Biodiesel can have a real place in our future. I am not saying it is *the* solution, but it is one solution, and an excellent one because it is easy to transition to. Many vehicles, industrial equipment, heating oil systems can all use it now with little or no retrofit cost. It's also better environmentally than fossil fuel and can reduce our dependency on foreign sources.
I see no need to concern ourselves with trying to fuel 200 million cars. As fuel prices rise, fewer people will be able to afford to drive cars. As the tractors that might grow food crops or biodiesel (which can also be made from animal sources and other wastes) become more expensive to run on fuels, fossil fuel and biodiesel will cost more. Shipping costs will rise. Everything will cost more. Car use will be reduced because of simple affordibility. We won't need to supply at the volumes we currently supply.
And that's only if our nation's imperialism, terrorist attack, or deficit spending doesn't force this nation into bankruptcy. Then it won't be all-or-nothing, just nothing.
What is it you expect can happen? Haven't we seen that all new attempts at design are sabotaged by industry or politicians? If nothing else, biodiesel has the advantage of being harder to sabotage. For one, I can make the stuff in my own back yard with a 55 gallon drum, a Minn-Kota electric outboard engine, and a supply of used fast-food fryer oil.
--tully
On Friday 25 March 2005 07:47 pm, Michael Dawson wrote:
>Three problems:
>
>1. It's not "gaining steam." It exists, and a few hippies do it.
> That's all.
>
>2. Where is the analysis of technology here? All these veggie-car
> space cadets have no criticism of cars, which are inherently super
> energy-intensive. Where are we going to get the energy inputs to
> grow all the veggies it will take to fuel our 200 million
> automobiles?
>
>3. Look at the complete lack of principle on display here!
> "American farmers" are all good? "Unstable foreign countries" is
> this French-fryer's analysis of current geopolitics? Typical NIMBY
> moral implosion. "I have a veggie-house, so the Arabs can pound
> sand."
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org
>> [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of tully
>> Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 4:16 PM
>> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>> Subject: [lbo-talk] Fwd: Biodiesel
>>
>> Bioheat gaining steam as home-heating option
>> By Jaci Conry, Globe Correspondent
>> March 24, 2005
>>
>> SANDWICH -- Although a typical oil truck delivers to Charles
>> Kleekamp's home on a typical schedule, it doesn't leave the
>> typical fuel behind. Mixed in with his hydrocarbons, Kleekamp is
>> using vegetable oil to stoke his furnace.
>>
>> That puts Kleekamp in an emerging group of New Englanders who are
>> committed to using the blend, called bioheat, even though it costs
>> about 10-20 cents more per gallon than regular heating fuel.
>>
>> ''I feel very strongly about what I'm doing. About 20 out of every
>> 100 gallons of bioheat goes to American farmers and producers
>> instead of unstable foreign countries," said Kleekamp. ''That's
>> significant to me."
>>
>> --more:
>>
>> http://www.boston.com/yourlife/home/articles/2005/03/24/bioheat_ga
>>ining_s team_as_home_heating_option/
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>
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