...overworked fields? ...he doesn't mention is the cost to grow the damn corn?...for the benefit of big oil?
Give me a break! Do you have ANY idea how much the U.S. Government currently pays U.S. farmers NOT to grow crops? Try reading the latest "Farm Bill" some time. Or how much we pay to prop up low crop prices? Or that BioDiesel can be made from almost any oil rich crop? Or how many poor farmers in Africa or S. America, that can't afford to grow their own crops, because the prices are so low world wide, or how much we spend to intercept and turn back those crops when they do get to this country? Or how much of the Pentagon budget it spent yearly to protect all our Oil Pipelines and and Oil transfer stations and Oil Tankers all over the world? Or how many people Die every year, because of the U.S. exploiting the Oil resources in 3rd world countries all over the world? :spank:
Now granted, Crop prices ARE higher right now, but that's because the Dollar is so weak right now, which makes U.S. Crops a bargain for foreign countries or companies to buy and export them, i.e. more demand, higher prices for the cooperate controlled farms. I'm not even going to go into the REAL reason the Dollar is so weak here, but I will just give you this equation- 1.3 Trillion Dollar Tax Cuts + $200 Billion Dollar war + Higher Pentagon and "other" spending = $2 Trillion Dollars more DEBT= weakening Dollar. The Dollar has lost about 65% of it value since the November 2000 selection of *.
Every gallon of Petroleum Diesel we replace with BioDiesel, is a gallon we don't have to import from a country ruled by Dictators or "Kings." I agree with you that ETHANOL SUCKS, the refining of Ethanol creates more air pollution, in most cases, than gasoline, but that is not the case for BioDiesel.
Big Oil (and George W. Bush and just about everyone he's ever done business with) HATES the idea of BioDiesel, because they know how easy it would be for us to start producing it on a massive scale, and how much that would hurt their profits. And it would take away all those Billions we pay the Military Industrial Complex corporations and most of the Pentagons reason to exist, post Soviet Union.
Just think of all the ways we use Petroleum Diesel in this country. OTR Trucks, Trains, Ships, Cars, Electrical Generating Plants, etc. A 100% gallon of BioDiesel currently produces a total air pollution savings of more than 30%, which could be improved without much effort. You actually get more energy from a gallon of BioDiesel than it takes to produce it, unlike Petroleum fuels, which I think take 3 times the energy to produce, than you get in return. BioDiesel can be made from Lower quality, unfit for human consumption grade, grains like Corn, Soy, Peanut, Palm, Cotton Seed, Sun Flower, Safflower, etc.
But the best part is, :think:you can filter out the old Used Cooking Oil, from all the French Fry and Deep Fry cookers all over the United States that restaurant currently have to PAY to have it hauled away to be mixed into cattle and other animal feeds, but that's if you have good environmental laws. If your environmental laws and enforcement are weak, the stuff gets dumped in to the sanitary or storm sewers, over taxing the sanitary system or environment, of those communities.
I'd rather we worked on Hydrogen Fuel Cells, but BioDiesel would be great for this country and the world NOW, that's exactly why * is opposed to it. Check out this website for more info <
http://www.biodiesel.org/>