Biofuels Could Be Answer to Climate Crisis

June 25, 2007 — -- Just for a moment, let's assume that you believe there is merit to the global warming brouhaha. Let's say you've been convinced by the scientific data from reputable publications like Nature and Science and the National Geographic. If you've bought in, then you may well be asking what you can do.

Today's most common answers range from the costly "install solar panels" to the free "buckle your seat belt before you turn on the ignition and turn off the lights when you leave the room." Good start, but rest assured, there are bigger alternatives coming to a fueling station near you, not tomorrow, but over the next few years.

Scientists and engineers are working on a wide variety of alternative fuels, the potential of which can set the mind, and perhaps the investment portfolio, a-spinning.

Here's a brief refresher course for those who have been vacationing oh, I don't know, on Pluto, the mass formerly known as a planet, on why these fuels are so interesting.

First, biofuels don't have to come from strategic reserves to a large extent located under the ground of countries where, let's just say, we appear to have some issues. Our country could, to a large extent, reduce its dependence on any one region of the world, as the raw materials for these fuels can come from anywhere.

Second, today, those raw materials are renewable crops that can be harvested and replanted. Repeatedly. Even more encouragingly, although researchers haven't quite cracked the code yet, there are signs that in some not too far off tomorrow, those inputs will be manufactured.

Third, worldwide availability has interesting implications for market-driven pricing over time. Say bye-bye to the powerful cartel.

Finally, just in case political or marketplace drivers don't catch your attention, there is the handy fact that biofuels are more efficient per gallon than hydrocarbon-based fuels both in terms of energy created per volume and in reduced "greenhouse" or CO2-based emissions expelled into the fair blue skies when these fuels are burned.