NO FOOD

[stas]

Well this does not look good:

Joseph R. Dancy, who teaches law at Southern Methodist University and runs a small hedge fund, lays the immediacy of the crisis directly on ethanol-production mandates in an energy bill recently passed by Congress. The bill, intended to boost America's energy independence, is expected to push as much as 31% of the U.S. corn crop into biofuels production, up from 24% last year. In other words, at the exact moment we most need corn on our plates, it is being funneled into cars. A full tank of gas requires the equivalent of a quarter of a ton of raw foodstuffs, enough to feed one person bread for a year.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/CouldWeReallyRunOutOfFood.aspx

[stas]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29rice.html?em&ex=1206936000&en=8202a8316f6b1e12&ei=5087%0A

[Zeradul]

Yep, Ethanol from Corn is TOTAL bullshit in every way.  Consuming 1 gallon of Ethanol from Corn also consumes the 0.8 gallons of gasoline that was required to grow/harvest/transport/ and distill the ethanol.  That means using ethanol from corn creates almost twice as much greenhouse gas.

It also does not reduce our dependence on foreign oil AT ALL.  If anything it further entrenches us in oil because farms are expanding to grow more corn, and investing in more oil fueled farm equipment.

The solution is Wind + Nuclear Electricity -> Electrolysis Factories to make hydrogen -> Hydrogen powered vehicles.

It's all proven technology, we have it now, and we could have build enough windmills with the 3.5 trillion dollars we wasted in the middle east (so far) to create nearly twice as much electricity from wind as the whole country uses.  That also means getting us off Coal power, which accounts for 10% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.