Everywhere I look, I see people who could afford to give up all food for 6 months. Ethanol is a chicken vs. egg issue. How do you start getting to market, vehicles which can burn fuel other than gasoline?
Go to Brazil, ethanol is ALL they use. Made from any and all crops. I'm using it now in my Chevys. You can't do this with that many other vehicles. The problem of using corn goes away if you could use alfalfa or even better sugar cane. But: you can now buy a cooker and a press to make your own ethanol with 3 - 5 acres of corn. Corn that grows in my backyard up here in the cold North. Ethanol that mixes with gasoline. Ethanol that works with my road vehicles without rotting the seals out and will always start. Oh, and passes Federal emissions standards.
Most people who you will talk to don't even know how many gallons are in a barrel of oil, or how many gallons of 87 octane gas you can get from a barrel of oil, and which country's oils can't be used to make gasoline (BTW: Irag is one of them). Until you know all the elements and problems in going to a non-gasoline transportation system mode, you should shut up and go find out the truths and realities of this situation. For all of you worried about the people starving in other parts of the world, I dare you to name just one of them. We supposedly taught the world to grow their own food. They squandered these lessons and chose to grow more people instead. The Asians put heavy tarriffs on our beef to save their balance of payments. Sooooooooo, now is the time for payback. Start with alt. fuels, go to a hydrogen economy in steps, use ethanol in the interim. And let's take care of ourselves first. BTW: biodiesel is the second front runner, but our current emissions standards pretty much prohibit its use because they favor emissions over fuel economy. Do your homework before you begin bloviating.
GM worked on and produced an all electric car when California agreed to provide infrastructure to charge them at 'filling' stations all over the state. When the cars showed up, California said: sorry, we didn't get it done. Now GM will try it again. Its developed with Panasonic a safe battery that holds a reasonable amount of energy. But Toyota has bought up parts of Panasonic to prevent GM from using it. They have the cash, provided by Americans, to bite us back.
So I say that some of you ought to now enjoy the 'benefit' from food price increases, food rationing, and the cost of replacing your Prius batteries. (They are due to be replaced about now).
Enjoy !
