Stephen I agree with your conclusion - except one point needs to be clarified.
When corn is converted into ethanol, the protein is not lost - only the carbos. Brewer's yeast is a substantial by-product that actually increases the net amount of protein over what would be available by eating the corn instead of making ethanol. Plus with the new techniques of cellulosic ethanol, the net amount of protein from corn put into the food chain is more than doubled. Still, if the Rossi reactor is real (or the Mills' reactor) - the World will be a much better place in a very short time frame, due to another overlooked dynamic. Part of the present cost of oil is a 'speculation tax' which is earned by futures traders, based on the certainty that Peak Oil is behind us. This props up the price considerably compared to normal futures trading. Once a real alternative to oil is introduced, and factored into the futures markets, even though there will be large delay before it can be implemented, the market psychology of the futures market can lower oil back to the historically "fair price" which should be about $40 barrel. Jones >From the WSJ, a few minutes ago: "Egyptian Vice President Suleiman says President Mubarak has stepped down and has delegated Egypt's affairs to the army." Mubarak may very well be a scumbag who richly deserved to get kicked out of office, but the proximate cause of the demise of his power is, as far as I can tell, the skyrocketing price of food. And that, in turn, is due, at least in part, to the high price of oil, which has made biofuels economical. Because that, in turn, has resulted in farmers pulling land out of food production and switching over to "fake oil production" -- most notably, ethanol from corn. All of North Africa is currently going up in flames, due at least in part to the ethanol we burn in our gasoline. A cheap source of energy would make a huge difference to world's poor, even if they never used it themselves, even if all it did was free up arable land from biofuel production. The other thing pushing up food prices is the rotten and unpredictable weather which the world's been suffering through for the last few years, which has resulted in major grain producing nations cutting back on their exports -- and that seems to be due mostly to climate change caused by burning of fossil fuels. So, again, an alternate source of energy would (eventually) benefit the world's poor, even if they never used it themselves. Won't it be great if Rossi's gadget turns out to be for real? Time will tell....
