Stephann
Posts: 4214
Joined: 12/27/2006
From: Portland, OR
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My apologies for not making a more complete answer, I didn't really wish to hijack this thread to discuss alternative fuel sources. At a price tag of over a billion dollars a day, My point was the money used in the Iraq war could have gone to any number of other projects. Budget costs alone top $357 billion. Interest on that debt will cost over $400 billion (the amount might increase, considering our lack of firm plan to actually balance the budget.) A joint study done by two researchers, one from Harvard the other from Colombia, suggests that the total cost could exceed $1.2 trillion dollars; without considering increase in troop levels in the first place. The price of this war is literally, per year higher than if the United States Government had simply purchased all of the oil the country uses, per year. I have a very difficult time believing that over a trillion dollars spent on research would not have yielded a more efficiant, less expensive solution than our current standard.
And we still haven't 'won.'
quote:
ORIGINAL: Energy.gov Ethanol can be produced from a variety of feedstocks such as sugar cane, bagasse, miscanthus, sugar beet, sorghum, grain sorghum, switchgrass, barley, hemp, kenaf, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, sunflower, fruit, molasses, whey or skim milk, corn, stover, grain, wheat, wood, paper, straw, cotton, other biomass, as well as many types of cellulose waste. As of 2006, production is primarily from sugarcane, maize (corn) and sugar beets -
It would seem to me that if energy could be derived from crops and sufficiant investment in supporting infrastructure was applied (1.2 trillion dollars??) there's no question that these crops would become valuable enough to take advantage of.
Recent US Department of Energy studies indicated that the net energy gain of corn ethanol fuel to be 1.34, though using a higher sugar content crop, such as sugar beats, the efficiancy rises even more. On the other hand, it is renewable, burns clean, and with adequate infrastructure in place could easily be cost competitive.
Further studies suggest the possibility of combining ethanol and hydrogen to create an ethanol reactor. More research (and money) is needed, and would obselete existing automotive technologies.
Remember, that in the United States nearly half of every dollar spent on gasoline goes into taxes. The war on Iraq is paid for, by taxes. The US, and indeed the rest of the world, cannot afford to continue funding wars to secure such a finite resource.
Stephan
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"The blade itself incites to violence" - Homer
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RE: Who is going to help us take on Iran and company? - 
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