Why aren't we pushing for a way to use Corn/Coal/Electricity sources of fuel?

Question

Isn't oil teh reason we are in Iraq, having Soldiers killed

Answer 1

Corn is a bad choice.  It takes almost as much (and in some cases more) fossil fuel input in the form of planting, fertilizing, watering, harvesting, shipping, processing, and distribuitng, than is returned in ethanol output.  It also uses up vast tracts of land, prevents biodiversity, and raises the price of food.  What needs to be remembered is that corn and ethanol are not the same thing.  Ethanol can come for a vast variety of sources including cellulosic materials, what is generally know as second generation ethanol.  Instead of making ethanol via sugars and starches we make ethanol from cellulosic materials which means form pretty much anything solid.  The best sources are natural grasses such as switchgrass, elephant grass, and other fast growing low maintenence weeds and plants, but also woodchips and forest waste, sawdust, recycled paper pulp, corn stover (meaning the stalk, leaves, cob, husks), even organge peels and some kinds of muncipal waste.  The cellulosic ethanol conversion process is still not quite perfected but we are getting closer and closer every day and the first full commerical scale cellulosic ethanol plant (Blue Fire Ethanol) is now under construction in Georgia and plans to use waste wood from the vast tracts of forest to produce more than 100 million gallons of ethanol starting in 2009.  Look it up people, cellulosic ethanol is the wave of the future.  Down with corn as a fuel but not with ethanol.

Coal is an even worse choice.  Yes we have huge supplies of it in the United States but using liquified coal as a fuel for cars is about the fastest way to pump more carbon into the air and increase climate change.  Please please please never support liquified coal, even if you live in Wyoming, and write or call your congressmen and sentors if you live in a coal state to ask them to also not support liquified coal as the coal companies and lobbyists are trying to get Washington to promote it in upcoming energy bills.

The electric car is a great idea and despite the tragic death of the EV-1 plug-in electric cars will be making a comeback in the next 5-20 years, small producers are already making and selling them.  The problem with electric cars is where the electricity comes from.  In order to make electric cars truly environmentally friendly they need to come for a renewable power source which is why we need to continue to promote renewable energy from wind, solar thermal, PV, geothermal, river hydro, wave, and tidal on both a large and small scale.

The next great step should hopefully be plug-in vehicles powered by a renewable source with a long-range lithium-ion or solid oxide battery that can power the car for the first 40-100 miles without using a drop of fuel (most people, espeically commuters, do not drive more than this distance in a day anyways) and then when the battery runs out a hybrid engine kicks in powered by either cellulosic ethanol or even hydrogen.

Although of only a small amount of help, lining the roof with photovoltaic (PV) solar planels will help extend the range of the batteries by another 10% and can also be used a backup power source in an emergency.

Also, don't dismiss Hydrogen yet, it is still extremely expensive and there isn't an ounce of infrastructure for it in the US but that will change as the technology improves and at some point in the next 15 years Hydrogen vehichles will see a very sudden boom so be prepared.

Another option that gets zero press is air compression power.  It is a novel idea but actually has some merit, especially when combined with other power sources on the car.

The key is to keep researching and improving these technologies until they are fully viable and then begin mass-producing them to take advantage of economies of scale and drastically lower the price.  Speaking of which, what I think this country really needs is a New Detroit.  Let's set aside a large tract of land out west and build a giant alternative fuel vehicle center that handles research, testing, marketing, and of course production to create a kind of epicenter.  If a big step like this is not taken soon we will ultimately fall so far behind our foreign competitiors that we'll never be able to catch up.

You can always email me at [e-mail] if you want to talk or if you have questions about any of this.

Have a great day everyone,

-Matt

Answer 2

We are. Where have you been? Look up "Clean Coal" and "Ethanol" on the Internet. There are many articles and papers on this subject.

Answer 3

cuz it cost monay!

Answer 4

Well Coal is just as bad as oil its a natural resource that burns dirty and we can run out of it to...

Electricity comes form burning coal and oil...so that wont help

and we wont use corn or anything else because then the oil companies wont make any money...there was actually a battery powered car call the EV1 that ppl wanted to buy but the oil companies got it taken off the market...

So basically everyone is pushing for alternative fuel sources except for our president and the oil companies

Answer 5

everything you just said is completely wrong. we are in iraq because our president is an idiot, pardon me, a republican, who thinks that if something perefctly peaceful is happening we should start a war to free another country , instead of helping ourselves. corn and coal are just as bad as oil ,. caol because its basically the same thing in a different form, and corn because its important for food. electricity comes from coal powered powerplants and thats why we cant just say thats all we need to solve our problems.

Answer 6

How refreshing, such a simple outlook on life.

Answer 7

One thing people are overlooking is that by going to more corn/soy bean based fuels, the cost of food is going to sky rocket.  Wait to the sheeple complain about that.

Coal isn't that much of a better option than oil because its non-renewable.

Answer 8

need corn to feed the world,coal is dirty and finite,and electricity doesn't grow on trees...

Answer 9

No... oil isn't the reason we are in Iraq... but it is the reason we treat those ..... over there with kid gloves... I'd be all for using coal, but the EcoFreeks would have kittens at the suggestion... as well as drilling for more oil on our own lands... They go bananas, foam at the mouth, and have grand maul seizures at that suggestion...