----- Original Message ----
JB: As I have pointed out before, several times, you have relied on an incorrect and woefully outdated source, Pimentel, who has been debunked over and over again. JR: Yes, by the ethanol lobby. He and I are well aware of their take on the matter. We don't trust their numbers. Nobody really cares who Pimentel trusts these days, as he is ancient history and part of the problem - not part of the solution. Plus the new numbers come not only from the Farm Lobby and NREL, but also from by the US Department of Agriculture itself: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/final_billionton_vision_report2.pdf A panel established by the Congress to guide the future direction of federally funded biomass R&D, envisioned a 30 percent replacement of the current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030 - that is the so-called billion ton per year renewable goal. Yes - it was visionary, and criticized by the anti-ethanol lobby in league with the petroleum industry. Since some of the needed technology was not even around when it was formulated a couple of years ago, it was easy to poo-poo, but things are changing rapidly now that top Universities have gotten fully geared up - 'necessity being the mother of invention' and all of that. Due to the huge breakthrough mentioned in the original posting, it is possible that with the political willpower, this goal could be reached even sooner; i.e. with the combined promotion of non-food biomass as the energy source, and big emphasis on aquaculture at coal-fired plants using CO2, and the stimulation of the PHEV and clean diesel technology to a greater level. All it takes is political willpower, and one strategy which should be considered is the conditional removal of the oil depletion allowances and other tax breaks to Big-Oil and Big-Coal etc - to this extent: all the tax break dollars must be immediately plowed back into renewable fuels, especially to aquaculture at coal plants - or they will be forfeited. Jones
