Superlative
Senior Member
- Mar 13, 2007
- 1,382
- 109
- 48
CASTRO SAYS
"At Camp David, Bush declared his intention to apply this formula on a world scale, which means none other than the internationalization of genocide," Castro wrote.
"Dozens of nations do not have oil and cannot produce corn or other grains to make ethanol because they lack water", he said. "The surge in demand for corn will push up grain prices, while the threat of a U.S. invasion of Iran is keeping oil prices high", Castro wrote.
"Where will the poor nations of the Third World get the minimum resources to survive?" he asked.
Brazil has been making ethanol, a gasoline alternative, from sugar cane and running cars on it for three decades, but the United States became the world's biggest ethanol producer last year after Bush said the country was "addicted to oil." World corn prices rocketed.
The Bush administration has proposed cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, mostly by increasing the use of fuels such as ethanol.
IN CANADA
....Based on Ottawa's own research, critics say the investment is based more on myth than hard science.
'Not a lot of difference'
Scientists at Environment Canada studied four vehicles of recent makes, testing their emissions in a range for driving conditions and temperatures.
"Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn't much difference between ethanol and gasoline," said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada's toxic emissions research.
"Our results seemed to indicate that with today's vehicles, there's not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions."
The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel.
Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions.
Bill Rees, an ecology professor at the University of British Columbia and longtime opponent of ethanol, has read the report and thinks Canadians need to know its conclusions.
"I must say, I'm a little surprised at that, because it seems to fly in the face of current policy initiatives," he said.
"People are being conned into believing in a product and paying for it through their tax monies when there's no justifiable benefit and indeed many negative costs."
Other benefits: minister
Federal Environment Minister John Baird said he knows about the report, which was commissioned under the previous Liberal government. However, he said, he is looking at the big picture.
"I think there's an issue between the tailpipe and the whole cycle," he said. "The whole cycle is better than the tailpipe."
Other ethanol proponents agreed, saying tailpipe emissions are not the only statistic that matters.
Ethanol is made from a renewable resource, they noted, and - although there is much scientific debate on this point - they argue ethanol produces fewer greenhouse gases when the entire production cycle, from gathering to refinement to emissions, is taken into account.
USA TODAY
But there are a bunch of problems with ethanol. First, it doesn't have as much energy as gasoline, which means it takes about 1.5 gallons of ethanol to get you as far as one gallon of gas.
Ethanol also requires a lot to produce it — 26 pounds of corn to get a gallon, in fact. And growing corn requires lots of water and fertilizer and pesticide, not to mention the energy required to distill it into ethanol.
And by-products of that distillation include (according to the EPA) acetic acid, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and methanol, all of which are pumped into the air. Yum.
It boils down to this: Ethanol sounds good, but the energy required to produce it, and the pollutants it generates, mean it's arguably worse for the environment than gasoline, especially considering the cleanliness of today's engines.
http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...HANOL.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-3
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/03/30/ethanol-emissions.html?ref=rss
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-06-24-green-tech_x.htm?csp=N009
"At Camp David, Bush declared his intention to apply this formula on a world scale, which means none other than the internationalization of genocide," Castro wrote.
"Dozens of nations do not have oil and cannot produce corn or other grains to make ethanol because they lack water", he said. "The surge in demand for corn will push up grain prices, while the threat of a U.S. invasion of Iran is keeping oil prices high", Castro wrote.
"Where will the poor nations of the Third World get the minimum resources to survive?" he asked.
Brazil has been making ethanol, a gasoline alternative, from sugar cane and running cars on it for three decades, but the United States became the world's biggest ethanol producer last year after Bush said the country was "addicted to oil." World corn prices rocketed.
The Bush administration has proposed cutting U.S. gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017, mostly by increasing the use of fuels such as ethanol.
IN CANADA
....Based on Ottawa's own research, critics say the investment is based more on myth than hard science.
'Not a lot of difference'
Scientists at Environment Canada studied four vehicles of recent makes, testing their emissions in a range for driving conditions and temperatures.
"Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn't much difference between ethanol and gasoline," said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada's toxic emissions research.
"Our results seemed to indicate that with today's vehicles, there's not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions."
The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel.
Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions.
Bill Rees, an ecology professor at the University of British Columbia and longtime opponent of ethanol, has read the report and thinks Canadians need to know its conclusions.
"I must say, I'm a little surprised at that, because it seems to fly in the face of current policy initiatives," he said.
"People are being conned into believing in a product and paying for it through their tax monies when there's no justifiable benefit and indeed many negative costs."
Other benefits: minister
Federal Environment Minister John Baird said he knows about the report, which was commissioned under the previous Liberal government. However, he said, he is looking at the big picture.
"I think there's an issue between the tailpipe and the whole cycle," he said. "The whole cycle is better than the tailpipe."
Other ethanol proponents agreed, saying tailpipe emissions are not the only statistic that matters.
Ethanol is made from a renewable resource, they noted, and - although there is much scientific debate on this point - they argue ethanol produces fewer greenhouse gases when the entire production cycle, from gathering to refinement to emissions, is taken into account.
USA TODAY
But there are a bunch of problems with ethanol. First, it doesn't have as much energy as gasoline, which means it takes about 1.5 gallons of ethanol to get you as far as one gallon of gas.
Ethanol also requires a lot to produce it — 26 pounds of corn to get a gallon, in fact. And growing corn requires lots of water and fertilizer and pesticide, not to mention the energy required to distill it into ethanol.
And by-products of that distillation include (according to the EPA) acetic acid, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and methanol, all of which are pumped into the air. Yum.
It boils down to this: Ethanol sounds good, but the energy required to produce it, and the pollutants it generates, mean it's arguably worse for the environment than gasoline, especially considering the cleanliness of today's engines.
http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...HANOL.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-politicsNews-3
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2007/03/30/ethanol-emissions.html?ref=rss
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-06-24-green-tech_x.htm?csp=N009
