Ask Umbra on ditching dirty things 6 Posted 2 days, 8 hours ago
Lomborg v. Monbiot: liveblogging the Munk debate on climate change 4 Posted 5 hours, 59 minutes ago
More power, less roadkill: How one professor’s landscape has shifted 3 Posted 2 days, 3 hours ago
Notable quotable
“There is only one problem: the United States is not producing any second-generation non-corn ethanol in significant quantities at the moment. So a whole new industry will have to be brought into existence within less than four years and become one of the largest industries in the United States within the next 10 years.”
—Reuters columnist John Kemp, “Obama’s Biofuel Challenge”
Grist food editor Tom Philpott farms and cooks at Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Follow my Twitter feed; contact me at tphilpott[at]grist[dot]org.
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EPA punts on raising ethanol “blend wall”
More power, less roadkill: How one professor’s landscape has shifted
Comments
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biodiversivist Posted 1:41 pm
08 Jan 2009
http://www.ewg.org/node/27498
"...corn-based ethanol has accounted for fully three-quarters of the tax benefits and two-thirds of all federal subsidies allotted for renewable energy sources in 2007."
This will be Obama's litmus test. Spawned by the corn belt, is he blowing smoke or does he have the cojones to do what needs to be done? A tweak to car efficiency would dwarf corn ethanol's contribution for no expense, with no additional damage to the biosphere, and without a near zero net energy balance. Cellulosic or not we have to pull the subsidy plug for corn ethanol.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Bob Wallace Posted 1:56 pm
08 Jan 2009
Politics is not a pure sport. One must play not to win every battle but play to stay in power.
Change comes most often in incremental steps, not abrupt turnarounds.
As long as the corn growing states have sufficient votes they will be able to shift taxpayer dollars their way. We should not look to Obama to right a wrong and possibly destroy himself in the effort, but look the voters of those states to come to an understanding that they are supporting a bad idea.
Lots more voter education seems to be in order.
Give Obama the ability to pick battles he can win.
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Pathos Posted 4:57 pm
08 Jan 2009
And meanwhile, Obama and the new (and considerably greener than last term's, it seems) Congress can be working on that "tweak to automobile efficiency" that BioD mentioned. That's a battle we have to hope they can win, and push them every step of the way to fight harder for.
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