On 1/5/07, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, if they're serious about biofuel, they'd allow sugar cane (which takes less energy to process) rather than corn. Added bonus, it wouldn't have any effect on current food prices.
Who's "they"?
But, they're not. Ethanol is just a sop to Iowa Agribusiness.
Is "they" Iowa? Iowa knows it's a sop right now, which is why the Iowa government, research institutions, and farm bureaus are working to make ethanol fuel real. The impact on the food supply that corn-based ethanol has is well known here in Iowa. It effects not just the price of the corn we eat, but the price of the corn they feed the cattle too. The future is not with corn-based ethanol, and Iowa knows this. Iowa is working towards more feasible ways of producing ethanol and also alternative alternative fuels. There was a story on the local NPR station today, during my afternoon commute, about a new "stored energy park" they're building outside some small Iowa town. This "park" will take energy produced by wind power and compress air with it. The compressed air will be stored in the ground (yes, really), and then released later to power turbines. Iowa Stored Energy Park: http://www.isepa.com/about_isep.asp More about Iowa and the future of energy: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612310315 -todd -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
