As long as corn is not used, sugar cane is a hell of lot cheaper.
Blue-green algae should be used for diesel. I creates much more oil than anything else.

its tougher to make tho isnt it?? dont know too much about it.

Sugar cane ethanol is about the easiest alcohol to make. There's a good reason the moonshiners used sugar over corn.

To produce diesel with blue-green algae, the algae is dried somewhat, then the oil is squeezed out. The oil is then ready to be used as a fuel. But to make it clean and efficient it needs a little refining, but not much more than the oil used in restaurant fryers.

Cellulosic ethanol is the only viable alternative.

Burning up the food supply is not a good idea.

Folks, like it or not, there are a couple of 'inconvenient truths' to face about WHY we use oil - and why we'll continue to use oil for the foreseeable future ... (1) All of the 'alternative' technologies - wind, solar, geothermal, bio-whatever, ethanol, methanol, etc - only add up - COMBINED - to roughly 4.7% of ENERGY DEMAND ... (2) There is NO other product or technology that is as ENERGY-DENSE per pound as oil ... (3) All of the 'clean energy' - say 'electric' - does not grow naturally - it is MADE at a generating facility that uses: COAL or GAS to MAKE electricity ... (4) The 'alternatives' like wind need those fancy 'wind turbines' with their pretty blades and sleek nacelles ... well, guess what - they have bearings that need to be LUBRICATED so those blades will turn - that lube is made from: OIL. So are the plastic nacelles and those fancy blades ... (5) Without oil, you will NOT have at least 90% of the things you take for granted in your daily life ... synthetic fibers for your clothing, running shoes, baseball cap, winter gloves - all from OIL ... that plastic shovel for the snow? Oil. That bobble-head doll on your rear window? Oil. The pen and ink in your pocket? Oil. That blister pack that holds all your favorite little gizmos at the store? Oil. Sorry, but until there's a technology that can supply more than the current 4.7% of energy demand on a daily basis, 'alternative' energy (a really neat oxymoron, btw) ain't goin' anywhere ... it just don't have the power to get ya there ...

I don't look at this from a "save the planet" perspective.

This "green" nonsense is a ruse that seems to be fooling an awful lot of people.

I look at this from the "let's rebuild our manufacturing and production capabilities" while doing away with this debt driven consumption based, sham of an economy.

Nothing good will ever come from an economy that is based on it's people spending all their money and going into debt to keep it from tanking.

I don't care if wind mills or ethanol produce .000000001% of our energy needs, if it employs people and actually produces something, it's better than those same people working at the mall producing nothing.

We need to get back to a production based economy or we are going to be royally F*$@ed.

Was up to Sarasota today and saw tarballs first hand on the beaches..THIS IS IN SOUTHERN FLORIDA...WHY IS THIS NOT ON THE NEWS! All you hear is BS about this thing. Its in the Gulf stream!!!! It will go right around Florida and up the eastern coast!!!!!!!!!

I'm with InvictusV!!! I don't care what percentage it produces just anything to cut our dependence!!!!


We should take over BPs rigs and run them ourselves!!! Eminent Domain their azz!!!

What??? Have the news give us the truth...WTF, what a concept!!!

When the majority cares more about the planet than $$$ maybe then we'll hear the truth.

I won't be around when Mother Earth fights back...my future grand children will be. How unfortunate we are handing this mess to them.

I you Ference

Maybe we'll have to crash to rebuild. I certainly hope not, we need alot more evolved conciousness where it counts to do it sooner. People are so afraid of change and also too comfortable where they are to move too fast. Maybe a dire emergency is whats is going to happen to save ourselves. Apparently, and so sadly, this is not it.

Except for one minor problem. The knee jerk idiots in our government have this FANTASTIC idea that Ethanol HAS to come from corn.

Which, of course, drives the price of corn ( and the MANY things made from it ) through the roof.

Someone decided that " corn based ethanol " would be the buzzword(s) and they basically excluded ALL other ideas.

Including the one about BUTANOL which is MUCH easier and cheaper to produce in HIGHER QUANTITIES and which can be made from Switchgrass. OH!!! and it doesn't have the corrosive qualities that damage engines like ethanol does.

But...Butanol just doesn't SOUND as cool as ethanol. So it gets ignored.