The Democratic Party has so many positives, so many good policies in our platform that reflect a mission of serving the common good, instead of the greed of the financial/corporate/military entities that are sucking the blood out of our country.
First of all, the War in Iraq. Be clear about this, this war was about access to oil. There were no weapons of mass destruction, and Iraq, as we know, had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11.
The republicans have their slogan (you know what it is so I will not repeat it here) for dealing with the
energy supply problem. However, we all know that it is just another lie. A far better slogan for the Democrats to push would be Grow, Baby, Grow. And this is why...
Cellulosic ethanol is the fuel of the future, and can be produced from renewable sources and lessens our dependency on foreign oil. In addition to domestic production, the reduction in GHGs ( green house gases ) is approximately 90% less from traditional fossil fuels. This has a major impact in the fight against global warming.
The technologies for doing this is here today.
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The best kept secret in the ethanol industry in BlueFire ethanol fuels. BlueFire holds many patents on their concentrated acid hydrolysis technology that yields approximately 70 gallons of ethanol grade fuel per ton of biomass feedstock. That feedstock to produce cellulose ethanol includes wood chips, biomass, yard waste, paper, cardboard or anything that originates from plant matter. BlueFire has already had 2 pilot plants, one in Irvine where the technology was originally tested, then another pilot plant in Japan which produces 3 million gallons per year. Blue Fire is now poised for deployment of commercial sized plants of it's cellulose ethanol technology in North America and worldwide.
Remember the Delorean in "Back to the Future?" A revised version ran on trash. Well now we can use anything that originates from plant matter. A good source in the South is Kudzu, but there are other sources: wheat and rice straw ,switchgrass ,paper pulp ,agricultural waste products like corn cobs (corn stover), and algae. It can even be made from urban and animal waste.
A "green" benefit is that cellulosic ethanol production can use industrial wastes and municipal solid waste (MSW), reducing or eliminating the landfilling of wastes. Industrial waste such as paper sludge often goes into landfills at a cost of $80/dry ton. At a facility planned in Middletown, New York, MSW will be processed into ethanol. After recovering recyclables, acid hydrolysis will be employed to convert the cellulosic materials into sugars.
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How Much Gasoline Could Cellulosic Ethanol Replace?
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The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the United States could produce more than a billion tons of cellulosic material annually for ethanol production, from switchgrass grown on marginal agricultural lands to wood chips and other waste produced by the timber industry. In theory, that material could produce enough ethanol to substitute for about 30 percent of the country’s oil consumption.
A University of Tennessee study released in November 2006 reached similar conclusions. As much as 100 million acres of land would have to be dedicated to energy crops to reach the goal of substituting renewable biofuels for 25 percent of the nation’s fuel consumption by 2025, the report estimated. That would be a significant fraction of the nation’s 800 million acres of cultivable land, the study’s authors said, but not enough to cause disruptions in agricultural markets. "There really aren’t any losers," said University of Tennessee agricultural economist Burton English.
here is a pdf that addresses FAQs and myths attributed to ethanol.
The Bush administration's own Department of Energy determined in a study that offshore drilling wouldn't add to our oil supply until 2030. When it finally does, the study called its impact "insignificant," since it's estimated there's only enough oil to be gained to last the U.S. three years.
And there's one more thing offshore drilling won't do. It won't make us committed to finding alternative sources of energy any sooner.
Grow, Baby, Grow