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U.S. MUST ACT SWIFTLY IN THE FACE OF FOREIGN COMPETITION



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6. U.S. MUST ACT SWIFTLY IN THE FACE OF FOREIGN COMPETITION
SK/P04.09) AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, February 4, 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Although the United States is in a green-technology race, its role in developing alternative-vehicle technologies and the hydrogen automobile could dwindle unless there is more investment. Industry executives warned that Germany, China and Japan are investing heavily in green technologies and could surpass the United States. If that happens, global automakers will follow the technology and the money overseas, taking jobs, infrastructure, suppliers and the technology initiative with them.

SK/P05. ETHANOL IS AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE
1. ETHANOL REDUCES ENERGY CONSUMPTION
SK/P05.01) James Eaves [Professor of Finance & Insurance, Laval University, Canada] & Stephen Eaves, REGULATION, Fall 2007, p. 24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Until recently, the process of producing ethanol was widely believed to use more energy than it created. But farming and ethanol conversion practices have improved, and ethanol proponents now argue that it is a sustainable and more secure alternative to gasoline. For instance, a particularly optimistic study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture--one widely cited by ethanol proponents--estimates that for every unit of energy used to produce ethanol from corn, 1.34 units are created.
SK/P05.02) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Pimentel estimates the corn-based ethanol process actually burns about 1.43 gallons of oil equivalent to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Ethanol advocates claim such studies are wildly inaccurate. "When you separate the wheat from the chaff, you'll find that those estimates are based on 20-year-old data," says Caupert of the National Corn-To-Ethanol Research Center.
SK/P05.03) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Proponents also point to Brazil as an example of ethanol's success. There, a state-subsidized switch to ethanol enabled the country to kick the foreign oil habit nearly 30 years ago. Many U.S. auto executives who saw the transformation are believers in ethanol. "The idea of working towards an alternative fuel made a lot of sense to us partly because so much of our senior leadership had worked in Brazil," says Adler of GM.
2. ETHANOL REDUCES CARBON EMISSIONS
SK/P05.04) Joy LePree, CHEMICAL ENGINEEERING, January 2008, p. 21, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In addition, biofuels and other forms of renewable energy aim to be carbon neutral. "This means that any carbon released during the use of the fuel is reabsorbed and balanced by the carbon absorbed by new plant growth," says Zhang [catalysts division marketing manager with Sud-Chemie]. "So, producing transportation fuel from biomass feedstock (BTL) is considered an important means of reducing CO2 emissions and increasing energy security while providing an alternative to fossil fuels."
SK/P05.05) James A. Duffield [senior agricultural economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1239, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Senauer also points out that the popular belief that biofuels reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as compared with fossil fuels has been undermined by recently published articles. However, the majority of past research done on the life-cycle analysis of biofuels indicates a decrease in GHG emissions, and additional research is needed to more precisely understand the effects that biofuel production has on global climate change.

SK/P05.06) Jay Leno, POPULAR MECHANICS, May 2008, p. 48, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Ethanol-enriched fuel, however, does have some obvious advantages in the high-performance arena. Not only does it address all of the important environmental issues (it produces less carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon tailpipe emissions than gasoline), E85 has a very high octane rating (100 to 105), allowing engine builders to run higher compression ratios--producing more horsepower. Ethanol also combusts at a lower temperature than gasoline, which means the engine runs cooler. Thus, a smaller radiator and fan can be used, which will significantly reduce a vehicle's weight. And although decreasing harmful emissions usually doesn't directly affect performance, engine parts like pistons and valves tend to stay cleaner. Unlike gasoline, ethanol burns 100 percent, so it leaves behind no nasty residue.


3. AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY COULD EASILY MEET ETHANOL MANDATE
SK/P05.07) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. That may be why GM, Ford and others have already committed so much effort toward the ethanol switch. In 2009, GM will broaden its E85 lineup to include cars, as well as trucks, as it rolls out the four-cylinder Chevy HHR and the Buick Lucerne. Ford Motor Co. already has 14 flex-fuel models on the road and its 5.4-l Triton V-8 engine is E85-capable. In addition, its Volvo ReCharge plug-in hybrid concept car promises to use a Flexifuel engine, as well.
SK/P05.08) FEEDSTUFFS, April 7, 2008, p. 28, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. More than half of the nation's gasoline contains some percentage of ethanol--most as E10, the 10% ethanol blend approved for use in all vehicles. "The price of gasoline isn't rising as quickly as the price of diesel partly due to the fact that there's an alternative to gasoline--ethanol--that's adding more than 2 million gallons a day to our nation's fuel supply," noted Ron Lamberty, American Coalition for Ethanol's vice president/ market development.
4. BIOFUELS ARE NOT THE PRIMARY CASE OF FOOD PRICE INCREASES
SK/P05.09) Benjamin Senauer [Professor of Applied Economics, U. of Minnesota], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1226, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has suggested that one-quarter to one-third of the price increase in crops used for biofuels (primarily corn and oilseeds, including palm oil) are due to bioenergy demand (Martin 2008).
SK/P05.10) James A. Duffield [senior agricultural economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1239, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Senauer points out that biofuels are not the only cause of higher food prices--other factors include record export demand for United States farm commodities, along with the devaluation of the dollar. Also, it seems likely that the relentless climb in oil prices over the past few years may have had a greater effect on food prices than biofuels.

