AutoblogGreen

Wise- 6.29 bushels is 350#, which contains about as much energy as one human uses in a year. Sure if you feed a chicken, a cow and a pig first, it takes more energy.

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oil price terrorism affects more people than tradecenters. Escape from foreign oil should be our first priority,& it,s quite possible
if we could get oilpeople out of government.

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..but in actuality (in response to someone's post that it does not effect prices), it DOES cause price increases.

Just ask any diner that orders flour in bulk amounts. In the last 8 months flour prices have tripled in price BECAUSE OF more farmers growing corn crop to meet the "demand" for the most popular version of ethanol.

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WOW, so many wrong opinions in one place.

First off, go here...
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/research.aspx?Type=msspeeches
...and read at least half a dozen of the presentations, to get a real picture of why oil prices are rising.

Bottom line, it doesn't matter if we in the US all switch over to biofuels and start driving hybrids tomorrow, there are a couple billion Chinese and Indian citizens (i.e. 8-10 times as many people as in the US) just waiting to soak up the oil that we don't burn. World oil demand is about 88bn BOD equiv', and production peaked in May 2005 at 74.3.

Second, switchgrass - c'mon! What a joke. It requires CELLULOSIC ethanol processing to get the fuel out, which is not yet commercially viable on a large scale. Anyone who says otherwise is just speculating. We are still 5-10 years from having cellulosic ethanol in anything like the quantities required to meet demand. Not to say there aren't a few examples, but they just simply can't handle the quantities needed right NOW.

Third, different types of corn... it doesn't matter if food-corn and fuel-corn are different types of corn. If farmers plant more of the latter, there's less land available to grown the former. Arable land is not a limitless resource. And let's face it, our food production system (I would rather not call it "agriculture" because it's not related in any way to historical practices), is utterly and completely dependent on fossil fuels. Read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and other books by Michael Pollan for some details on this.

Fourth, in case anyone hadn't noticed, our president is a former oilman, our vice president is an oilman, our banking and financial systems are woefully under-regulated (sub-prime anyone?), and the farm lobby is massive in DC (recent passage of the bloated farm bill being just one example). It is therefore hardly surprising that rampant speculation will occur, and people like this douche-bag from GS will talk up commodities to make a fast buck. Instead of whining about it, why not go out and do something about it... Plant your garden with crops, drive less, buy a bike, get rid of your SUV, move closer to work so your commute is shorter, make sure your tires are inflated.

Peak oil is here (it's already passed), and no amount of whining about oil speculators is gonna bring the price back down again. The next few years are gonna be sheer hell for our economy, and those who just refuse to believe it despite all the evidence are going to be hit the hardest.

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