http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/1/8/03856/17905#2
Biofuels (from anything but the waste stream or possibly algae grown in solar collectors)are a titanic waste of scarce capital that ought to be going into electric cars powered by wind, water, and solar power.
As well as a waste of the natural world in the form of agribiz monocrop, genetically modified, pesticide/herbicide eco-suicide.
Biofuels still require combustion to yield useful energy. And infernal combustion vehicles are inherently inefficient.
In a world at war over oil, it is imperative that a viable alternative be produced.
That alternative is electric battery power, charged up with green power. These cars are being kept off the market by the present capital allocation monopoly that favors infernal combustion at all costs.
The agribizz biofuel movement is a scam. It uses oil, coal, and nuclear power to produce huge government subsidies for nothing but a feel good solution.
Nuclear power (from the sun) charging battery powered vehicles through wind, water, and solar power systems is the safe, economical alternative that is needed to end oil wars and global climate disaster.
And since the cost of electric transportation is about one dollar for an equivalent amount of power provided by one gallon of oil or biofuel energy, merely removing the subsidies from fossil fuels and nuclear and applying even a fraction of that wasted capital to kick start this green electric revolution, will have 5 major problem solving effects.
- Jobs. Manufacturing jobs will return along with the buildout of green energy. Millions of electric cars, heat pumps, solar and wind installations, and electric vehicles woll need to be manufactured.
- Global climate change from CO2 greenhouse gas due to fossil fuel combustion will be halted. The costs in terms of storm damage and lost economic growth may be the biggest hidden expense of ALL from fossil fuelishness. 100's of trillions, Katrina's costs are rumored at 2 trillion now?
- The US economy will boom without the endless oil wars and ever increasing oil prices draining effect. Stable energy prices for decades to come will dispell fear of fear itself and restore investor, consumer, and business confidence. Fear of terror over oil has a huge negative effect on confidence in the economy.
- Standard of living. Having ones own solar panels, wind generator, and electric car will be like owning ones own home instead of renting. Buying increasingly expensive energy from corporate monopolists is like renting and having the rent double every few years, natural gas, heating oil,gasloine, and diesel all doubled in recent years.
And that "rent" money is GONE! Money invested in solar, wind, and electric vehicles just keeps on yielding higher and higher dividends over the years, restoring the standard of living lost to job outsourcing and soaring transportation and heating and cooling costs.
5. Quality of life. All life on planet earth will benefit from an end to the devestation that fossil and nuclear power wreak upon nature. We are all a part of the natural world, as inseparable as our individual breath from the breath of mother earth.
