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Cellulostic ethanol is the only real environmentally friendly, sustainable ethanol production method. It is much more efficient than corn based ethanol, and doesn't have an impact on the food supply.

I'm at a lost to understand the ethanol from corn hype that seems to be the latest green power buzz. We can't grow enough to supply our needs and end our foreign oil dependency no matter how much we grow. There isn't enough land!! This is just another plan for big agribusiness to reap billions at the consumer???s expense. The only upside if there is one is hopefully the billions aren't going to countries that finance groups that want to destroy us. Any organic vegetable material that decomposes can be made into ethanol. I suggest we take the crap being fed to us by all our elected leaders from both parties (not just Bush, they're all guilty) that are more worried about what agribusiness is going to grease their re election war chest than the needs of the people. We'll never run out of fuel.

Cellulostic ethanol should be the only choice for sustainable, efficient, food supply neutral ethanol production .

Cellulostic ethanol is the only real environmentally friendly, sustainable ethanol production method. It is much more efficient than corn based ethanol, and doesn't have an impact on the food supply.

Large scale monocropping (field containing only one species of crop year after year) is immensely damaging to soil quality (after the soil is degridated, no more agriculture of any sort) and water supply, as this article points out. Local, small scale farmers are systematically being taken off their land by highly subsidized, large-scale agrobusinesses around the globe in the name of short term profit, while long term damage to the land, but ultimately to society is being ignored. Agrofuels are not the answer to our energy problem, unless done on a smaller, sustainable scale, like communities using waste products for local use. Why do Americans not realize that no matter what energy source, our consumption can not be satiated and is not sustainable. Why? Because our capitalist system has been so corrupted by greedy, immune corporations that if we stop consuming even slightly, our economy will tank hard and who will bear the brunt of that recession? The working people who should have the power to control this system. It's going to take some serious large changes to get our country back on track economically and environmentally, but I don't have any confidence that anyone in Washington, or national politics for that matter, would do what is actually right for the country and not for their lobbyists.

clairesolt- Aquifer recharge is a good idea, but the problem is that recharge rates are only so quick- as quick as water can enter through a few miles of sandstone at the recharge zone along the front range. Which is not that quick, or at least not a fast as we're using it, for sure. Plus, pipelines are not energy efficient. Land use in a certain area should be determined by what can be done there, using what is there, sustainably.

Shandog- exactly right. I don't even want to get into beef.

universal- Horrible argument, man. An all nuclear energy policy is not a viable answer. It has many problems of its own. We'd be trading bad for bad, and spending a lot of money doing for no gains. And as for your veiled racism regarding immigration- If it weren't for those desperate, displaced immigrant peasant laborers, created from NAFTA in the name of profit, our economy would have crashed a decade ago. Their contribution to our economy will end up paying for your retirement, yet you despise them for it? All because you think they're just draining our energy and benefits? This is simply not the case. Who will do your backbreaking work for minimum wage? Who is the base of our economy, driving corporate profits? Many times it is your friend, the illegal immigrant, poorly used as a scapegoat for societal problems.

Fresh water in the gulf is not wasted it is part of the ecology that feeds the entire fishery of the Gulf. Only problem now is the water is loaded with nitrogen from fertilizers and pollution runoff from urban areas and it creates massive dead zones. Perhaps you can augment the Ogallala and that's not a bad idea frankly but I think it is dangerous to say that runoff into the Gulf is wasted.......watch as the Baja fisheries slowly die off because the fresh water and nutrients of the COlorado no longer reach the ocean....you have to learn to live within your means and not demand so much of the natural world for yourself and begin to think of yourself as a part of the natural world within which you are surrounded and yet pretend you are not...

The Ogallala Aquifer passes directly under the Missouri River north of Pierre, South Dakota. If reverse wells were drilled to drain water from the Missouri River into the Ogallala Aquifer there would never be a shortage of water. Presently the Missouri River meets the Mississippi River and all that water goes to waste in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Ogallala Aquifer runs directly under the Missouri River north of Pierre, South Dakota. If reverse wells were drilled to drain water from the Missouri River directly into the Ogallala Aquifer there would never be a shortage of water in the aquifer. The Missouri runs into the Mississippi River and goes directly to waste in the Gulf of Mexico.

ethanol just another "BUSH" blunder just one of many - anyone that thinks is a bridge to a better form of energy is smoking crack - to quote T. Boone Pickens "water is the next oil" and i dont doubt him do you ????? - as we start to see serve strains on our water supplies and the credit crissis which is getting worse by the day does it bring to mind the "D" word - how is that for a hot sports opinion - craig in dallas

ethanol just another "BUSH" blunder just one of many - anyone that thinks is a bridge to a better form of energy is smoking crack - to quote T. Boone Pickens "water is the next oil" and i dont doubt him do you ????? - as we start to see serve strains on our water supplies and the credit crissis which is getting worse by the day does it bring to mind the "D" word - how is that for a hot sports opinion - craig in dallas

Wake up Americans, water is our life, because when we are out of water, we all die, and all the money in the world won't help anyone. We need to protect our water at all costs. There are other alternative fuel sources that can be tapped. Besides, the automakers have had the technology since the 1950's to build vehicles that will get 50-100 miles or more per gallon, but because of their greed, they refuse to put it out here. They want us all to pay $100.00 to fill our tanks at the pumps, and we don't do something quickly, they will get it.

My mother worried about the Ogalla aquifer 30 years ago. Then, the complaint was the wheat farmers.
I think it would be great, if we would build a pipeline to divert spring flooding in tMissippi river away from MN and IA to drier land. they have so much snow this year, it would be a good time to refill that aquifer.

America is on the verge of cultural and economic disintegration. If we didn't promote immigration and prevented over 30 million illegals from enterin the country we wouldn't have an energy demand problem. If we had converted all of the electric generating capacity to nuclear we wouldn't have an energy and a pollution problem and we wouldn't now have a water problem and an eventual massive population shift problem leading to an volatile and potentially violent social problem. Who said America is the land of plenty? Plenty of trouble maybe!

Sorry, "The_Defender", but desalinization consumes massive quantities of energy resulting in more eco damage. Until we can develop a cheap source of power (fusion/solar/wind/wave/etc), this is (pardon the pun) just a pipe dream. And as Eastern New Mexico is considering, building a pipeline to move water from one area to another is rather ridiculous, especially since the water at the source is very finite. At best piping is merely a temporary patch that will only exacerbate the issue...

Only fools think ethanol is the answer. It takes more energy to make ethanol than what you get out of it. It is a heavily subsidized industry. In other words, money stolen from taxpayers goes to the farmers to make it "appear" cheaper and "greener".

Only fools think ethanol is the answer. It takes more energy to make ethanol than what you get out of it. It is a heavily subsidized industry. In other words, money stolen from taxpayers goes to the farmers to make it "appear" cheaper and "greener".

Try being a midwest vegetable farmer. My fertilizer costs have skyrocketed, my land rental is out of this world, and I can't buy a new tractor to upgrade my aging fleet because ethanol prices have effected all of these too. Pretty soon food prices will increase because of the ethanol boom, they all ready should have.

Sorry "The_Defender", but the amount of energy required for desalinization just causes other issues. Until we develop clean fusion energy or some other low-cost power source, this is just a (pardon the pun) pipe dream...