The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

I drink a lot of biodiesel.

The ethanol fad is pure cash infusion for Big Agriculture.

Corn is only a beginning. Other sources will be found for the necessary sugars. Brazil fuels a significant portion of their cars with sugar cane. I realize this is impractical in our climate, but other grains and sorghum and maple sap and grassses all can be fermented.

I think we should burn up all of OPEC's oil first. What else will they have to sell when they need money to buy fuel from us?

As it is, after adjusting for inflation, energy prices have risen less in the past thirty years than juct about anything else. (oddly, furniture prices are the other category tracked by the Commerce Dept that hasn't kept pace with inflation?)

Love it. When the "car of the future" becomes the "car of the present," as some gas-electric hybrids and FFVs are today, great. Until then, we will work for cleaner fuels and vehicles that you can use now.

Like "That 70's Show's" Red Foreman, I'm still waiting for my hovercraft.

I want to know why they can't (or won't) make energy out of human and animal waste...talk about a renewable resource...

You can make energy out of just about anything. It's just that we can't afford enough tax subsidies to make it cost competitive.

Just in case anyone thought we at ALAMN were one trick ponies on cleaner fuels, we are also members of the Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative.

Jason: some might say as a bona fide member of the MSM, you have been in the poo business for awhile.

Not me, of course....

One thing we can't make energy out of is scientific and economic ignorance, although it would probably be worth a try?

Sorry, Warren, I take it all back. But you could have built in Minnesota, you know.

You guys go on with your clean fuels or whatever. I'll buy all the cheap and dirty shit and be rich. Rich I tell you!

There are a number of efficient sources for biodiesel. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article that lists them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel#Biodiesel_feedstock

I saw a calculation that said that if an area only the size of Rhode Island were cultivated with algae for biodiesel use, it would supply all the transportation fuel needs of the U.S. (I can't find the article or else I'd give a link to it. Sorry.)

In Europe, rapeseed, a.k.a. canola, is the primary source of biodiesel, which is nearly 3 times as efficient a source. The main reason I suspect that soybeans are used in the U.S. (and corn for ethanol) is that production these crops are subsidized by government.

Oops, wrong post!