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Tuesday, December 11. 2007

Energy Policy: Adios, grits 'n gravy?

The Dem-controlled House has passed its Energy Bill, which is an exercise in fantasy. For one thing, it requires more ethanol than can be produced by the entire US corn crop. Adios, corn-on-the cob? Adios, grits 'n gravy?

Furthermore, what good do plug-in hybrids do? Where do people think that plug-in electricity comes from - magic? It comes from gas and coal-fired power plants. Duh. What's the difference in whether you burn it in your engine, or the utility burns it? And what difference does it make anyway, with a world market in gas and oil?

Posted by The Barrister in Politics at 11:03 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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You want plug ins, build nuclear generating plants. You want a hydrogen system, build nuclear energy plants. You want to desalinate water, build nuclear generating plants. You want no atmospheric pollution, build...all together now....nuclear generating plants.
#1 bob on 2007-12-11 11:20 (Reply)
Exactly right.
#1.1 BD on 2007-12-11 11:27 (Reply)
BUT THE CHILDREN__WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN??????
#1.2 buddy larsen on 2007-12-11 12:01 (Reply)
Exactly right, Buddy! The Lil' Dears, Our Darlings, Our Future would be endangered by all the... something. Nukes bad! Bad nukes!

Oh, and BTW, we don't have to use the entire corn crop. We can convert some of the land to growin' sugar cane, and beets, and switch grass. And use all of that instead. Geesh.

What we need is another *Manhattan Project*.
#2 Knucklehead (Link) on 2007-12-11 12:17 (Reply)
May well be there is one.

High probality there is.
#2.1 Leag on 2007-12-11 19:51 (Reply)
They're going to cap corn-based ethanol at, either, 15 Billion gpy, or 20 Billion gpy. That will use between 30 and 35% of our field corn - a very doable deal. We export about 20% of our corn for Livestock Feed. (For every Billion Dollars worth of Corn we Export, we have to "Import" 2 Billion Dollars worth of Petroleum Products.)

BTW, here's a heck of a study done by Univ. of N. Dakota, and Minnesota State. It shows that 3 out of four cars tested achieved greater gas mileage with an ethanol blend than with straight gasoline. (As I've stated here before: It's not just btu's. Just as important is OCTANE, and Compression.
#3 Rufus on 2007-12-11 12:43 (Reply)
http://www.rhapsodyingreen.com/rhapsody_in_green/files/optimal_ethanol_blend_level_study.pdf

Oops, here's the study
#4 Rufus on 2007-12-11 12:45 (Reply)
I wish there was one more dumbass donkey in the 'toon. The Dem's bias against coal--even now already hurting investment in the clean coal tech & infrastructure build-out--makes sense only if our vast domestic supplies are less important than the kow-tow to the eco-morons who'll have us--for the sake of their peeves--in another world war, without ever knowing wha' happened.
#5 buddy larsen on 2007-12-11 12:57 (Reply)
how green is Big War?
#5.1 buddy larsen on 2007-12-11 12:59 (Reply)
Slate has a piece on EVs and emissons. The nuclear power alternative would be the obvious choice if we were going to switch in significant numbers, but the opposition from luddites would be significant.

http://www.slate.com/id/2179609
#6 Dr X (Link) on 2007-12-11 16:46 (Reply)
If everyone just recycled one used bicycle tyre a year, no hamsters would ever die.
#7 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2007-12-11 19:19 (Reply)
We'd be soon o'er run with hamsters.
#8 bob on 2007-12-11 20:27 (Reply)
but rid o them pesky bicycle tires.
#8.1 buddy larsen on 2007-12-11 21:16 (Reply)
When the eco-nazis throw out the dangers of radioactivity that comes with nuc power. Let them know that 1.6 million Japanese live in Hiroshima. Up from 400,000 during WWII. The radioactivity makes em horny I think...
#9 Nozzle on 2007-12-11 20:29 (Reply)

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