Bitch Kitty Racing

This is from Zaproot, which might not be the most informative site in the world. However, they are making the same point that we made at the Vehicle Research Institute back when I was there: the big business approach to biofuels is actually worse for the world than the big business approach to oil.

So, use your head, know your sources, and remember that there is no quick fix for climate change. As Ms. Morgenstern says, “We’re all gonna fucking die.” And, as Mr. Moroney says, “We’re all gonna fucking die, and it’s probably going to be quite painful.”

No, seriously, biofuels are really wonderful at shortening the carbon cycle from 167 million years to one growing season, but growing them is a nightmare. Ethanol is a fucking joke, nothing more than pork barrel politics. People need to get re-elected, so they make their constituents rich by jacking up the price of corn, which leads to more corn production, which leads to more land converted from forests and food, to corn farming . . . You get the idea.

Biodiesel. Biodiesel can be very effective, depending on where it comes from. There is more energy in diesel than in ethanol. As fuels go, pound for pound, ethanol has fairly low energy, i.e., it takes more fuel to go the same distance than if you used diesel or gasoline.

Natural gas is so cheap it doesn’t matter, but no one seems to be going in that direction. Huh, maybe there’s no money in it.