SK/P05.11) James A. Duffield [senior agricultural economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1239, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The sources on which Senauer relies to draw conclusions, namely Lester Brown and the Economist, argue that biofuels, especially U.S. corn-ethanol, were the primary cause of surging food prices in 2007. However, the USDA concluded that the increase in biofuel production has had a relatively small effect on rising U.S. food prices (Glauber 2008). The effect is small because when the cost of commodities such as corn passes through to food retailers, the effect on retail prices is relatively small. The Council of Economic Advisors estimated that the increases in corn-based ethanol production accounts for only about 3% of the recent increase in global food prices over the past year (Lazear 2008).


SK/P05.12) James A. Duffield [senior agricultural economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1239, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Recent studies indicate that even if ethanol policies were discontinued, corn prices would remain above historical levels as long as gasoline prices remain high (Babcock and McPhail 2008). The concerns that higher food prices are increasing global hunger are well deserved, but it will obviously take much more than changing current ethanol policies to correct this critical problem.
5. BENEFITS OF ETHANOL OUTWEIGH DRAWBACKS
SK/P05.13) James A. Duffield [senior agricultural economist, U.S. Department of Agriculture], AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, December 2008, p. 1239, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The desire to diversify the U.S. energy sector has become a major U.S. policy objective and has prompted policy makers to adopt incentives that encourage the production of alternative forms of energy, such as bioenergy. This article [by Zhang, Lohr, Escalante, and Wetzstein] addresses the critical question--does adding biofuels to the U.S. fuel supply, such as ethanol and ethanol imports, reduce exposure to petroleum fuel-price shocks? The results indicate that fuel-price volatility can be reduced by diversifying the U.S. fuel supply with ethanol; however, it is at the expense of higher fuel prices. Nonetheless, shifting policies to encourage more ethanol may be socially desirable if the benefits of economic stability and growth are greater than the cost of higher fuel prices.

SK/P06. CELLULOSIC BIOFUELS ARE AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE
1. CELLULOSIC BIOFUELS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE ENERGY USAGE
SK/P06.01) Jim Giles, NEW SCIENTIST, August 18, 2007, p. 6, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But sugars can also be produced from cellulose, which makes up most of the biomass of fast-growing prairie grasses. Although the process of extracting sugar is more complex than for corn starch, cellulosic ethanol from wild grasses has big potential energetic and environmental advantages. Robert Mitchell of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln has been monitoring 10 farm-scale plots of switchgrass since 2000. Based on yields from these plots, and models describing the production of cellulosic ethanol, he told the ESA meeting that ethanol produced from such grasses would yield up to 15 times more energy than it uses during production, a huge improvement on corn.
SK/P06.02) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "The cellulosics have an energy balance of about seven or eight to one, which is very attractive," says David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research. "The cost is also about a dollar per gallon, which is also very attractive." Companies such as Coskata Inc. are trying to capitalize on the advantages of cellulosic ethanol by developing production processes with high likelihoods of success. Coskata claims it can create ethanol by using such feedstocks as wood chips, municipal waste, trash or old tires.
2. CELLULOSIC BIOFUELS REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS
SK/P06.03) Robynne Boyd, EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL, Summer 2008, p. 55, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The benefit of the complex process is that cellulosic ethanol can generate up to eight times the amount of energy it takes to produce it, says Gary Schmitz, spokesperson for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. Research from the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that ethanol made from cellulose could decrease greenhouse gasses by 88 percent compared to gasoline production, and would be about 60 percent better than ethanol production. According to NREL, cellulosic ethanol could supply 50 percent of the US's annual transportation fuel demand.
SK/P06.04) Ford Runge & Benjamion Senauer, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, May-June 2007, p. 41, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The benefits of biofuels are greater when plants other than corn or oils from sources other than soybeans are used. Ethanol made entirely from cellulose (which is found in trees, grasses, and other plants) has an energy ratio between 5 and 6 and emits 82 to 85 percent less greenhouse gases than does gasoline. As corn grows scarcer and more expensive, many are betting that the ethanol industry will increasingly turn to grasses, trees, and residues from field crops, such as wheat and rice straw and cornstalks. Grasses and trees can be grown on land poorly suited to food crops or in climates hostile to corn and soybeans. Recent breakthroughs in enzyme and gasification technologies have made it easier to break down cellulose in woody plants and straw. Field experiments suggest that grassland perennials could become a promising source of biofuel in the future.

