FUELISH THOUGHTS

TODAY’S WORRY

Are you upset about fuel prices?  Do you vote?  I think there’s a way to make politicians sit up and take notice that the American people are sick of the “no program” energy program.  If you feel that your representatives are supporting the non-program then vote them out of office in November.  It is the most powerful way we have of sending a message.

There’s been some rhetoric coming out of Washington this week about energy policy, mostly, I guess, to try to head off what possibly will be a bleak November for Republicans. So far President Bush’s response to the gas crisis has been to warn Americans to expect a tough summer, vow that price gouging will not be tolerated and try to promote energy alternatives that will take years to get to consumers.  He’s also talking today of revoking some of the oil industry’s tax breaks, not filling the strategic reserve until the Fall and easing clean air standards for gasoline.  Hmm, expensive gas or breathing, which shall I choose?

For years people have been talking about using biomass to produce ethanol.  Brazil uses sugarcane.  Here’s a quote from YaleGlobal Online “Over the past three decades Brazil has worked to create a viable alternative to gasoline. With its sugarcane-based fuel, the nation may become energy independent this year. Brazil’s ethanol program, which originated in the 1970s in response to the uncertainties of the oil market, has enjoyed intermittent success. Still, many Brazilians are driving “flexible fuel” cars that run on either ethanol or gasoline and allow the consumer to fill up with whichever option is cheaper – often ethanol.”  And as the price of gasoline climbs, the ethanol becomes a more economical choice.

So what about us?  We don’t grow sugarcane which is easily converted into ethanol.  But we do have plenty of corn and other potential products that could be transformed.  What’s needed is a more efficient way of converting it.  What else do we have?  Brains, initiative and innovation!  Perhaps the government could fund a new “Manhattan Project” to find the solution to our problem. 

It seems to me that terrorism is the scariest thing facing us.  In order to combat terrorism, we need to stop sending the countries that sponsor it billions of dollars a day in oil revenue. We should realize that our energy policy should be more than the need to control the price at the pump, it’s the need to control the future of our country.