Law of Unintended Consequences: Ethanol feeds Dead Zone

[trof]

Washington, D.C. - Shrinking that dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will be much more costly than first thought.

A group of scientists that looked at the problem during the Clinton administration targeted agricultural runoff in the Midwest as the main source of the problem and called for a 30 percent reduction in the amount of nitrogen flowing into the Gulf.

A new panel of scientists believes it's going to take a far bigger reduction in nitrogen than that, on the order of 45 percent, according to a draft report.

And even that is not going to be enough. The scientists say that a second chemical, phosphorus, which comes from city sewage systems as well as farms, also needs to be reduced. By 40 percent.

Moreover, the report says that biofuels will likely make the problem worse, because of the increase in corn acreage and use of nitrogen fertilizer needed to keep with the demand for ethanol.

Encouraging more production of corn-based ethanol, in fact, "could nullify other efforts" to reduce the dead zone, the scientists say.
http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/news/default.asp?XMLFilename=200707061539.xml

[Tyler Durden]

1. There are distinct disadvantages to using FOOD for FUEL.

And we just keep sticking our thumb on the scale, praying that Nature and Science won't catch us at it.

[trof]

2. Doesn't much matter what we burn in internal combustion engines.

Everything but possibly hydrogen pollutes.
I think electric is gonna be the way for ground transport.

[Tyler Durden]

3. Electricity was well on the way when KILLED by OIL.

The number of and enthusiasm for electric vehicles is tied to cheap oil and gas. with the last downturn in prices in the 80's, that's when the car companies started recalling and crushing perfectly good, functional electric vehicles whether their the people leasing them wanted them to or not.

That was the reason they never SOLD them in the first place and only leased them: they knew they could just go back to big oil and big oil helped them out.

[trof]

7. Yep. My granny had an electric car.

I think it was a Detroit Electric.


Detroit Electric (1907 - 1939) was an automobile brand produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit Michigan. Anderson had previously been known as the Anderson Carriage Company (until 1911), producing carriages and buggies since 1884. Production of the electric automobile, powered by a rechargeable lead acid battery, began in 1907. For an additional $600.00 an Edison nickel-iron battery was available from 1911 to 1916. The cars were advertised as reliably getting 80 miles (130 km) between battery recharging, although in one test a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles (340.1 km) on a single charge. Top speed was only about 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), but this was considered adequate for driving within city or town limits at the time.

The Detroit Electric was mainly sold to women drivers and physicians who desired the dependable and immediate start without the physically demanding hand cranking of the engine that was required with early internal combustion engine autos. A statement of the cars refinement was evidenced to the public through its design which included the first use of curved window glass in a production automobile, an expensive and complex feature to produce.
1920 advertisement
1920 advertisement

The company production was at its peak in the 1910s selling around 1000 to 2000 cars a year. Towards the end of the decade the Electric was helped by the high price of gasoline during World War I. In 1920 the name of the Anderson company was changed to "The Detroit Electric Car Company" as the car maker separated from the body business (it became part of Murray Body) and the motor/controller business (Elwell-Parker).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric

[hedgehog]

4. Please remember to note that the second half of your statement must be:

and that electricity must come from a renewable, non-polluting resource.

Replacing a gasoline powered fleet with an electric fleet dependent on coal fueled power plants is at best a step sideways.

[trof]

6. Absolutely.

[Supersedeas]

5. where is the leadership that shows genuine curiosity about the way forward