SK/P06.05) Jim Giles, NEW SCIENTIST, August 18, 2007, p. 6, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Jason Hill of the University of Minnesota in St Paul has come up with similarly impressive projections. Hill did not add the fertiliser that Mitchell's group used, so the energy yield from his grasses was 2 to 6 times less. Significantly, though, the grasses took in more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than was released from the fuel used to grow and process them. The carbon dioxide removed--around a third of a tonne per hectare per year--was taken up by the roots and so remained in the soil after the harvest. This means that the greenhouse gas savings from wild-grass ethanol could be up to 16 times as great as those from corn (Science, DOI: 10.1126/ science.1133306).


3. CELLULOSIC BIOFUELS DON’T REQUIRE GOOD FARMLAND
SK/P06.06) Michelle Bryner et al., CHEMICAL WEEK, February 11, 2008, p. 18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. There are three alternatives for producing cellulosic ethanol that do not require land-use change, thereby eliminating the GHG emissions associated with clearing land, Farrell [associate professor of the Energy and Resources Group at University of California, Berkeley] says. These are the use of waste and residues including municipal waste and corn cobs, use of marginal or unproductive land such as the desert, and agriculture integration, which refers to combining biofuel production with food production in a way that does not affect food yields.
SK/P06.07) Richard D. Firn, WORLD WATCH, May-June 2008, p. 2, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Worldwatch biofuels research associate Raya Widenoja responds: Second-generation biofuels based on biomass from perennial crops such as prairie grasses, or from woody crops or wood waste, can be used to provide energy and build carbon levels in soils without requiring external fertilization, pesticides, or irrigation. Biomass from many perennial grasses can also be produced and harvested sustainably on fragile and erodable soils that would not tolerate most food crops. Biofuels can also be derived sustainably from waste materials such as sawdust, scrap wood, and urban waste.
SK/P06.08) Patricia Woertz, FORBES, November 24, 2008, p. 126, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Today's ethanol and biodiesel are just the first step. Advanced biofuels--built on the innovations happening in today's industry--will be even better. These same innovations in farming, processing and infrastructure will also produce more food for the growing global population.
SK/P06.09) Jacqui Fatka, FEEDSTUFFS, February 18, 2008, p. 3, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The second study, "Land Clearing & the Biofuel Debt," found that how biofuels are produced determines the total carbon savings. "Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia and the U.S. creates a biofuel carbon debt' by releasing 17-420 times more carbon dioxide than the annual GHG reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels," the study found. In contrast, biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on abandoned agricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages.

SK/P06.10) Patrick Walter, CHEMISTRY AND INDUSTRY, February 25, 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The researchers note that biofuels from agricultural wastes or grown on marginal land do not add to global warming. Eric Johnson, a biofuels analyst with SRI Consulting and one of the first to examine these issues, said: 'I think we're in danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.' He says that biofuels are not a global warming panacea but do have a role to play.


4. BIOFUELS FROM SWITCHGRASS HAVE HUGE POTENTIAL
SK/P06.11) John Carey, BUSINESS WEEK, May 12, 2008, p. 60, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Even better is biofuel from feedstocks that don't eat into food supplies, displace crops, or cause greenhouse gas emissions from plowing up forests or prairies. One prime candidate is switchgrass, a perennial prairie plant. Thanks to nine-foot-deep roots, switchgrass in test plots in the American Southeast thrived last summer despite an historic drought. The growth and decay of those deep roots also adds carbon to soil, making switchgrass cultivation a boon to fighting global warming. Ceres figures that its new commercial strain of the plant, with improved yields, could be grown on former tobacco, cotton, and rice fields across the southern U.S. "There are a lot of available acres out there," says Ceres' Hamilton.
SK/P06.12) Jacqui Fatka, FEEDSTUFFS, February 18, 2008, p. 3, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The current generation of biofuels is leading to a new stage of cellulosic biofuel development that will not only minimize land use changes but will actually enhance the environment, according to a statement from National 25x'25 Steering Committee, a group aiming to produce 25% of America's energy needs from renewable resources by 2025. The committee cited a recent five-year, three-state study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln showing that switchgrass grown for biofuels produced 540% more energy than that needed to grow, harvest and process the crop into cellulosic ethanol. The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also showed that along with energy advances, switchgrass also offers significant environmental benefits, including many conservation uses as the deep fibrous roots of the plant help to keep soil intact and virtually stop runoff. It puts organic material back into the ground, improving soil, and requires no pesticides or fertilizers.
SK/P06.13) Patrick Barry, SCIENCE NEWS, January 19, 2008, p. 46, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Kenneth P. Vogel and his colleagues at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln tracked all the tractors, diesel, fertilizer, and herbicide used to grow 10 plots of switchgrass in North and South Dakota and Nebraska for 5 years, the team reports in the Jan. 15 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The plots ranged in size from 7 to 23 acres. Because the farmers used high-yield farming techniques, "the amount of energy for the [crop] production was about half what other people had estimated," Vogel says. Future strains of switchgrass will probably perform even better, he adds, considering the relatively small effort scientists have put into optimizing strains compared with work on corn and other food crops.

