Enough is Enough....the hell with Ethanol

[frasier]

I think you're in for a disappointment.

OTB

Yeah...I think it is Obamas turn..he will get enough of the "I am feeling guilty because of my unpure racist thoughts...I vote for him..he looks white enough"....votes.

 

[onthebottom]

Yeah...I think it is Obamas turn..he will get enough of the "I am feeling guilty because of my unpure racist thoughts...I vote for him..he looks white enough"....votes.

I've seen him do one speech and one interview - so I don't know enough about him to really judge. He's a great speaker and he seems like a decent enough guy. The interview scared the hell out of me but in a primary he's playing to the liberal extreme in the Democratic party so he may moderate himself if he gets close to the nod.

I have to say I don't know if the Ds will have the nerve to nominate a black man or a woman, to some extent (you'll have to excuse my cynisism) I think it will depend on the strength of the R candidate - if the Ds are worried they may run to Gore for another go.

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

I think it will depend on the strength of the R candidate - if the Ds are worried they may run to Gore for another go.

OTB

Now THAT is funny!
Strength of the R candidates?!?!?
It's the Rs that are worried, because with each passing day Gore looks better and better.
Compared to Gore the present field of R candidates comes across as a bunch of second rate fluffers!......

 

[onthebottom]

Now THAT is funny!
Strength of the R candidates?!?!?
It's the Rs that are worried, because with each passing day Gore looks better and better.
Compared to Gore the present field of R candidates comes across as a bunch of second rate fluffers!......

Gore would be the dumbest candidate if he entered the race..... I don't think his behavior after his last loss (beard and the screaming) would play well. But who knows.

OTB

 

[WoodPeckr]

Gore would be the dumbest candidate if he entered the race..... I don't think his behavior after his last loss (beard and the screaming) would play well. But who knows.

OTB

Perhaps he just has to dress in drag like Rudy prefers!
Bet Rudy in drag plays very well for you, eh bot?......

 

[papasmerf]

This whole tread comes down to which is more vital. An inefficient and costly fuel or TEQULIA?

Seems like an easy choice.

 

[frasier]

This whole tread comes down to which is more vital. An inefficient and costly fuel or TEQULIA?

Seems like an easy choice.

I am glad at least somebody got that...

 

[slowpoke]

There are a number of crops that would be better than corn. Even waste like sawdust, wood chips etc. This is an article about modified sorghum which, apparently, would be much better than corn and use less water. Ideal for hot and dry areas.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/05/02/tech-sorghum.html

Modified sorghum better fuel source than corn: Scientists
Last Updated: Wednesday, May 2, 2007 | 8:24 AM ET
The Associated Press
Texas A&M University scientists displayed a genetically engineered crop of sorghum Tuesday that they say will be a more efficient and economical option to corn in drier areas as the world searches for alternative energy sources.

Sorghum, which as a plant resembles stalks of corn, is a centuries-old grain common around the world but has been used more in North America as a livestock feed. At Texas A&M, researchers have been working over the past several years to extend its growing season, allowing it to double its height to more 4.5 metres, thicken its stalk and be even more drought tolerant.

The genetic changes make it ideal to raise in areas such as the South and Southeast parts of the United States, where the growing season already is longer than in northern sections of the country. The climate also makes sorghum a more suitable crop than corn, which has emerged as a biofuel alternative used in ethanol production, particularly in the Midwest.

Economic fuel source
The cellulose from one version of the sorghum and sugar from another version can similarly be processed for fuel. Researchers said energy yields could top those from corn and at a more reasonable cost, making it an economic windfall for farmers.

"For decades, we have depended on what's below the ground for our nation's energy, and now we can turn to what's above the ground," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said after a briefing and tour of A&M agriculture and biofuel labs. "With the yields that are being forecast, with the continual growing season in certain parts of Texas and in particular the lower water usage, it offers great promise."

Some of the new crop could allow for as many as three harvests annually in areas like the Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Continue Article

 

[onthebottom]

Perhaps he just has to dress in drag like Rudy prefers!
Bet Rudy in drag plays very well for you, eh bot?......

Back to homophobia again....

OTB

 

[Quiettype]

Tobacco biomass

While the feed angle may be probnlematic due to alkelyde (sp?) in the material. The high sugar content of biomass tobacco might offer tobacco country a more userful role in the economy.

http://home.ktc.com/bdrake/altengy.html

and if they genengineer the feed issues out of the tobacco, the other numbers may work out as well.


Warning, it's a pretty big article.

 

[hunter001]

Tabaco takes a lot of land and is hard to grow (at least in Canada)

 

[Mcluhan]

Tabaco takes a lot of land and is hard to grow (at least in Canada)

Not.

 

[hunter001]

Not.

