We can burn ethanol in cars right now. There are no cold fusion
cars. We are still waiting for a commercially available unit, so,
you're quite right,
ethanol and cold fusion aren't comparable.
Since we are in the realm of mythology, you can believe whatever
you wish about oil companies - but their LEADERS explicitly state that
NIMBYism
is behind the fact that the US hasn't built a refinery since 1976.
Again, this objection has been widely published ( in Reason magazine and
Barrons)
and came up in recent Democratic proposals in Congress for
refinery construction on former military bases. Would my citing these
sources make
any difference? Or is the matter now a religious dogma?
Studies from academics that are "garbage in, garbage out" do
little to enlighten anyone about energy. As I pointed out, there's an
enormous amount of
heat going to waste that could benefit alcohol distillation - from
utilities all the way to geothermal to solar - and that strongly affects
the outcome
of any efficiency projected, academic studies be damned.
In addition, the feedstock could involve material that's largely
going to waste, right now - a far cry from corn based production.
At the very least, we need to see a cold fusion unit that can
cheaply heat a house. Electric generation can wait.
