I Think I'll Stick With My Cardigans, Thanks....
I'm all for developing alternative sources of energy. I'm also mindful of the chronic gap between this administration's words and reality.
Courtesy of a reader, here's a look at an important part of the energy policy that will wean us from foreign oil, as President Bush explained in his State of the Union address:
Switch grass.
Courtesy of a reader, here's a look at an important part of the energy policy that will wean us from foreign oil, as President Bush explained in his State of the Union address:
Switch grass.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Wednesday, February 01, 2006
23 Comments:
Far be it from me to carry water for Bush, but there are three sources of ethanol that are supposed to be actually economical. Wood chips, switchgrass, and cane sugar. Celulose in plant life leads to more efficiant ethanol production. Today's ethanol is largely corn based becaus the corn industry has most of the power when it comes to subsidies and the like, plus Iowa has all the pull as the first primary.
Not sure if ethanol is a long term solution compared to hybrids/electrics/hydrogen, but it'd certainly be easier to implement based on infrastructure.
good info
I think we have to look at Brazil for an example of a nation that has converted a meaningful percentage of their engergy consumption to alternative fuels. I'm not entirely up on the details, but I understand Brazil is head and shoulders above much of the world in this area.
i've got two words for everyone. nitrogen and land. think about it. lord what an ahole the prez is.
And to follow up on your comment automax, from today's NYT:
The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget.
A veteran researcher said the staff had been told that the cuts would be concentrated among researchers in wind and biomass, which includes ethanol. Those are two of the technologies that Mr. Bush cited on Tuesday night as holding the promise to replace part of the nation's oil imports.
Don't worry Prince Bandar, Bush has got your back.
I don't think you have to worry the President didn't mean what he said : "his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn’t mean it literally."(1)
Bush Administration Says Mideast Oil Pledge “Purely an Example”
Just one day after President Bush drew headlines for pledging to reduce the country’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil by 75 percent by the year 2025, two top administration officials said Bush’s promise was not meant literally. In a conference call with reporters, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told reporters the President was giving “purely an example” when he spoke about making dependency on Middle Eastern oil “a thing of the past." Bodman, speaking alongside Presidential adviser Dan Bartlett, said President Bush really meant that alternative energy could take the place of the amount oil the US is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025. An administration official told Knight Ridder the President used the words “the Middle East” only so he could illustrate the issue in way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."(1)(2)
I've seen energy department presentations on alternative fuels over the past few years. They are wonderful powerpoint presentions. Unfortunately department officials they can't even hide their sneers when giving them. Previous commenters have hit the nail on the head. The administration is cutting funds for research in renewable fuels: $25 million from NREL in Denver, CO. The fact that the energy secretary appeared blind-sided by the remarks in the SOTU just shows that it came from the political arm of the administration.
Switchgrass... At least it's not as insane as, say, going to Mars. Or invading Iraq. To put some numbers on it: Switchgrass is native to the prairie and grows well in poor soils. It produces 11.5 tons of dry mass per acre per year, enough to make 1,150 gallons of ethanol per acre per year. The US uses 139 billion gallons of gasoline per year. To make 139 Bgal of ethanol from switchgrass you would need 121 million acres. That's 189 thousand square miles, or a square 435 miles on a side. A good chunk of the midwest, but not all of it. If you retool the auto fleet to cut gasoline consumption in half, easily within the grasp of available technology, then the idea of getting fuel from biological solar collectors is at least not totally f'ing crazy. (But if people think that they are going to continue to use Hummers to drive the kids to Chuck E. Cheese, then yeah, it's crazy.) And it's probably a good way to transfer wealth from the middle class to Archer Daniels Midland, so it's right up the Washington alley.
a couple refs:
http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html
Then invest in ADM. I did. Got in at $13.75 in 2003. Sold it last month at $28. Apparently I jumped the gun and should've held on to it a bit longer now that it's riding 30+.
What will I do with the money? Put it towards making my home more energy efficient.
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