Kyoto Treaty

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Unfortunately, in the USA, Biofuel immediately gets translated into methanol. As you can see happening already, methanol is being made from corn because it's the easiest (high sugar content) and most profitable raw material available.
The flies in the ointment are; that corn is food for us and livestock, corn is very energy intensive to grow, corn is susceptible to weather/wind damage, corn requires huge amounts of water.
Also, since methanol gives you only 2/3 the mileage of gasoline, producing it from corn, or any biomass for that matter, will use immense tracts of land.

We need to keep in mind that cars are not the main source of co2 emissions. Electricity production is the real problem, with cars providing a convenient scapegoat. Electricity producers have fooled around with other kinds of biomass such as poplar trees and switch grass which still have emissions but don't introduce sequestered co2 into the atmosphere. I'd like to see energy production become more distributed using whatever makes the most sense in a given locale. I would think that spreading out production would make the grid more bullet proof, terrorist proof, and idiot proof.