Article Title: The False Promise of Biofuels
Author:David Biello
Keypoints:
- Range Fuels is not the only biofuels company to fall short. Cilion in Goshen, Calif., Ethanex Energy in Basehor, Kan., and others have gotten out of the business of making biofuels from plant matter because it is too expensive
- CEOs and government policy makers, hundreds of millions of dollars in government money, more than two dozen U.S. start-ups financed by venture capital and decades of concentrated work, no biofuel that can compete on price and performance with gasoline is yet on the horizon
- This failure is particularly discouraging because only a few years ago biofuels seemed like an ideal solution to two big U.S. problems:dependence on oil and climate change
- Terrorism and soaring oil prices had made Middle Eastern oil a particular liability, and rising average global temperatures underscored the need to find alternative fuels for automobiles and airplanes
- Biofuels come from plants, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, burning biofuels in vehicles would in theory slow the buildup of greenhouse gases, compared with burning fossil fuels
- U.S. production went from 50 million gallons in 1979 to 13 billion gallons in 2010. A government mandate to supply 10 percent of the country’s passenger vehicle fuel drove that enormous growth, however, and the product has been affordable only because of massive federal subsidies
- Ethanol yields little if any net savings in carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, making those 13 billion gallons consumed roughly 40 percent of the nation’s corn crop, cultivated on 32 million acres of farmland, pushing up food prices and feeding an enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi River dumps all the fertilizer that runs off Midwestern cornfields
- Ethanol could be brewed from sugar derived from the husks and stalks of the corn plant, rather than the edible kernel, or from similarly fibrous material in grasses or even trees (as in the case of Range Fuels).
Summary:
In this article, the author talks about how biofuels have become commercially publicized, because of gasoline companies going down due to higher prices and our dependency on foreign oil. Although this method may seem promising, many are concerned with how the input of creating the fossil out runs the output, meaning that this method of making fossil fuels is inefficient as well. Because of this issue, ethanol has become more expensive to consume and therefore has less customers to buy from. Scientists are now looking for other plant groups such as algae, and sugar that may be more efficient.
In this article, the author talks about how biofuels have become commercially publicized, because of gasoline companies going down due to higher prices and our dependency on foreign oil. Although this method may seem promising, many are concerned with how the input of creating the fossil out runs the output, meaning that this method of making fossil fuels is inefficient as well. Because of this issue, ethanol has become more expensive to consume and therefore has less customers to buy from. Scientists are now looking for other plant groups such as algae, and sugar that may be more efficient.
My thoughts:
After reading this article, I believe that biofuels may be that next way to find energy in most of our power sources, but for now I also believe it should still be put to the test before out into market. because there are also over energy sources being put to the test on whether which method educes the best results, many companies are pushed to step ahead of the game and look for that new solution in what may become the next big thing to benefit us all and more importantly, the environment in which we all depend on.
After reading this article, I believe that biofuels may be that next way to find energy in most of our power sources, but for now I also believe it should still be put to the test before out into market. because there are also over energy sources being put to the test on whether which method educes the best results, many companies are pushed to step ahead of the game and look for that new solution in what may become the next big thing to benefit us all and more importantly, the environment in which we all depend on.
So what?Biofuels give low net energy.
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Says who?The author, David Biello
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What if?What if there was an unlimited source of energy?
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This reminds me of...This reminds me of cars that run on vegetable oils.
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