One further thought on a partial, practical and simple but innovative solution - to the over-use of fossil fuels in the USA: Putting wind to work on switchgrass farms.
Sounds crazy at first, so let me explain. Wind energy is the solution everyone wants, if logistics did not get in the way. It is simply too expensive to stretch high voltage lines to some of the better wind sites in unpopulated areas, and where the steadiest winds are often at night. And there have been few good suggestions for converting that wind energy resource into a transportable liquid (other than ammonia, which is also doable). It turns out that some of the best wind sites in the US are way out on the prairies of the Midwest: Montana, Dakotas, Nebraska etc... which also just happens to be the largest area of underutilized land for growing the grasses needed for cellulosic butanol. It also turns out that many of these sites are on Indian Reservations, which need the jobs and investment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie One way to convert wind energy into transportable fuel, and to use wind whenever it is available, even at night or off-peak ... is to use the a version of the "aqua-fuel" process along with a carbon source. This is the process, which has already been put into limited production, in which an electrical current is passed through a mixture of carbon containing water-based slush; and which process is then able to reform that slush into a syngas, mostly hydrogen + CO, which can can then be converted into alcohols or other chemicals. The required electrical current can come for wind, and it can be used whenever the wind is available, since the raw material can be stored cheaply as silage when there is too little wind. This process would work on the lignins from the switchgrass which cannot be fermented by bacteria into butanol. This would provide 100% conversion of the biomass into liquids and with ample waste heat, if that is needed. For the American consumer, this compound process seems like a match made in techno-heaven (or to OPEC, 'made in jahannam') since it solves interlocking problems of infrastructure, underutilization of wind resources, underutilization of land and manpower, and with an elegant solution benefiting the US economy at the expense of OPEC. In a year of political infighting and 'grasping at straws' for one-upsmanship on the energy-front, this partial solution to an enormous problem could be a good 'talking point,' and should be worth presenting to a candidate. Too bad the geographical areas which would benefit the most have so few voters. Jones
