Apr

5

I'm following the bio-fuels market lately. Ethanol does not appear to deliver the net energy return needed to make it a viable large-scale replacement technology for oil in the transportation sector. Another factor is the question of using food and agricultural land to 'grow fuels' that in the end both raises food prices and decreases the amount of arable land necessary to support our food industry.

We are starting to see the effects of Bush's energy plan, primarily focused on corn ethanol, driving up the prices of food and feedstock for cattle, chickens, pigs, etc. Further, corn growers have been reducing their soybeans to make way for additional corn capacity, thus driving up soybeans and related commodity prices. Soy is a massive component in feedstock across the country, so commodity prices for animal protein food can be expected to escalate.

One thing that we have in this country is a lot of coal. Clean coal technology should be coming down in price over the next decade and could have a more favorable impact on our energy security profile than ethanol.

Over the weekend, I spent time with several scientists who were touting –futilely, it seemed to them — the commendable aspects of relatively inexpensive, renewable, and available nuclear energy. Not dependent on extortionate nations of South America and the Middle East. Their goal is to get the government to reinvest in the industry, which has not seen a new nuclear plant in the country in some 30 years. They seem like those wild-eyed men in pod-people films, sure of their facts, but hopeless insofar as getting their point across goes.


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