How much did YOU pay for war this year?

----------" Perhaps biofuels can fill in as a transitionary fuel, but in the long run it doesn't make sense to jack up food prices for the sake of driving vehicles."---------------

This will not happen-----and even if it should, here is the good thing about biofuels, we simply drive less, and use our resources for food. We can always grow more.

That is the short answer to the oil company propaganda----"WE'RE GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH!!!!!"(scream hysterically, wave arms and run in circles)

The long answer is---I am unable to give you the long answer right now---I have neither the time nor the space in this forum to do so.

I'll just have to ask you to trust me that your fears(food shortages) are totally unfounded, and the viable sources of biofuels number in the thousands and do not involve food. In fact, sewage and landfills are a major source of biofuels, and any kind of biologic waste material. We can provide far more biofuel than we could possibly use now and for a long time into the future simply using the waste from what we are growing right now.

I looked at the web site you linked to. It is long and appears to be very esoteric, and dependent on theoretical speculations about future possibilities. I'll look into it more later when I have more time. Thank you for the information.

Anything and everything that I recommend is based on technology that has been around mostly for 50 to 100 years or more, sometimes for hundreds or thousands of years. It is all technology that has been used in the past on a large scale, and much of it is in use today.

All I am saying is, we can provide all the energy we need and more, have a clean environment, feed all the people of the world better than we are right now----and it can all be done in a renewable, sustainable way---using technology we already have, and have had and used long enough in the past to be fully aware of what the advantages and problems might be.

Trust me, it will work.

Sounds good. I'm all for using up the sludge.

The city of Lunen, Germany, (pop. 90,000) provides all of their electrical and heating energy needs and a significant portion of their transportation energy with methane biogas(CH4---natural gas) manufactured from sewage that comes from livestock farms in the vicinity. The remaining by products after the biogas production are clean water, used in the municipal water system, and compost, sold to local gardeners and farmers. The excess methane produced beyond their needs is pumped into the national pipeline grid.

Germany has set a goal of producing 20% of their natural gas(methane) from sewage and biomass by 2020. At the current rate of new production and deployment, Germany is on track to meet and exceed their 20% goal by 2015.

We have been able to power our vehicles with methane petroleum free for over 90 years-----no batteries required.

There's hope. Thanks, Wetdog.

Yes, there is hope, and there are real solutions.

If we use fossil natural gas---even to generate the same amount of power we currently get from coal----the amount of CO2 produced would only be 44% of that produced by using coal. Just converting coal fired plants to use natural gas instead would give the same result as closing over half of the coal fired plants. AND, no air pollution(CH4 burns completely and cleanly)----and no more strip mines or ash heaps(actually more like mountains).

The only thing we do with coal is boil water. We can boil water with natural gas.

All we need to do is remove the coal grates and install gas burners---like on a kitchen stove, only larger. Nothing else needs to change. Not buildings, not boilers, not turbines, not controls or grid connections. All we need to do is burn natural gas, not coal.

To get rid of oil, all we have to do is have vehicles that are equipt to handle methane. We've been able to do this for over 90 years. Any internal combustion engine can be retrofitted to use either methane, and/or gasoline or diesel at the flip of a switch.

Many manufactures in Europe now offer factory installed bi-fuel and multi-fuel engine vehicles. VW/Audi has several models. In Brazil and Argentina, consumers can purchase the Fiat Siena Tetrafuel. The Siena Tetrafuel can run on gasoline, gasoline and ethanol mixtures, pure hydrous ethanol, and/or compressed natural gas.

If all vehicles on the road now were running on methane instead of petroleum, the CO2 produced would only be 65% to do the same things done now. That would be the equivalent of taking every third vehicle off the road. The air would be clean---methane produces almost 0 pollution. And everyone would have more money to spend, for the same amount of $$$, you can drive over twice as far using methane than you can with petroleum.

Best of all, we can make methane cheaply and easily. Fossil methane and biomethane are the same stuff, CH4----they can be mixed in any proportion with no loss of performance in any application.

Methane can even be used in catalytic fuel cells to generate electricity directly.

All we have to do is do it.

and the Democrats too.