What is happening with alternative energy?
Every day we watch the price of petrol climb and climb. The profits of the oil companies are reported in billions. Yet, we see no effective action has taken to relieve the average American from this untenable dilemma. The Ethanol that the government has backed and in the process encouraged world food prices to climb at almost the same inflationary rise as gas is a total bust.
This is not the first time government has dashed headlong pursuing fruitlessly alternative energy solutions with our money. Remember the oil shale bust under President Jimmy Carter? It was dubbed” Syn-fuels. We are just now (2007) finally ending subsides to oil companies supposedly developing oil rich shale deposits that were touted as a cheap reliable alternative to Middle East Oil.
Ethanol consumes 1.6 billion bushel of grain more than 15% of our the United States entire corn production, and consumes 1.3 gallons of oil to produce a single gallon of Ethanol. A rather lopsided equation for a country already in a gas crisis don”t you agree?
The irony is that anyone who picks up any number of magazines that deal with science and technology are well aware that there are numerous technologies already developed that can and have developed ways of creating alternatives to oil at very competitive prices. Popular Science February 2008, Page 31, “Beyond Ethanol” describes that British Petroleum ( BP) has developed a product called “Butanol”. It is produced by microbes and “Butanol is easier to transport than existing bio-fuels and has an energy content closer to that of gasoline.”
The September 2007 issue of Scientific American, Page 20, “Ethanol Alternative” deals with a bio-fuel named 2.5 Dimethylfulan (DMF) “Such catalytic reaction (dealing with the process) are simpler and more effective than the fermentation methods used to make Ethanol.” There are many more articles in as many other publications that illuminate many practical, less expensive processes to end Americas current dependence on foreign oil now controlled in most part by governments who use “our” money to fund and support terrorist in their unrestricted assault on our lives, freedoms and economy.
My question is this: Why, if I an average citizen can find information in a public forums like Popular Science, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics and other easily obtainable publications. Then why can”t our elected officials be aware of these developments and take action to implement them for the common good of all Americans? I suggest we all follow the money. The halls of Congress and the floor of the Senate are filled with millionaires, many of which didn”t start their public service as such. Follow the money.
Stephen J. Vecellio
Hidden Valley Lake
