I think I read an article about the man made jet fuel from everyday garbage or some kind of normal waist. Sounds pretty promising and a much better idea then ethanol.
Ethanol will die eventually, not that its a bad idea but due to...most older cars can't run it, costs nearly the same as a regular gallon of gas, gets less miles out of that gallon, few stations sell it, and most of the people who would actually use it wont be able to afford these new flex fuel vehicles until they are 10 year old rust buckets :P
It needs to die quickly, not keep expanding. There is a huge ethanol plant that just popped up on the edge of my town. Will go into full operation this year at harvest time. This is one of about 4 or more within a 50 mile radius of me...they took most of our corn last year, and when they go into full production this year they will probably take a good 90% of the local harvest. Only problem with this...us farmers that raise mostly livestock, the cost of grain has skyrocketed since last year, this combined with the already record gas prices has sent many small farmers packing and many more will soon join. One I worked at for years shut its doors a couple months ago, the one I'm at now is starting to head that direction. We can't run ethanol in the farm equipment, 99% of us can't run it in our current trucks...in other words its doing nothing but putting many of us out of a job >:(
The ethanol plant will only employ 40 people when completed...its already put more then that out of a job thanks to turning our livestock feed into edible gold. Its estimated in my area alone this one plant...combined with record gas prices) will put about 300+ people (those of us working on small farms) out of a job within the first year. Not a step in the right direction when it will only employ 40 out of that 300+ >:(
The only good thing so far is the massive bio-diesel plant that is just to my north. Its the biggest one in the world
It too has an effect on the local feed costs due to taking a lot of the soybeans...but...anyone with a diesel vehicle can run it without having to modify anything, most of the local school buses now use it and many of us are beginning to run it in the farm equipment. Gets about the same mileage as regular diesel as well. I'm looking into selling my current gas truck and getting an old diesel instead. Only issue is winters bitter cold temperatures here, regular diesel gels...but bio-diesel almost solidifies
But the main thing is its usable and a good alternative
But now its just record high gas prices killing us. Regular unleaded, watered down, low grade gas just hit $3.95 a gallon this afternoon, diesel is over $4.30 a gallon. If it was to stay at $3.95, it means roughly $140 in fuel JUST for work this week...over a 3rd of my paycheck
To think...3 years ago we were complaining when it hit $1.25 :-/
Scrap the ethanol idea...its time to create something everyone can use :-?
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