Earth Protect Blog

When Henry Ford first introduced the Model T it came with an engine that could burn both gasoline and ethanol. It was the first flex-fuel vehicle.

Farmers back then took advantage of this flexibility by distilling their own ethanol to run their vehicles, bypassing the pumps of the then nascent oil industry.

Then came prohibition and we were all prohibited from distilling ethanol. When prohibition was repealed, the distillation of ethanol was licensed and tightly controlled by the government. Not for the protection of the people from the dangers of alcohol (as was claimed), but to ensure that farmers (a much larger portion of the population back then) continued to be forced to purchase gasoline from the oil companies. Imagine how things might be different if the government back then hadn't been in the pocket of Rockefeller and the other barons of the fossil fuels industry.

Fast forward, today we are addicted to oil and we can't produce enough at home to satisfy our needs. To some extent, America is being held hostage to the whims of the countries we import our oil from. In order to change this situation, huge subsidies have been put in place to advance the production of corn based ethanol. At this point I think it needs to be pointed out that corn is not the only thing from which ethanol can be produced. Brazil makes it from sugar cane much more efficiently than can be done from corn. So why don't we subsidize sugar beets? Could it be because subsidizing corn is a subsidy to huge agra-business interests? It is starting to become clear that corn may not be the best solution for a new fuel source. A much less talked about fuel source is quietly making inroads and, in my opinion, promises to make us oil independent. That source is biodiesel. One organization at the vanguard of research into biodiesel is the University of New Hampshire. In 2004 UNH published an excellent article on Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae (http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html ). I would encourage everyone to read this article. Their research, along with that of others, seems to be bearing fruit. On May 2nd, 2008, CNET reported on the race to mass produce algae-based biodiesel (http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9933355-54.html?hhTest=1 ).

But can we prevent the mistakes of the past and ensure that big business doesn't totally take over? Toward that end, UNH is teaching local farmers in New Hampshire to make their own biodiesel (http://extension.unh.edu/news/2008/05/onfarm_biodiesel_learn_to_make.html ). In this article, UNH highlights one farmer who is producing his own biodiesel from his own sunflowers. There are many additional informative articles on the UNH site about the biodiesel solution. While I'm not opposed to large scale corporate production of biodiesel, in fact I encourage it, small scale, regional production will ensure a measure of independence from big business, and may even be a better economic model for the country.