5-22-07 Why Ethanol?
About a hundred years ago, when Henry Ford was introducing his new "automobile" to the world, the fuel of choice was alcohol. Indeed, the fuel that Ford originally designed his first cars to run on was alcohol. As a renewable fuel, alcohol was a no brainer. Unfortunately, a by-product of kerosene distillation that had (up to that time) been thrown away was also available in much larger quantity. This by-product was "gasoline."
The petrochemical industry was, essentially, born upon the discovery that a waste product could be turned into a product. They've been turning waste products into products ever since.
Now, a hundred years later, alcohol as a fuel for the automobile is gaining traction again.
The big story on alcohol fuels during the past couple decades, however, has been in Brazil.
The interesting thing about alcohol fuels in THIS country is that, well, ...the whole scene is beginning to remind me of what it's like feeding the pigeons in the park. You toss some tidbit of food, and they all come swooping in and fight over it. That's pretty much the way it looks to me, with all the big agribusinesses flocking onto the ethanol fuel bandwagon.
When I look for the backstory, I usually find it in the relatively "fringe" areas of news. The mainstream media really isn't up to the task of fully informing the public anymore. Such is the case with this story, wherein the Christian Science Monitor has managed to go out there and do the actual journalism to bring us the story.
The sad facts are that current US government policies, and those that are on the drawing board, are basically just pork-barrel politics, designed mostly to benefit big agribusiness no matter what the scientists and economists are saying. Current and planned policy on ethanol fuels in this country are going to produce more problems than they solve. Read the CSM story, and you'll understand why.
The petrochemical industry was, essentially, born upon the discovery that a waste product could be turned into a product. They've been turning waste products into products ever since.
Now, a hundred years later, alcohol as a fuel for the automobile is gaining traction again.
The big story on alcohol fuels during the past couple decades, however, has been in Brazil.
The interesting thing about alcohol fuels in THIS country is that, well, ...the whole scene is beginning to remind me of what it's like feeding the pigeons in the park. You toss some tidbit of food, and they all come swooping in and fight over it. That's pretty much the way it looks to me, with all the big agribusinesses flocking onto the ethanol fuel bandwagon.
When I look for the backstory, I usually find it in the relatively "fringe" areas of news. The mainstream media really isn't up to the task of fully informing the public anymore. Such is the case with this story, wherein the Christian Science Monitor has managed to go out there and do the actual journalism to bring us the story.
The sad facts are that current US government policies, and those that are on the drawing board, are basically just pork-barrel politics, designed mostly to benefit big agribusiness no matter what the scientists and economists are saying. Current and planned policy on ethanol fuels in this country are going to produce more problems than they solve. Read the CSM story, and you'll understand why.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 3:44 PM
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