Let me repeat the simple fact that the Pimentel paper which you continue to rely on for this kind of absurd conclusion . . .
I do not rely on the Pimentel paper alone. Their data is well documented by others. Any textbook on biology, agronomy or agriculture shows this to be the case.
Every agricultural expert quoted in the news has repeated similar numbers. For example, see the October 2006 "Consumer Reports" cover story, "The Ethanol Myth."
The limits of North American sunlight, water supplies, fertilizer and plant photosynthesis are fixed, immutable, and they were well understood long before my mother graduated from agriculture college in 1939. There is not the slightest hope we can grow a significant amount of fuel in a country with a population density as high as the U.S. (Countries such as Australia are another matter.)
Anyone who grows firewood can see how approximately much land it takes to supply energy; there is no chance the numbers will suddenly increase by a factor of ten overnight, and if it does not, we will have to choose between eating and powering our vehicles. As the Consumer Report and countless others have pointed out, biofuel production is already straining U.S. and South American agricultural production, which means we are already condemning millions more people to starvation, malnutrition, and early death. So that we can drive SUVs! Is this really worth the lives of a few thousand children per week? This is the cruelest, most inhumane, most senseless and wasteful scheme yet devised in the long history of folly and destruction that constitutes U.S. energy policy.
is itself the only real "crock & a delusion" which I have seen in the biofuels arena: it is outdated, inaccurate "bunk" playing right into the hands of OPEC.
You have it backwards. Why else do you think the oil companies and this administration are so eager to promote biofuels, along with pie-in-the-sky hydrogen vehicles? Every megajoule of biofuel costs at least 1.3 megajoules of oil to produce (or 0.6 if you believe the ethanol flacks -- an equally ludicrous number). They know that perfectly well.
If biofuels were even slightly cost effective, you would see the biofuel-growing farm tractors and factories running on biofuel. You NEVER see that. They could not possibly produce enough of the stuff to run their own machines. It is obvious they are running a net energy deficit!
- Jed
