However, currently i can't think of any cons to biofuel other than a few factors such as engines may need to be renovated, slightly lower efficiency, and expensive production at this point.

If anyone is an expert, can you point out a few, very specific chemical cons with biofuels?

Besides that, we'll have to greatly scale up our agriculture if we want to ever come close to meeting the energy demand with only biofuels. Supporting extensive biofuel programs means lots of new farmland, and that means lots of wilderness that's going to be turned into agricultural land.

Ultimately what we need to do is not look for silver-bullet approaches to energy like hydrogen or biofuels. We need to focus mostly on increasing energy efficiency. Any energy source is going to have negative consequences as far as the environment goes - the way to mitigate this is to use less energy, not to try and use a different kind.

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If you can read this, you're not our president.

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Ultimately what we need to do is not look for silver-bullet approaches to energy like hydrogen or biofuels.

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For example, America will not cease using petroleum unless another form of energy becomes more economic.  The surest way to bring about a cleaner energy source (Hydrogen) is to deplete more quickly the petroleum reserves.  The worst thing to do would be for us to attempt in vain to use less and less petroleum without planning for the inevitable depletion of it.

My proposal would be two-pronged:
1) Use oil reserves as we have been; increase refinery capacity to process oil; drill ANWR to decrease foreign energy dependence for the short term.
2) Develop infrastructure for a Hydrogen economy (the techonology is already settled; the infrastructure (ie, "filling stations) is nowhere near viability) for the long term.

If we're so worried about the hoax that is Global Warming, and the fact that is the Greenhouse Effect (a subtle understanding, which escapes many, divides the two), caused by CO2 and CO emissions, it would serve the world better to more quickly force transition from petroleum energy to Hydrogen energy, rather than prolong the pollution by attempting to "use energy efficiently" -- an impossible thing to enforce externally.

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obviouschild says that I'm a product of a failed education system, so it must be true.

And if you're so infatuated with cost, consider that using less energy costs less money. I don't see how consumers are going to rebel against the idea of "not having to spend as much money because their car gets better milage."

As for your suggestion about ramping up oil production, drilling for oil just doesn't work that way. An oil field works on a bell curve - after the crest, you can't get as much oil out of the ground, it costs more to pump in air to pressurize the oil, and the oil you get isn't as good. Globally, we're at the top of that curve, just as domestic production crested in the 1970s.

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If you can read this, you're not our president.

Actually, not to a huge extent. Land that now sits unproductive but subsidised, or land that is spent growing food to add to the surplus mountains, can be switched over.

Third-world countries concentrating on cash-crops such as coffee and sugar can switch some production over and not get as arse-raped by Starbucks by competing with eachother and pushing the price right down.

The byproduct of using hydrogen fuel, water vapour, is not going to greatly impact the environment *IF* the source of the hydrogen fuel is water to begin with. Get the hydrogen out of the oceans through electrolysis (also yeilding oxygen too...nice source of LOX), perhaps with the required power generated on site with a wind/solar array, and when you burn it back to water vapour it'll simply complete the cycle and end up back in the ocean.

The only direct environmental problem will be a greatly increased tendency for clouds and rain to form over cities. ^_^

Benja.

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My moblog.

Just imagine a few solar cells and a couple tiny windmills, not bigger than maybe a desk fan, on your car.

Personally I'm opposed to things such as ethanol, as the corn industry is already getting enough government subsidies while making america fat and destroying the grassland praries.

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¡Vive la República de Tejas! ¡Libertad de los Estados Unidos de América! ¡Recuerden el Liberty y lo que los zionistas le hicieron!

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"Supporting extensive biofuel programs means lots of new farmland, and that means lots of wilderness that's going to be turned into agricultural land."

Actually, not to a huge extent. Land that now sits unproductive but subsidised, or land that is spent growing food to add to the surplus mountains, can be switched over.

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Third-world countries concentrating on cash-crops such as coffee and sugar can switch some production over and not get as arse-raped by Starbucks by competing with eachother and pushing the price right down.

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The byproduct of using hydrogen fuel, water vapour, is not going to greatly impact the environment *IF* the source of the hydrogen fuel is water to begin with. Get the hydrogen out of the oceans through electrolysis (also yeilding oxygen too...nice source of LOX), perhaps with the required power generated on site with a wind/solar array, and when you burn it back to water vapour it'll simply complete the cycle and end up back in the ocean.

The only direct environmental problem will be a greatly increased tendency for clouds and rain to form over cities. ^_^

Benja.

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Hydrogen is a good suggestion for a subsitute in some areas, but still not the only option.  Also sucking the water out of the oceans to create the hydrogen would do wonders for the enviroment.  Get more H2O being circulated inland to help with droughts and salination issues, such as the ones in the everglades..

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¡Vive la República de Tejas! ¡Libertad de los Estados Unidos de América! ¡Recuerden el Liberty y lo que los zionistas le hicieron!

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Still ignoring wind and solar...

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Hydrogen is a good suggestion for a subsitute in some areas, but still not the only option.  Also sucking the water out of the oceans to create the hydrogen would do wonders for the enviroment.  Get more H2O being circulated inland to help with droughts and salination issues, such as the ones in the everglades..

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Not that many people really live in those places, and I doubt they would be able to pollute their enviroment more then they import water every year.

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¡Vive la República de Tejas! ¡Libertad de los Estados Unidos de América! ¡Recuerden el Liberty y lo que los zionistas le hicieron!

(Verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity verbosity)

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If you can read this, you're not our president.

...suburban man in Las Vegas. Imports petroleum so he can go to work, imports water so he can keep his garden green.

...future suburban man in Las Vegas. Imports ocean-sourced hydrogen so he can go to work...gets home each day and empties the waste-water tank on his car to water his garden and cut down on his water bill...and the amount of water imported.

Nobody said the waste water from the cars has to be dumped into the atmosphere.

Benja.

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My moblog.

Either way, the point was shown.

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¡Vive la República de Tejas! ¡Libertad de los Estados Unidos de América! ¡Recuerden el Liberty y lo que los zionistas le hicieron!

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Still ignoring wind and solar...

Hydrogen is a good suggestion for a subsitute in some areas, but still not the only option.  Also sucking the water out of the oceans to create the hydrogen would do wonders for the enviroment.  Get more H2O being circulated inland to help with droughts and salination issues, such as the ones in the everglades..

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That's my concern with solutions like hydrogen.  If we run out of fossil feuls, the issue is that we have no fossil feuls, but if we start sucking out too much hydrogen or more naturally occuring substitutes, what are the effects of that.  More dramatic I imagine.

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"It is the wrong question to ask, and therefore, as one  might expect, has
no right answer." - Hans von Campenhausen

This is the philosophy of my life.