boy george goes with the ADM/Cargill/ConAgra/Hormel approved corporate welfare status-quo.

did their lobbyists with the legislation, or are their legislative sock puppets allowed some creative freedom?

s/with/write/

I suspect (as I've discussed with my brother Joe) that the point of ethanol isn't to reduce greenhouse gasses, but to reduce dependency on foreign oil. The US is still an agricultural superpower, and farmers vote. Further, the technology for refining and burning oil is fairly mature, but we have a long way to go with biomass, which can only get more efficient as the market dictates.

You can't trust Bush to do the right thing, but this is at least less of a bad thing than usual. Meanwhile, renewable energy technology will continue to become more viable. For the moment, I'm glad that conservatives are being pushed in the right direction. With luck, adults will be in charge after the 2008 elections and we can really work toward solving the problems we created.

Instead of letting the markets find something more efficient, like hemp, we get yet another example of why big goverment doesn't work and further entrenching another special interest.

So, like, is the Military Industrial Complex going to start running on biodiesel? Lawl.... that would be a win/win for the Empire. 800+ bases around the world in 130+ countries, and the Neocon Vatican in Baghdad, they are all going to need a lot biodiesel if they are going to want to keep the mayhem up and be in the "green zone". Get it! I am such a Joker! And it is good thing DU is biodegradable, amirite? With a half-life of few billion years it will go away eventually.

And damn are they going to need a lot of turd polish, er, I mean, subsidies, to realize this Vision.

Corn biofuel is popular because it raises corn prices, and the corn belt has inordinate influence over US politics because of lobbyists in Washington and also because of the caucus that takes place in Iowa. I'm pretty sure you aren't hearing any serious candidates calling for cuts in farm subsidies.

Because bio-fuel comes from corn, increasing its consumption will drive up the demand (and therefore price) of corn. Food based on corn meal will become more and more expensive, and other foodstuffs will rise in price to 'compete.'

In other words we are simply shooting ourselves in the foot. The rising price of food most deeply affects people who live from paycheck to paycheck in the first place... that is, people in poverty, or close to it. Not only is bio-fuel environmentally inefficient but it will hurt our lower classes as well.

This stuff is so fricken stupid there just has to be some kind of Illuminati type conspiracy behind it.

But to achieve the deep emissions cuts, we will ultimately need much higher standards, coupled with an alternative fuel with low greenhouse gas emissions.

If only this were true. Every bit of efficiency (energy efficiency or grams of CO2/mile) we bring to the matter simply lowers the cost of fossil energy for other buyers in the market who are quite happy to buy that fuel. Or we simply use that energy for other uses (the Khazzoom-Brookes postulate). There are billions of other people who will buy the fuel that we save.

The only way to make a difference is to increase the efficiency AND lower the number of buyers of the fuel. Tradable Energy Quotas (individual rationing) and the OilDepletionProtocol.org (rationing between countries) are two ways to achieve that, as is lowering our population size.

We need to start a conversation for negative population growth immediately — worldwide. Talking about efficiency without curtailment doesn't help at all.

We don’t have decades to reduce our CO2 emissions by 60%, we have decade, as in ten years (maybe, depending on China and India’s expansion of emissions) before we run the risk of irreversible positive feedback loops kicking in. Using corn-based ethanol INCREASES CO2 emissions relative to refining crude oil and most biodiesel sources are a wash. What do we do?

What did our grandparents do when faced with the need to reduce their dependence on fossil fuel in order to defeat a twentieth century threat? They rationed gasoline! Surely we are not so lame that we cannot meet this current challenge to life itself with at least the level of commitment that our elders mustered to defeat a mere human foe. If you ever look at pictures of Americans from the 1940s you will see a valuable by-product of energy rationing: the people weren’t FAT.

Let’s use biofuels all right; let’s take advantage of beta-oxidation to convert our human blubber to mechanical energy by forgoing our automobiles and walking (even to bus and train stops; don’t be a wimp, five miles is not too far), and riding bikes. Here’s a little secret for those of you who have never been outside of your fossil-fool based wheelchairs: while drivers are cursing at each other, cyclists and walkers are smiling, waving at, and generally encouraging each other. We have joyous communities where, in a medium-sized city, we recognize each other by sight. Join us before it is too late.

Ethanol production plants emit enormous amounts of fumes high in VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and are given a waiver by the EPA from meeting the Clean Air Act emissions standards. Also, most ethanol plants, especially those currently in production, are BURNING COAL to heat the brewing vats and provide electricity to the machinery. Brilliant. Let's solve global warming by BURNING MORE COAL.

As long as we are blowing shit up around the world with Depleted Uranium from our 800+ bases in 130 countries using machines that don't run on batteries and biodiesel, all of this stuff is nonsense. The whole thing is nothing but theatre, and I don't want my family to live like serfs and get groped by the TSA so that Al Gore and the elites can fly around on private jets and blow shit up.

Are we supposed to give the Empire a pass to pollute because we are in a "War on Terror"? Are we supposed to live like hunters and gatherers while we continue policing, and polluting, the world and providing corporate welfare?

Fuck Gas Rationing. Fuck all of these proposals. As long as we are going broke policing the world with depleted uranium and fossil fuels, I'm not going to feel guilty about driving my car.