After pondering the matter, I consider this visionary
scheme to be the big take-away from the Fortune Brainstorm
conference.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/dealflow/archives/2006/05/khoslas_east_co.html
Averting planetary collapse is a serious, for-profit business matter
Vinod Khosla is working to save the world from economic and ecological calamity by turning straw into gold.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinod_Khosla
Vinod Khosla, top-end Silicon Valley VC turned latter-day green fuels whiz
Specifically, he's got a patented "lignocellulose fractionation"
process that turns cornshucks, grass, even some kinds of
garbage into booze that you can burn in your car. His fuel
cheaper than gasoline today. He claims he can sell any quantity
to anybody for a buck-ninety-nine a gallon.
http://www.thedartmouth.com/article.php?aid=2006040401030
This magic Rumpelstiltskin straw-eating process would appear to actually exist in real life nowadays
On the face of it, this doesn't seem to defy the laws of physics, although it remains to be seen if it will scale up industrially. (The old arguments that ethanol is a net energy-sink do not apply to straw and corncobs.) Furthermore, this scheme would require a whole lot of political jostling among the vested interests in oil and cars. At Fortune Brainstorm, Khosla was seen in deep conversation with the CEO of Shell Oil.
There may be American political will to do this. We are running out of other options and the Chinese are coming on ten-percent growth in GDP. So if you were Republican (or a FORTUNE subscriber, though I nearly repeat myself), would you rather depend on the American Mideast for fuel, or the Midwest? Do you want to fight with the Chinese for fuel, or *sell them* the fuel and pocket the money yourself? Wouldn't it be smarter to BECOME the Saudis instead of continuing to deficit-finance both sides of the War on Terror?
http://www.ethanol.org/
Green, rightwing stirrings in the heartland
Brazil did something similar already. The gas tanks of Brazil are now awash in rum. The Brazilians took a lot of creative steps during the earlier energy crisis. and in today's grimly intractable energy situation, the Brazilians are looking pretty pleased with themselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil
So okay, get this pitch: it's the American solution to climate change. It's all about giant, hybrid, boozy SUVs. These SUVs carry, not dainty little hippie batteries, but COLOSSAL REPUBLICAN batteries, batteries big enough to power your house. At night, you plug in the batteries and suck clean wind-power out off the grid.
You drive around your neighborhood on Texan and Kansan wind-power. Wind is always a patchy resource, but GIANT AMERICAN CARS become the STORAGE UNITS for American wind. You run your HOUSE off your car battery when the wind isn't blowing. The huge American car fleet is America's un-interruptible power
supply.
While away from home, you buy American booze, i.e., recycled Iowa corncobs, and even weeds off the side of the road, all enzymatically cracked and turned into white-lightning car fuel that you can DRINK AT TAILGATE PARTIES. And since these grasses fix carbon into the soil (through their roots), THE MORE YOU DRIVE, THE FASTER THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT GOES AWAY!
Furthermore, in order to cure the atmosphere quickly, you definitely want to drive a BIG car. A really big American WHALE of a car. You might want to consider dumping your house entirely and moving all your possessions into a giant, booze-fueled, wind-powered Recreational Vehicle.
Okay, this isn't a universal solution to climate change.
But it's the first solution I've seen with *American national characteristics.*
Call your Congressman now.
