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 1 tank of fuel, or 1 year's food supply?
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9688 Posts

Posted - 08/18/2006 :  07:52:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Original_Intent

quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse

quote:
Originally posted by Original_Intent
It also is much harder on the engines of these machines, causing a large decrease of mileage, aprox. 80,000 if memory serves me.

Can you please dig up a citation for this?

This is the best I came up with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85
I read most of it and skimmed the rest, but I couldn't find anything about the decreased life span of the car engine.

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
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"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

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Siberia
SFN Addict

Brazil
2322 Posts

Posted - 08/18/2006 :  08:29:49   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Siberia's Homepage  Send Siberia an AOL message  Send Siberia a Yahoo! Message Send Siberia a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa

quote:
Originally posted by Siberia

Well, Brazil used to make quite a lot of money from sugar production. It was one of the three largest economic phases we had - extraction of wood, production of sugarcane and then, production of coffee....the new flex cars brought it up again.


Thanks for the info!


Welcome

"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa

"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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LizW
Skeptic Friend

USA
113 Posts

Posted - 08/18/2006 :  08:47:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send LizW a Private Message
Hey guys,

I may be missing something, but couldn't the corn be diverted from livestock feed. Wouldn't people trade burgers for buicks. If I'm not mistaken dent corn (feed corn) is already the main corn crop here in the US.

You learn something new every g****mn day!
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 08/18/2006 :  18:28:55   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
quote:
I may be missing something, but couldn't the corn be diverted from livestock feed. Wouldn't people trade burgers for buicks. If I'm not mistaken dent corn (feed corn) is already the main corn crop here in the US.


The whole concept of people going hungry because of ethanol production is bunk.

The US has a massive agricultural surplus, and the capacity to grow alot more than we do now.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2006 :  18:58:54   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
Really, Dude? Including fresh water and enough space and fertile soil? Isn't it the same as any resource that gets used up, eventually, it gets used up?
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 08/21/2006 :  23:17:20   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
quote:
Really, Dude? Including fresh water and enough space and fertile soil? Isn't it the same as any resource that gets used up, eventually, it gets used up?


Crops are a renewable resource. Yes, there are limitations based on space and water and soil viability.

But that isn't the point.

We have an argicultural surplus,and a huge ammount argiculture exports:
http://www.usda.gov/oce/forum/2006%20Speeches/PDF%20speech%20docs/Collins-Speech.pdf

We also have federal programs that pay farmers not top grow crops. Some of my family in rural Illinios participates in one of these programs. They get paid to not grow stuff.

US farmland, if used to capacity, could produce alot more than it currently does.


Also, if the ethanol technology matures, we will be able to grow plants that do not deplete the soil (stuff like alfalfa that binds alot of nitrogen out of the air into their roots) in rotation with the plants used for ethanol production (like Switchgrass that you hear W talking about), multiple times per growing season.

We have the technology to manage and sustain our farmland. We can produce more than we do.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 08/22/2006 :  20:56:18   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
I be skeptical.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 08/28/2006 :  22:30:53   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
beskeptigal said:
quote:
I be skeptical.


Look at it this way. If the technology advances (and it probably will) then we'll be able to turn anything containing cellulose into ethanol.

There are plants that grow quite well in soil and conditions that you can't make foodcrops grow in. There are invasive species (like Kudzu) that outgrow all the native plants (no need for pesticides or irrigation), and so on.

The chance of ethanol production actually taking food from anyones mouth is probably very low, and depending on some advancements in technology, we will likely be able to utilize other plant sources for ethanol production anyway.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 09/14/2006 :  15:13:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14831968/

quote:
Honda and RITE said they had overcome a major obstacle that limited how much ethanol could be made from cellulosic biomass. A microorganism developed by RITE helps reduce interference in the fermentation process, allowing for far more efficient ethanol production, the partners said.

“This achievement solves the last remaining fundamental hurdle to ethanol production from soft biomass,” RITE researcher Hideaki Yukawa told a news conference in Tokyo.



So much for that ethanol vs food argument.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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