Don't Expect America To Walk The Talk On Fuel - Independent

[hatrack]

EDIT

The second proposal was even more esoteric. US cars and trucks currently burn four billion gallons of non-gasoline fuel. Mr Bush announced he wanted this to increase to 35 billion gallons by 2017, with 14 billion coming from a massive increase in the use of ethanol fuel from corn (from where the other 21 billion will magically appear, he did not share with us). Now, the ethanol option is certainly attractive. A few weeks ago I was in Brazil (where global warming is being blamed for their worst summer on record) and no other country on this planet is a better advertisement for how ethanol can work. Some 80 per cent of cars sold can now run on ethanol, and it is thought to account for nearly 40 per cent of all fuel consumption.

But "doing a Brazil", unfortunately, is not a realistic option for the US. With the current technology, it simply cannot represent more than a tiny percentage of consumption. Barely 0.5 per cent of US gas stations currently sell ethanol fuel, and even at that measly level, ethanol takes up an astonishing 20 per cent of US corn production.

Sadly, I fear, Mr Bush's espousal of this dream has more to do with all those nice subsidies for US farmers/mid-west voters, so typical of America's pork-barrel politics. If the US really wanted to increase ethanol use, it should dramatically increase imports from Brazil (currently subject to a tariff of 54 cents a gallon). But then again that would not help America's obsession - energy independence. It certainly is a bizarre world where the US is utterly dependent for its core fuel on the likes of Venezuela and the strife-torn Middle East. But what have Americans actually done about this?

EDIT

I have little sympathy for US energy-security issues, when they have done nothing to attack wasteful consumption head- on. Contrast this with Europe. Bold moves are needed, not fudges. European countries have combined serious investment in alternative sources - take Denmark (22 per cent of energy from wind power), or France (with its advanced nuclear programme) - with consumption cuts through tax penalties. Aha, reduced consumption through higher taxation - unthinkable in contemporary America. How much easier to dream of a "scientific cure".

EDIT/END

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article2192855.ece

[wtmusic]

1. 'Doing a Brazil' is a very realistic option for the US

What it requires is a removal of tariffs from sugar, which pound for pound produces 8x as much ethanol as corn (sugar is the source of Brazil's ethanol). The only thing standing in the way is will.

Who put forth a proposal removing tariffs? W.

Who voted against it to placate his constituents? Obama.

Don't...get me started. :grr:

[hatrack]

2. It's a little more complex than that

I'd argue that Brazil's tropical climate does make the overall production picture substantially different for biofuels - at least as far as sugarcane's concerned.

However, on the sugar thing, I definitely, since (IIRC) the whole thing is basically to protect a handful of rich Florida growers anyway.

[wtmusic]

3. Brazil is a major sugar producer

and the main reason ethanol isn't viable in the US isn't because we can't grow sugar--it's because we can't import it economically.

Ethanol production has the potential of being far more lucrative than making the white stuff that goes on Frosted Flakes. We need a paradigm shift in our commitment to the environment--I know you're down for that--but it could also be a financial windfall. Just takes someone to put the wheels in motion, and I don't see that in Obama. I see more of the same old thing.

[Porcupine]

4. Clearcut forests and cut cane by hand?

You do understand that in Brazil the sugercane in planted in clear-cut patches of the former Amazon forest. Do you know that the sugar cane in Brazil is cut by hand by impoverished campesinos?

How is this an improvement?

[wtmusic]

5. OK fine

There is plenty of arable land in the US south which can be converted from growing other crops -- like tobacco, perhaps?

And spare me the "impoverished campesinos" crap. Go to China, and you will find 800M impoverished campesinos picking rice by hand, as they have done for millennia.