Many people believe that we can simply switch to growing our own fuel and rid America of our addiction to Middle Eastern foreign oil. You wish it was that easy. There is nothing easy about it except the theory itself. For instance first you must grow your own fuel and have proper water supplies. Then you must refine it and deliver it to market. And still you are not out of the woods yet because you need cars, which can run on ethanol. This means people have to buy cars that run on ethanol but currently automakers are producing 17 million cars per year and only a small percentage to run on ethanol or E85 Ethanol, which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. There are still many problems, which are not been addressed properly during this switch over to growing our own fuel however there are some of the brightest minds in America working on the situation and problem right as we speak. Some of the problems we must address are long-term droughts and soil depletion. If there is a lack of water there is no way to grow all your own fuel and that means incredible price spikes perhaps even into the five dollar per gallon range which will make the current price of three dollars per gallon look like kids play. Additionally the demand for fuel will become so great as ethanol becomes more popular that farmers will wish to grow three to four crops per year and that means they will be turning over the soil too much and deplete the soil making it not grow as fast and thus this will hurt crop yields. All these things we must consider if we are to grow our own fuel. So, please think on this in 2006. |
