1$/Gallon Ethanol
Being a techno-optimist I was hugely pleased to see this item from Wired about a new process for making cheap ethanol from just about any organic material. Note that while the process seems firmly established the company that figured it out won't have a pilot plant running for about a year — and then it'll only produce about 40,000 gallons per year. Even allowing for over-optimistic reporting and an underestimate of the net energy required to get the ethanol (how much energy goes into harvesting hay, or weeds?) shouldn't innovations like this benefit from more aggressive government funding support? Some member of Congress should consider a generic earmark for subsidizing energy research once proven efficiency exceeds a certain point, awarding funds in proportion to existing private investment, first come first served until the earmark runs out. And thinking about it, why don't we ever hear about government subsidy incentives of this sort? Is it possible that they don't exist?
Posted by George Kenney on January 26, 2008 4:05 PM 
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Comments
As someone on The Oil Drum says, "The problem will solve itself, though not in a nice way."
Posted by: pandabonium
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January 27, 2008 3:50 AM
Hey...love the show! I added a link to it to my own site a while ago.
This sounds like a brilliant idea...if it truly bears fruit and lives up to its presentation (few have, given the test of closer scrutiny...thermal depolymerization comes to mind).
My biggest trepidations with alternative fuel innovations like this are the oft-quoted ones of Jevons' Paradox and the fact that there are just too many of us consuming too much of the planet...unless something unexpected and massively positive happens in the world of new energy production, most of these innovations are too little, too late.
Additionally, news like this tends to be reassuring to those that would like to fall back on the "someone, somewhere will take care of it, somehow". Humanity needs to collectively engage in a global "pattern interrupt" of our grossly consumptive culture, or we will never reap the potential benefits of these new technologies (as we all plunge into a new dark age).
Anyway, keep up the excellent work, yours is one of the podcasts that I listen to very frequently.
Posted by: John Ludi | January 27, 2008 12:20 PM