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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Biofuel Myths



Biofuel myth posts are a dime a dozen. I thought it was time to do one of my own. Bookmark this post to use the next time you encounter a biofuel missionary or a member of the congregation in a comment field. This will be a work in progress. I'll be adding myths as I encounter them. Feel free to let me know of any you see or if you would like me to try to debunk one.

The only way out of our liquid fuel dilemma is for the public to start embracing the rapidly emerging new technologies that radically improve gas mileage 100% or more above our national average and radically improved mass transit for those who want to use it. Converting food into fuel is a financially and environmentally futile waste of money and resources. Educate your politicians. Send them an irate email.

I call these items myths but they might more accurately be described as Big Biofuel talking points. Every myth can be traced back to one of the dozens of websites that promote crop-based biofuels in the name of profit.

The people you find parroting these "facts" on Internet comment fields in defense of crop-based biofuels fall into two basic groups. People who make a living from crop-based biofuels and those who have been duped by same who might think they came up with these talking points on their own, but the "fact" that they all say the same things strongly suggests otherwise. We are all susceptible to being duped by things like car ads and this is no exception. Car ads are one thing, propaganda is another but they are both effective on the unwary and uncritical. Click here to continue.

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(photo credit Mike Licht via the Flickr Creative Commons license).

3 comments:

  1. Nothing new under the sun. I just finished reading a book that talked about how the Nazis were using the French potato crop to make ethanol for their war machines, the V1 rockets in particular. Luckily, the French resistance managed to blow up many of the refineries.

    A Google search found that they were also using their own sugar beet crop to make ethanol at a time when starvation was starting to sweep through Europe.

    Coincidentally, the Pope was once a member of the Nazi youth, which is meaningless because he was just another innocent child caught up in terrible times.

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  2. Anonymous2:46 PM

    Thanks to farmers, Americans use some of the lowest percentages of their income on food in the world. American farmers also produce a surplus of corn every year after meeting increased demands which has lead to record exports. If people are starving, it has nothing to due with our corn being used for biofuel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous said...

    "Thanks to farmers, Americans use some of the lowest percentages of their income on food in the world."

    That's not thanks to farmers, whatever exactly that means.

    The low percentage is a result of free market competition giving consumers the best prices and the fact that we are so wealthy that food is a small percentage of our expenditures.

    Farmers are just businessmen.

    As a farmer, you should understand the definition of crop surplus.

    People are starving, roughly a billion for the first time in history. The only real indicator of supply relative to demand is price. The price of corn has doubled in the last few years (a 100% increase). The poorest simply can't afford to eat.

    ReplyDelete

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