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Alternative Energy, what is the logical next step for America? Join me as I write about the various forms of alternative energy and how I see them stacking up in today’s market place. Green Fuel Ethanol / BioMass Touted as the answer to our high gas prices, ethanol is an alcohol based fuel derived from fermenting and distilling crops that are broken down into simple sugars.Ethanol fuel is mainly produced in the US by a company called Archer Daniels Midland, an agricultural giant with years of experience and investment in the Ethanol industry. This industry is supported by Billions of approved tax dollars and the legal requirement that Oil Company MUST buys a percentage of Ethanol and mixes it into regular gas.Ethanol was touted as a cheaper form of fuel with an acceptable smaller amount of energy per gallon or BTU’s.The problem with Ethanol production or the issue is that ethanol production is supported by energy produced with Coal Power, which is the dirtiest form of energy. The question asked then is why is a clean fuel being hailed as such a wonder when it has to use the dirtiest form of energy production to produce it?The EPA has recently in the past few years had to tighten down restrictions on Ethanol plants due to the excessive spewing of chemicals that are dangerous to the environment and known to cause cancer in humans. Sadly the EPA since 2004 has Ethanol listed as a major source of Pollution. This has been pushed down into the bowls to be seen only by people driven to see testing results for alternative fuels production but the details are on the EPA web site.It is clear that in our search to move away from oil dependence and find new green fuels that we are polluting in new ways or at least other ways when it comes to production. So where do we stand when it comes to Ethanol? Does the subsidy really make sense to pay these companies billions to make a fuel that now on average costs $2.13 a gallon but without the subsidy would cost equal to gasoline and has less power and pollutes equal to if not greater when you factor in the coal power required to make it?This does not take into account the added cost put on Corn as a food source since a required amount of corn must be sold and used for production of Ethanol. Currently a bushel of corn is over $8 per bushel and a We have a problem on our hands and it is time we step up and truly move to an alternative form of Green Energy. Is it algae, fruit based ethanol, Biodiesel, CNG, Solar, Electric, Hydrogen (Cold Fusion), wind or just what is the next logical step for the US to take? Over the next few months I will attempt to review both renewable and non renewable energy!
