A serious question regarding energy independance...?

Question

Correct me if I'm wrong,but doesn't Brazil derive most,if not all,their fuel needs from ethanol or methanol??If so,what is our problem in the US,with our vast agriculture output,it would seem we could basically grow our own fuel.What is our reluctance???

Answer 1

Thats true brazil is mostly running flexfuel. The problem we have here is if we grow crops for flex fuel we are burning crops in our cars which could have been grown for food. That is why we're developing ethanol from switch grass which grows naturally in the plains states.

Answer 2

I don't care what we do but we cant depend on the Arabs for fuel. Along with ethanol or anything that we can use. I know there is some effort to supply cotton seed oil for diesels . In doing this there may be a 1000 different locations will be able to do it. We need to open up more drilling and do what ever is necessary to keep us supplied. To be affective we need to import no more than 30% of our needs . If we don't there are going to many people that will be walking, fore me I don't the poliation making that decision.

Answer 3

they use sugar cane, which has much more energy potential than corn, and turn it into ethanol to run cars on. Im not sure of the ratio of the mixture, but i am pretty sure that they have far fewer cars than here in the states, and probably less stringent pollution laws on the books. That said, yes, we should be pursuing alternative energy, corn doesnt seem to be the answer, why do i say this its because the bush administration seem to be supporting it.

Answer 4

You are not quite right. Brazil utilizes fuel that is 20% ethanol.

You are right in that we should use it. The issue is that the car companies are JUST NOW coming around to make the engineering changes necessary for the cars to use it in larger quantities.