Re: Cooking oil at $5.50/gallon at Food Lion...

elephantcelebes@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

<snip>

Only where farming is mechanized and the machinery is fuelled by
gasoline or diesel. Suppose, on the other hand, one used natural gas
instead. Its largest component is methane and that doesn't even have to
come from below ground. It can be produced from manure and there are
biodigesters on the market for that purpose.


You can't produce enough methane that way to fuel the industry

Perhaps not yet.

, or they
would be doing it. Right now the fertilizer also comes from methane.

And manure is often used as fertilizer. Often, though, disposing of what's left is a problem. It would make sense to convert it to methane in a digester and use the gas as fuel.



Obviously, ethanol has another energy source -- the sun. But you have
to prove that the solar energy output exceeds the petroleum energy
input. That's a matter of running the numbers, and there are people on
both sides of the argument. Some people think ethanol produces 0.9
joules for ever joule that it consumes, and others think it's 1.1
joules.

The energy content will depend upon the quality of the seed that's
produced which, in turn, is affected by the growing conditions.


Okay, give me a range of numbers.

I don't have that information on hand as I'm not a botanist. I know from second-hand account that the nutritional content of grain will be affected by the dryness of the growing season which, in turn, affects the price that's paid for the crop.

<snip>

The corn based ethanol industry thrives on

massive subsidies.

And the oil industry isn't?



I agree that it is. And those subsidies pass through to the ethanol
industry, because ethanol is energy-intensive.

Meanwhile, most of the price charged for gasoline is in the form of taxes. Very litle of it goes back to the oil companies as revenue.



I would argue that increasing our available energy

supply by a tiny fraction is not worth the subsidy, when the same
amount of money could be spent on conservation.


Many conservation measures do not require financial expenditures and are
simply a matter of changing one's personal habits.


I am thinking about public transportation in particular

Only if there's sufficient economic incentive to do so. It would have to be cheaper to use a bus than to drive and park a car somewhere.

, and perhaps
subsidizing the conversion of inefficient buildings.

Which isn't always practical. My apartment building is warm during the winter but it also retains heat during the summer, necessitating the use of air conditioning. Where was the benefit there?

For that matter,
subsidize solar energy.


Right now, PV modules cost on the order of $12 - 15 Cdn per peak watt. Compare that with about $1/watt for a gasoline-fuelled generator.
.

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