Michael's Comments

When I see huge wind turbines like this, I wonder why not include wave motion energy tech in the turbines base and have two sources of energy to supplement each other. Does anyone know if anyone is trying to do this? What would be the advantages and disadvantages for trying both wind power and wave motion power at the same facility?

Cellulose and Switchgrass are the most promising direction.

Corn, huge Agricorps, and their legions of lobbyists have hijacked a good idea, ethanol. Corn production is fossil fuel intensive with soil being tilled constantly, rows formed and harvesting. Corn is not drought or insect resistance. Land needs to be rotated for long term corn production.

Switchgrass can be grown and harvested into bails like Hay. It is a US native, drought and pest resistant and PERENNIAL. On pounds of cellulose per acre, it is ranked no. 1. Small family farmers can get involved.

People associated with the California Green Cars organization retrofitted a Prius with a plug in system and got up to 180 mpg. Since then, there have been breakthroughs in battery technology. This would mean fewer, more powerful batteries that last longer between recharging.

Toyota's first batch of flex fuel vehicles is going to Brazil. E85 and E95 fuels are a way to change without huge infrastructure problems. Just give gas stations tax incentives to have an extra pump for these fuels. However, ethanol needs to be derived from cellulose for long term viability. Corn ethanol would be cost prohibitive without huge corporate welfare from the government.

I am wary of the article due to the content indicating Biodiesel AND SWITCHGRASS BIOFUELS being a more viable alternative, and Biodiesel alone making it into the title of the article. Anyone want to guess about corporate financing of the study?

Switchgrass is radical because family farmers could easily get involved. That would DECENTRALIZE the source of energy while corporations want to centralize and monopolize it. We are already paying people not to grow crops and weasels like chain hotels and motels that own land for future development are getting this subsidy. Since Switchgrass is a PERENNIAL native weed that is insect and drought resistant, it is almost the same thing as have a field not being used or fallow in rotation with other crop land. If we are going to continue with this payment for not growing, why not mandate switchgrass be grown?

And how do we resolve the emission problems in the production process? Don't just write it off. Switchgrass is native, it is perennial, it is drought and insect resistant and it needs little or no fertilizer. There are varieties that grow to 6-12 ft tall and it is therefore at the highest end of per acre production.

I am appalled at how the huge agricorps have run off with the ethanol idea to put millions of acres into habitat destroying mono cropped corn that must be harvested, reseeded, fertilized, tilled and sprayed each year. If we can just get the Switchgrass-crop / lumber waste source secured in a far more environmentally safe production process, the infrastructure issue is much smaller for E 85 and E 95 fuels than other alternatives. We are talking about only a special pump per station and flex fuel vehicles. That's do-able. Let's make it work.

If coal is the main issue of the processing cycle, can we replace it with some other source of energy?