SK/P06.14) WESTERN FARM PRESS, March 8, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The U.S. Department of Energy believes switchgrass is the most promising of the cellulosic-type biofuels. Yet the choice is likely to be location specific. "Switchgrass is native to North America, and estimated yields vary from 500 to 1,000 gallons (of ethanol) per acre. Several cellulosic conversion production plants are in the planning stages in the U.S."


SK/P06.15) Marina Murphy, CHEMISTRY AND INDUSTRY, January 14, 2008, p. 6, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Switchgrass produces almost twice as much renewable energy than previously thought and is comparable to corn in terms of energy yields, according to the first large-scale study at field production level. 'All previous estimates (on switchgrass) have been completed using data from small research plots and estimated inputs,' according to lead researcher Ken Vogel at the University of Nebraska. 'We used real world farms and equipment for a five-year period,' he says.
SK/P06.16) Marina Murphy, CHEMISTRY AND INDUSTRY, January 14, 2008, p. 6, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Since switchgrass absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows, ethanol from this feedstock would produce almost zero greenhouse gases.
5. BIOFUELS FROM ALGAE HAVE HUGE POTENTIAL
SK/P06.17) David Stipp, FORTUNE, April 28, 2008, p. 142, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Unlike other biofuels, algae can grow in arid places using polluted or salty water--no need to use up scarce arable land and fresh water. A 2004 analysis at the University of New Hampshire concluded that all the transportation fuels in the U.S. could be supplied by algae grown on less than 30 million acres of desert--an area equal to about 3% of the U.S. land devoted to farming crops and grazing for animals. Because algae can grow so fast, such farms are expected to yield much more energy per acre than other biofuels.
6. BIOFUELS FROM SEWAGE HAVE HUGH POTENTIAL
SK/P06.18) Ryan Derousseau, FORTUNE, April 28, 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Sewage is a dirty word. While some towns dump it in landfills or process it and give it away for fertilizer, sewage treatment plants in the U.S. and elsewhere are attempting a more eco-friendly solution: turning the effluent into energy. Processing the waste of some 3.4 million Londoners, Britain's Beckton Sewage Treatment Works (right), produces 110,000 kilowatts per year, enough energy to power 7,000 homes annually.

SK/P07. HYDROGEN IS AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE
1. HYDROGEN-FUELED VEHICLES HAVE NO CARBON EMISSIONS
SK/P07.01) EBONY, November 2008, p. 132, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Hydrogen cars emit water, not carbon dioxide, as exhaust. There is limited availability and it could be a couple of years before the cars hit the mass market. There are about 60 fueling stations around the country, with most of them in California.
SK/P07.02) James Gee [General Manager, Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority], MASS TRANSIT, July-August 2005, p. 53, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Hydrogen fuel is an attractive option as it is replenishable and creates zero pollution. While the goal of using pure hydrogen fuel is still far in the future, hydrogen also has a positive effect when used in conjunction with existing fuels. While previous testing shows that hydrogen improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the burn of gasoline and diesel fuels (with a resulting increase in fuel economy), little or no research has been undertaken into a B20/hydrogen blend. With our demonstration, TARTA will show the benefits of injecting a small amount of hydrogen in the air intake of the vehicle using B20 fuel. A second phase of this project will research generating hydrogen on demand onboard the vehicle as an additive to the standard fueling system.
2. THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY CAN BE A REALITY BY 2040
SK/P07.03) Paul Sharke, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING-CIME, October 2004, p. 32, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Supporters of the hydrogen economy are viewing their vision as the long-term solution to the nation's energy needs. As fuel-cell conference speaker Mark Williams of the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory put it, "Hybrids are a bridge to reduce foreign oil dependence until the hydrogen economy is in place," which he predicted will be in 2040.
SK/P07.04) Peter Odell, NEW SCIENTIST, November 6, 2004, p. 22, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Even more important will be the massive expansion of natural gas, which will dominate the global energy picture from 2040. There is plenty of it. Known and predicted reserves will be capable of meeting rising demand for seven decades. What is more, the gas is more environmentally friendly than other carbon fuels, producing only two-thirds as much CO2 per unit of energy as oil. It is also the most economic and reliable source of hydrogen for hydrogen-based transport technologies, and could thus paradoxically play a central role in reducing CO2 emissions from road transport.


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