It seemed hard enough when I was working on a tobacco farm back in the 80s. It is sensitive to frost and requires a lot of water, sandy soil, fertilizer, herbicide/pesticide to keep it healthy. I guess the farmers were faking it.

If things have changed since then I stand corrected.

 

[xdog]

From what I understand, tobacco is difficault to grow and hard on the soil. You can't continually grow it on the same plot of land year after year. It needs to be rotated so the soil can be replenished.

x

 

[hunter001]

From what I understand, tobacco is difficault to grow and hard on the soil. You can't continually grow it on the same plot of land year after year. It needs to be rotated so the soil can be replenished.

x

That is what i remember growing up in northern edge of the tobacco belt.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Hemp

Hemp is a better crop than tobacco.
It grows like weeds and was widely used for many products 30 or more years ago.
Hemp's main drawback now is there are too many who like to smoke this weed....

 

[frasier]

Ethanol-a-holics

The Great Plains Gold Rush is on. Fueled by government mandates and taxpayer subsidies for ethanol, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that U.S. farmers will plant more corn this year than any time since 1944. Farmers are ditching crop rotations, spreading more fertilizer, gulping more water, and planning to store more corn in the hopes that government’s new “golden child” of energy production, corn-based ethanol, will continue to push prices ever higher. Some think corn may reach $5 a bushel in the near future, where the same bushel recently brought closer to $2. (High corn prices mean lower farm subsidies, which could be locked in through farm subsidy reform in Congress. But that’s a whole other discussion.)

Ethanol first came to prominence in the oil shock days of the 1970s when agrigiant Archer Daniels Midland promoted it as an emissions-reducing fuel additive. They lost that fight to another government-picked loser known as MTBE, which turned out to be a groundwater contaminant. Now, with MTBE being phased out, King Corn’s ethanol taps are flowing freely. The problem? Corn-ethanol is expensive, it’s not a particularly efficient fuel additive, and it has little impact on oil consumption.

Uncle Sam to the rescue! The feds have done plenty to fuel the current ethanol boom—from a 51 cent per gallon tax credit to oil refiners for blending gasoline with ethanol, to a 54 cent per gallon tariff that largely prevents “foreign” ethanol from being imported, to a mandate that millions of gallons of ethanol be mixed with gasoline. Local and state governments chip in their share as well. In one example of such “subsidy stacking”, 60 percent of the capital costs of an ethanol plant in Harrison County, Ohio were paid for by local, state, and federal tax dollars. A Purdue University economist documented an Illinois ethanol plant that will be paid for with public dollars in just three years, the result of the federal excise tax credit alone. Take away all these subsidies and dictates, however, and the only folks producing corn ethanol would be the moonshiners.

This Uncle Sam-created boondoggle costs taxpayers around $6 billion a year in tax dollar transfers to oil refiners. The price-tag is expected to rise to over $8 billion a year when current mandates for ethanol-fuel blends are met and exceeded. If we were to do away with the excise tax credit and the import tariff, domestic ethanol would cost about 18 percent less than it currently does. And don’t swallow the argument that ethanol is going to save us from “foreign oil” - University of Minnesota researchers estimate that converting the entire U.S. corn crop into ethanol would reduce net fossil fuel use by only 2.4 percent.

With all this money flying around, it’s no wonder that the ethanol refining boom is sweeping across the country. The dramatic increase in refining capacity in Iowa alone has led two University of Minnesota economists and an Iowa State economist to predict that Iowa will soon be a net importer of corn. And yet, the irrational exuberance about ethanol has all the classic markings of an investment bubble. Agriculture has always been a boom and bust business; same with the oil and gas industry. Ethanol has brought both of these together, making for a bigger boom, and eventually, a bigger bust. We can hear the cries for a federal bailout already.

Some say that corn-ethanol is just an intermediate step in the “transition” to the emerging next generation (but not yet proven) -- cellulosic ethanol. Taxpayers watch your wallets. We see the future: corporate agribusiness will be swilling ethanol bailouts and subsidies with both hands, leaving taxpayers to deal with the fiscal hangover.

More Ethanol BS

 

[TOVisitor]

"I am feeling guilty because of my unpure racist thoughts...I vote for him..he looks white enough"

Like I said before, every once in a while someone reveals their true thoughts.

Thanks again, Schicklgruber.

 

[frasier]

Like I said before, every once in a while someone reveals their true thoughts.

Thanks again, Schicklgruber.

I was quoting exactly what people like you think.....

 

[WoodPeckr]

Back to homophobia again....

OTB

LOL!!!!
Please bot, how could you so miscontrue what was posted and view it as homophobia !?!?!
All I did was pay Rudy a complement on how he wears a dress and makeup so well and you try to turn it into something all nasty!
You have to admit Rudy does look great in DRAG, no?......
Bet you would 'do him', in a NY minute, eh bot!....