Terrorist attack on Saudi oil

[iikhod]

Why not make ethanol out of something else? For example in Lappeenranta they produce ethanol out of bakery waste.

[HaroldinCR]

Strange thing is, no mention of sugar beets in any discussion of ethanol. Way more tonnage per acre and minimal crop waste. Sugar cane used to be burned before cutting, in Florida. Not sure if that is still done, or even in Brazil. Imagine the air pollution of all that black smoke.

Update: There's potential for at least three such plants in central California, said Tischer; producing a total of 40 million gallons of beet biofuel annually. He said California beets are expected to garner some 1200 gallons of ethanol per acre (or almost twice the amount of a typical corn crop)

[oil pan 4]

In the US we used corn because that's where all the tax breaks were.
Not that using corn was better in any way. Just an example of letting politicians interfere with farming and energy production.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I'm not unfavorable to corn-based ethanol, as it might be also seen basically as some sort of byproduct of a protein substract for livestock feeding. And since corn also yelds oil, biodiesel shouldn't be out of question. Not to mention the fact that residues from livestock can also be turned into biomethane. It's much more than a matter of looking for some one-size-fits-all approach.

Originally Posted by HaroldinCR

Strange thing is, no mention of sugar beets in any discussion of ethanol.

AFAIK there were some projects aiming to use sugar beets as ethanol feedstock in England.

Sugar cane used to be burned before cutting, in Florida. Not sure if that is still done, or even in Brazil.

At least in Alagoas and Pernambuco it's still done.

[redpoint5]

My overall thought is that if corn ethanol were a good idea, the free market would be implementing it on their own accord. Some might say that's not enough to reduce dependence on foreign oil, or to slow global warming, or to reduce pollutants, which is fine. In that case, you raise the tax on the thing you want consumption to reduce on, and let the free market come up with the solution.

Subsidizing corn is a corrupt and arrogant way to attempt to solve a problem. Our politicians aren't energy experts. They can't determine what the most efficient way to solve a problem is. They should be legislating as unobtrusively as possible, but instead they take the opposite approach and become as intrusive as possible.

I can't believe we don't immediately laugh our politicians out of office as they come up with stupid ideas like "I'm going to dictate the size of the cup you can be served at places that sell soda pop".

[Xist]

Don't subsidies exist because of their respective lobbies?

[All Darc]

Sugar cane ethanol it's way more efficient way to produce ethanol. Corn ethanol produces a X value of ethanol energy, but about 80% or more of energy it's used in the production itself, calculating in energetic ways.
Corn have few sugar while sugarcane have a lot more sugar, in terms of production per hectare.
Brazil have decades of experience producing sugarcane ethanol, and I remamber than some USA authorities was interested in learn.

I wonder why no ocnspiracy theory had raised yet, about saudi oil attack. They should be saying crazy things like about the attacks be ordered by USA oil companies to raise the prices of oil on USA.

[redpoint5]

Well, you just raised the conspiracy theory.

I tend to believe things as presented, failing better information, especially when a group declares responsibility.

The thing is, we don't want more expensive oil. Our economy is completely dependent on it, so burning someone else's cheap oil benefits us.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by Xist

Drink water!

Thank you for the advice. I just drank some, re-filled the glass & set it on the table near the computer. Gotta repeat your advice, more often. Our tap water, here at sea level, comes from mountains as tall 7000 feet. Forty years ago, they started filtering to rid it of excess natural asbestos. Pretty good, except they put too much floride in it. The best tasting water I ever had was on Mt. Hood, Oregon. A ten foot deep pool of water was near a glacier. You're not supposed to drink glacier water. But, it was the most beautiful, crystalline clear water! I just had to drink a few sips of it.

[Xist]

Weird. Many bottled water companies have glacier in the name.

I did a quick Google search and just read that you should read cloudy glacier water.

I would be reluctant to drink cloudy water from any source.