Tuesday, April 11, 2006
BBC report: Brazil's sugar crop fuels nation's cars
It seems that the United States has plenty of land for agricultural use (consider this Heritage Foundation brief from 2004).
Could use of land to raise crops (be it sugar cane or other plants) be viable for producing motor fuels in the U.S. and other First World nations?
In the July/August 2004 of the Washington Monthly magazine, Sam Jaffe made the case that switchgrass might be one of those other plants. Read more about it here.
Could use of land to raise crops (be it sugar cane or other plants) be viable for producing motor fuels in the U.S. and other First World nations?
In the July/August 2004 of the Washington Monthly magazine, Sam Jaffe made the case that switchgrass might be one of those other plants. Read more about it here.
Comments:
Gee, once we agree.
But I wouldn't make any riverboat gambles that ethanol from switchgrass or any other biofuel could replace the entire amount of fossil fuels used for transportation in the U.S. And the government should probably give biofuel a kickstart by discriminating against fossil fuels with a $2 per gallon gas tax; consider the way they kick started the railroads in the 19th century, and the highway/auto industry in the early 20th.
Once something is going the "market" can take care of it. But government rules, regulations, and taxes shape the environment in which these markets function. Even you can't deny this fact of life.
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But I wouldn't make any riverboat gambles that ethanol from switchgrass or any other biofuel could replace the entire amount of fossil fuels used for transportation in the U.S. And the government should probably give biofuel a kickstart by discriminating against fossil fuels with a $2 per gallon gas tax; consider the way they kick started the railroads in the 19th century, and the highway/auto industry in the early 20th.
Once something is going the "market" can take care of it. But government rules, regulations, and taxes shape the environment in which these markets function. Even you can't deny this fact of life.
