Food for fuel...

And I don't mean human fuel. I always call a meal, fuel, as I see it as that my body tells me I am needing energy, so I must "fuel" up.

As the corn belt of the mid-west has begun to reap the benefits of the government's policies on Ethanol production, are these the best policies for carbon emissions? Ethanol is an alternative fuel that some think will be able to wean America off of their oil habit. In doing so it could prevent millions of tons of carbon emissions. The Dept of Energy has doubled its commitment to funding the research to biofuels, those being any non-petroleum based fuel source. These include corn, soybean, switchgrass, municipal waste, wind, solar, etc. Nearly half of the 11 billion bushels of corn produced each year is turned into ethanol. Most of the new cars are capable of running on this product with a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Is this a good thing?

Of the 114 ethanol plants in the United States run off of natural gas and/or coal to run their processing. Then this product must be shipped via trucks as the existing piplines are unable to carry it because it will corrode the iron pipelines. The corn producers growing this product rely on government subsidies as well as the increasing demand for corn as a fuel means that the food product will continue to raise in price at the grocery store. This has nothing to do with the amount of water it takes to create a bushel of corn vs switchgrass, for example, or none for wind and solar, but this is another topic some of which we have covered.

There is such a thing called cellulose ethanol, which contains more energy than corn, but it is more expensive to produce. Researchers are finding that by using innovative enzymes and heating processes they are finding methods to make this more economical.

Geothermal is another process we are liking as we research alternative fuels. This is a very powerful process of energy to which we can capitalize on for the future which is endless just like wind, solar and tidal energies.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

Light up your life...

Ever heard of a compact fluorescent lightbulb or CFL. It is a funny looking swirly thing that fits into the light socket. They cost a bit more than incandescent bulbs but use 1/4 of the energy, and last several years longer. They are sold in nearly every location where lightbulbs are generally sold. In fact, recently The Home Depot was selling these bulbs for $ .74 a piece so they are certainly becoming more mainstream and lower in price.

A new 7 watt CFL will be comparable to a regular 40 watt bulb. A 26 watt CFL is equal to 100 watts and so on. Make sure to look for the Energy Star label.

Make sure you throw these bulbs away in the recycle bin as they now contain minute parts of mercury to eliminate the flicker when you turn on the light. They even make new CFL's that can be installed with dimmer switches. NICE.