[SustainableTompkins] Wind energy and Cellulosic Ethanol Production

[Thomas Shelley]

Dear Friends--Here is a really great article on wind/alternative energy 
generation from Mark Jacobson at Stanford:
"Wind versus biofuels for addressing climate, health, and energy"
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WindEnergy0108.pdf

Although many of us suspect that cellulosic ethanol is an unsustainable 
prospect, simply causing more resource depletion, fossil fuel consumption 
and CO2 release, there is still a substantial push to produce more and more 
ethanol.  This is now being financed by the auto industry itself.  See, for 
example:  http://www.coskataenergy.com/

There are also other, potentially more serious problems with ethanol/E85:

Another study from Mark Jacobson of Stanford University's civil and 
environmental engineering department, updated last year, says E85-fueled 
vehicles increase ozone levels, and a shift to 100% E85 fuel could boost 
U.S. respiratory deaths by about 185 per year.  Jacobson's article states 
that due to increased ozone production (among other adverse changes in 
emissions) "E85 may be a greater overall public health risk than gasoline."
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/es062085v.pdf
This is a very technical article, but the bottom line is ethanol is more 
dangerous to public health than gasoline!

Jacobson has said that General Motors, who is backing the ethanol plant 
linked to above, has actually asked him to revise his work.  He is saying 
that GM's defense of ethanol as a fuel is "absolutely false".  Jacobson 
further states that his conclusions, based in part on data supplied by
  GM and other auto makers, are "conservative".  Meaning that health 
conditions will decline even more than his research has projected.

Another side efffect is that E85 has less energy than gasoline, so more E85 
is required to go the same distance in a vehicle.  Even though the cost of 
E85 may be less than that of gasoline, AAA has said that adjusting for this 
difference, E85's cost is between midgrade and premium gasoline.   So no 
significant savings there!!

For additional extensive references on the above topics, see:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/E85vWindSol

We are waiting for the small, practical electric car we can charge in the 
off hours....  Tom

Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 at cornell.edu
http://www.myspace.com/99319958
P I thank you for printing this e-mail only if it is necessary

"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present 
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own 
needs."

The World Commission on Environment and Development,
Gro Harlem Brundtland
Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987

MY NOTE:  Sustainable development does not mean "sustainable growth" as 
growth per se is not sustainable.  And the term "sustainable" has to mean 
"for a very long time" (A. Bartlett).

"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."        Sioux proverb