HowardGreenies and Real Estate Speculation
February 3rd 2007 01:47
Homeless man in NY with program
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, a Republican (of all things) makes the point that the insanity of the ethanol policy could literally be the end of our civilization. He continues:
There is a serious fossil fuel requirement to make ethanol, Bartlett said. "Each gallon of ethanol uses three-quarters of a gallon of fossil fuel." He stressed that this ratio is the
conservative estimate; Dr. Pimentel says that the ratio is worse. So, Bartlett reiterated, we should not be created pressure on agriculture by pursuing this policy. For some crops, you have to put 10 calories in, to get one calorie out.
Bartlett asserted that (Renewable Fuels Association speaker) Dineen's "figures are wrong." Bartlett ran through a quick calculation he had just done, based on Dineen's, showing that for the 5 billion gallons of corn
ethanol produced in 2006, you would not be "saving" on fossil fuels at all, which Dineen said you would. In fact, Bartlett rang out, "You are recycling fossil fuels!"
Bartlett put to the whole panel of witnesses, and fellow Congressmen: "Don't you think that the American people will do better if we're honest?"
Dineen then replied, "I'll go through the numbers from our economist...." Bartlett interrupted: Your economist is not a chemist! He doesn't know what's involved. Dineen could only fall back again on the usual references and players, namely that the National Corngrowers Association (infamous for being patsies for Cargill and ADM, as opposed to
the the American Corngrowers Assn) says that 15 billion gallons of ethanol is a realistic goal.
"Fifty years ago this year, Hyman Rickover gave a speech in Minnesota to physicians," that when you're going to be competing for your fuel sources, with natural resources for food, this is completely wrongheaded. [Bartlett was referring to Rickover's warning, "Wood fuel and farm wastes are dubious as substitutes because of growing food requirements to be anticipated. Land is more likely to be used for food production than for tree crops;
farm wastes may be more urgently needed to fertilize the soil than to fuel machines."
From that point of view, look at the arguments for cellulosic ethanol today. It violates the requirement to return plant material back to the soils. Our top soils are at stake. We
have to "be careful we're not mining our soils." The stover [non-corn cob parts of the corn plant) holds nutrients that needs to be returned to the soil.
So the evil real estate grab that is environmentalism is being exposed to the public. We could have nuclear fission and fusion. We can have progress, but not with the real estate cult of environmentalism. And if these guys have us growing millions of acres of corn for fuels, that my friends is a lot of real estate.
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Comment by Chantal