Biofuel wakeup call?
Another reason for automakers to retool their technology?GM claims that it will take decades for technologies, such as hybrid cars or electric vehicles, to have a significant impact on foreign oil dependency and global warming emissions. Thus, the automaker has continually pushed for a huge increase in US ethanol production, continually dismissing all criticisms of the fuel.
Yet, the evidence against ethanol keeps mounting, and it just seems biofuels are not going to be an easy way out for automakers.
"Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded," writes the NYTimes this morning.
Labels: biofuels, hybrid cars
posted by Dahcredyns at
7:28 AM
9 Comments:
I think you are missing an important point, cellulosic ethanol.
If we keep pushing corn-based ethnanol, it will eventually fund cellulosic ethanol, which will be much greener than corn-based ethanol.
Cellulosic ethanol does hold interesting promise.
I'll give you all the ethanol you can make as long we end the flex-fuel credit. I'm tired of millions of flex-fuel vehicles on the road that never use flex-fuel providing cafe credits to automakers so they can be less fuel efficient than they are required by law. That's a ridiculous loophole.
It will take decades for hybrids? Wow, that certainly seems a big cop out to me.
As much as I hate government interference, this is one time where I wish the US government would mandate that all vehicles sold in the States be hybrids (of some sort) and be able to get a MINIMUM of 50 mpg. I am sure that a lot of people would disagree with me, but I cannot see any other way to motivate US auto makers.
No doubt it is a cop out.
Still, even if everything were made into a hybrid today, it takes something like 12 years to recycle through the current fleet of cars, so it would take, minimally, 12 years to have everything be a hybrid.
Nonetheless, that's no excuse not to make it happen in 12 years.
It just seems that if we attacked oil dependency the same way we tackled beating the Russians to the moon, or the same way the nation came together during the world wars, we could easily end foreign oil dependency within a decade while greatly decreasing emissions and be well on our way to ending oil dependency.
More important, I think such a 'war effort' would easily pay for itself via reduced military costs and technological breakthroughs.
Why not dare to dream?
I think another important point is missing: as far as I understand a rainforest has almost zero balance in terms of carbon emissions: it consumes about the same amount of oxygen that it produces. I hope that this issue has been addressed by scientists. There is also another point missing. Eventually, we will switch to fuel cells. Ethanol fuel cells. Since the efficiency of ethanol fuel cells can be much higher than efficiency of ethanol-powered combustion engine... the whole technology will be much greener.
itman-
unfortunatley, I haven't read the studies, just a few reviews of them, and i'm sure that ethanol supporters will find flaws.
still, it just seems that corn-based ethanol needs to be tempered until cellulosic ethanol is fully ready.
i'm not advocating for no corn-based ethanol, but i definitely don't think we should be striving for more corn-based ethanol than already being produced. we should also start getting rid of the tax incentives for corn-based ethanol.
Definitely, considering bold plans for increasing its production in 7 times... Just imagine what happens with corn price in that case.
Yet, it does make sense to increase its volume a little bit. Also, cellulosic ethanol will be a great benefit too. It will allow to produce ethanol in many countries that are not as warm as Brazil or USA.
Biofuels are another panacea, like hydrogen and the Volt. Its a lot of misguided talk making people feel less guilty about their continuing bad habits.
Here's a more comprehensive look at the biofuels battle: http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=2637
kp-
i believe in the potential of both the Volt and hydrogen, although i do agree that using either hydrogen or the volt as an excuse not to do everything possible today does make them situational panaceas.
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