and green energy but from what I've learned corn based ethanol is not the answer. First off, it is very energy intensive to process ethanol. Don't forget, before processing can begin the corn needs to be harvested and transported to a processing facility. That requires lots of fuel for farm equipment and trucks. In fact, I've heard that it takes 1 gallon of gasoline to generate 1.3 gallons of ethanol. That stat alone is very discouraging. Then, you have to consider the environmental impact. If we're to grow corn on the massive scale that would be required to generate large volumes of ethanol then you're using that much more fertilizer which pollutes rivers and streams. Finally, I've heard that even if ethanol was produced on a grand scale it would only account for about 7% of the fuel supply. With that said, I understand that Brazil uses sugar based ethanol almost exclusively, so maybe that's something to consider.

[tinman01]

As samvit said its not very efficient to produce.
1. Its expensive and even if we used all tillable land to produce it ethenol still would amount to a drop in the bucket.
2. Ethenol for all those who care about green house gases produces more CO2 than petroleum based fuels.
3. Diesel is the petroleum based fuel to exploit.
4. Hydrogen is clean and abundant.
5. Natural gas is another good choice. New sources are available and they are huge. Its also clean.
Corn based ethenol is another example of DC pork.

[Chefkey]

Unfortunately, grain use for fuel has caused food prices to go through the roof which is not at all good for the consumer. Gas prices may go down but currently they are still up along with rising food prices. Flour doubled last month and we in the culinary biz will have to push it off on the consumer to keep our bottom line.

We need to focus on things like hydrogen to fuel our cars in the future. If we can lead the world in manufacturing the hydrogen we will become the new mideast. Many countries are currently working on cars that will run on hydrogen. Just like Bill Gates when he told IBM they could have all hardware sales if he could have the software sales we need to focus on the fuel.

[rural lady]

I'm not up on this subject other than knowing about corn making ethanol, but in my area there is lots of coal, its always noted on your deed as far as mineral rights, I believe here in Cleafield county they did mining years ago, (correct me If am wrong).

Why can't we do something with coal?

[Chefkey]

Coal use was stopped in this country because it is too dirty and was polluting the air too much. Clean Coal Technology is being tested in order to use what was once unusable side elements of coal. The main problem is the method to getting clean air out of the smokestack takes alot of energy therefore raising the cost per unit. This makes it less attractive than a renewable clean source such as wind turbines.

We really should be placing wind turbines all along the mountains but there is opposition from people who feel it ruins the landscape.

[Sockeye]

Huh? 2/3 of existing power plants burn coal. The remaining 30% use either oil or natural gas. The coal industry is booming right now, as are coal exports to China and India.
Anyway, with biofuels (ethanol) it will always be a matter of how much cropland-read:food-you'd be willing to exchange for fuel. DUMB AND DUMBER

[dansdrive]

If I'm a farmer and I see what the commodity price of corn has done since our government decided corn was the way to go to reduce our oil dependence I would dump my wheat, soybean, and vegetable crops to focus on corn. Whoops that's exactly what the farmers did and now a shortage of the other food groups hence raising the commodity prices for those other food crops. It seems like poor judgment was used to jump to corn without regard to the countries food supply. Let see almost 2 years into going bio fuel, gas is at a all time high AND basic food prices are at all time highs and both are moving higher. WOW what a plan, what a plan to help the consumer. Boy I'm glad we listen to our experts!

[tinman01]

Originally Posted by dansdrive

If I'm a farmer and I see what the commodity price of corn has done since our government decided corn was the way to go to reduce our oil dependence I would dump my wheat, soybean, and vegetable crops to focus on corn. Whoops that's exactly what the farmers did and now a shortage of the other food groups hence raising the commodity prices for those other food crops. It seems like poor judgment was used to jump to corn without regard to the countries food supply. Let see almost 2 years into going bio fuel, gas is at a all time high AND basic food prices are at all time highs and both are moving higher. WOW what a plan, what a plan to help the consumer. Boy I'm glad we listen to our experts!

LOL no thats what happens when we listen to idiots like Al Gore and company.