Biodiesel has the opportunity to claim some of the burden on energy policy, but oil companies have serious power; they pull strings and call in favours in every westernised country i know of. Until their power is depleted organically or suppressed forceably, i cannot foresee any energy source overtaking petrochemicals.
Brazil seems to have successfully challenged the prevailing orthodoxy. Don't underestimate the power of the U.S. agricultural lobby, either. The biofuels movement is the best news the grain growers of the Midwest have had in a long time. It's salad days out there - to the extent that grain prices for food are being squeezed upward.
Ethanol is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, as i understand it. For one thing, it doesn't burn all that much cleaner than gasoline, for another, the food market has always been relatively static where the energy market fluxuates constantly and extremely; mixing the two, threatens driving up the price on nearly every farm-raised product because of higher corn prices.
It is not the big oil companies. It is the government and those who control the hedge funds. They are the ones that set the oil prices. As Americans we support these big corprations whether we know it or not. If you invest in the stock market, if you have a 401k you are investing in these EVIL companies.
AP, 9/17/07: "Iran is not a suicide nation...we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear. There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran ...they'll never be able to compete with us in our true military might and power. War, in the state-to-state sense, in that part of the region would be devastating for everybody, and we should avoid it..." -- Gen. John Abizaid, recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East
Radio frequencies beamed at salt water sounds pretty far-fetched in terms of kissing oil goodbye in the foreseeable future. They thought that they'd cracked cold fusion a number of years ago, too, and that lead nowhere. But your points are all well taken.
I dunno. Fuel cells are based on the principle of burning hydrogen, so there is energy there to be had. Considering how polarised water is anyway, well...I dunno. I think there's something there to be had.
We don't need oil for energy anymore and we haven't for a long time. We just use it because of the politics of energy policy. What we do need oil for however is by products like, I dunno, saaaay.....plastic? Look around and ask yourself if anything you own has nothing to do with plastics.
Biodiesel has the opportunity to claim some of the burden on energy policy, but oil companies have serious power; they pull strings and call in favours in every westernised country i know of. Until their power is depleted organically or suppressed forceably, i cannot foresee any energy source overtaking petrochemicals.
DamNationDiplomat 4 years ago
Brazil seems to have successfully challenged the prevailing orthodoxy. Don't underestimate the power of the U.S. agricultural lobby, either. The biofuels movement is the best news the grain growers of the Midwest have had in a long time. It's salad days out there - to the extent that grain prices for food are being squeezed upward.
LanysNevelesser 4 years ago
Ethanol is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, as i understand it. For one thing, it doesn't burn all that much cleaner than gasoline, for another, the food market has always been relatively static where the energy market fluxuates constantly and extremely; mixing the two, threatens driving up the price on nearly every farm-raised product because of higher corn prices.
DamNationDiplomat 4 years ago
It is not the big oil companies. It is the government and those who control the hedge funds. They are the ones that set the oil prices. As Americans we support these big corprations whether we know it or not. If you invest in the stock market, if you have a 401k you are investing in these EVIL companies.
nattorro 4 years ago
AP, 9/17/07: "Iran is not a suicide nation...we have the power to deter Iran, should it become nuclear. There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran ...they'll never be able to compete with us in our true military might and power. War, in the state-to-state sense, in that part of the region would be devastating for everybody, and we should avoid it..." -- Gen. John Abizaid, recently retired commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East
vrede420 4 years ago
Radio frequencies beamed at salt water sounds pretty far-fetched in terms of kissing oil goodbye in the foreseeable future. They thought that they'd cracked cold fusion a number of years ago, too, and that lead nowhere. But your points are all well taken.
RoulinBrooks 4 years ago
I dunno. Fuel cells are based on the principle of burning hydrogen, so there is energy there to be had. Considering how polarised water is anyway, well...I dunno. I think there's something there to be had.
LanysNevelesser 4 years ago
We don't need oil for energy anymore and we haven't for a long time. We just use it because of the politics of energy policy. What we do need oil for however is by products like, I dunno, saaaay.....plastic? Look around and ask yourself if anything you own has nothing to do with plastics.
LordLargo37 4 years ago