The human intellect -- or at least The Rascal's lame facsimile thereof -- can deal with only so many political issues in a society as complex as ours. In my case, the whys and wherefores of ethanol have fallen by the proverbial wayside.
I'm sorry. I know that lots of people here in the cornbelt are big on ethanol, but I don't give a damn about it.
Still, I have an obligation to this site's visitors to provide information on all manner of political crap, and I shan't shirk that duty with regard to ethanol. So, here's a big take on the subject from the fine folks over at FactCheck.org.
2 comments:
Ethanol is a stopgap measure that won't make much of a dent in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Switchgrass ethanol is more efficient than corn ethanol, and and would let corn be used for food production. Other botique energy "solutions," such as windmill farms, biomass and screwing in billions of flourescent light bulbs, are trendy, but they can't provide enough electricty for a superpower, unless the idea is that we live like modified Amish.
No, I'm afraid we're going to have to emulate the French here, and go nuclear in a big way. They've done it; it's safe, efficient, and it puts no carbon in the atmosphere. they also reprocess their nuclear waste, something we're not allowed to do here.
No less than Bob Abboud, U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo's probable Democratic opponenet, advocates this approach. Abboud, a nuclear scientist and engineer, envisions a future when we depend on nuclear energy and drive electric cars we plug in at night. Result: No carbon emissions.
chuck sweeny
Actually, ethanol from corn will function only as a stopgap solution, and a very small part of the overall solution to reliance on foreign oil.
Ethanol from switch grass is better, and it won't take corn out of food production. Still, that's small beer.
In reality, the only way to fuel a superpower without sending trillions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere is to do as they do in France -- go nuclear. The man who will is likely to become Don Manzullo's Democratic opponent, nuclear scientist Bob Abboud of Barrington Hills, proposes just such a plan. Build nuclear power plants and develop plug-in electric cars. The other, boutique energy generation systems proposed by the greenies just won't provide adequate power == but remember, the greenies want us to live like the Amish.
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