Ethanol-Laced Fuel

[strangelove]

You would expect an oil company like Shell to shell out a story like that. Truth is creating a demand for ethanol is already creating drought resistant crops which will make it easier for countries like Africa to grow there crops; you can see these improvements in crop growing across the board from soybean to sugarcane, etc. Lots of bio research in improving crop yields. Although there will be more farmers growing crops to go straight to fuel refining, other farms will begin growing more Organic crops. I just think that more farms the better, and more industries paying farmers even better. Look at Wallmarts move to offer Organic in their stores. More farmers mean better produce and it's useless to think that these farmers need to grow crops only for food consumption because millions of tons of crops go to waste every year since nobody could possibly purchase all of the food crops the US produces. Besides the US government would never just give all excess food crops away, if they did give it away it would deflate prices and put American farmers out of business. I don't know why this always becomes a political of moral debate, growing and producing fuel from sources that renew themselves every year just makes so much sense. Oil companies are drilling in areas that are so close to large populations and natural lands that they will just ruin the land. Ever see an oil slick in the ocean, well when you grow up in oil rich land you get pumps, drills, derics, and the smell of tar in the air. I remember swiming in oil at the beach and getting tar stuck in my hair as a kid, since the offshore oil derics have been banned on the California coast, these problems are a distant memory. Now Oil companies want to move back to offshore drilling, not just in CA, but also all along the Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida coast to be more percise. Get ready for some prime reef and beach to get ruined by oil. So what would you rather see, fuel grown from renewable resorces, or more drilling in our countries backyard. Until oil companies can clean up their drilling practices it would be a very big mistake to allow them to drill in Public Parks and Lands.

quote:Brazil has become independent of foreign oil imports thru use of alcohol - but they had a government policy to do that. We need government that does what's right, not what they're paid to do.

There are 2 issues - use of petroleum and global warming - alcohol is a part of the solution to both of those.

Most experts now agree that petroleum production has peaked but demand keeps going up. Couple that with the fact that our importing oil sends money to some areas that hate us, and we clearly should be doing something to reduce our addiction to oil.

If a country like Brazil can become oil independent, why is it so difficult for America to become oil independent?