Re: Is Alkane-Aquanol the Oil-free answer?

[Jones Beene]

Edmund Storms writes, > In addition to what Jed points out, I would like to remind the nonfarmer > readers that a large fraction of biomass is returned to the soil, > without which productivity would drop. This appears to a totally bogus argment. I hope there is one corn farmer on this list who can comment. It has been reported on other lists that it costs the corn farmer more in added fuel costs to till the corn stalks back-in to his field nowadays than just to add the equivalent fertilizer with the next planting, when he must use the tractor anyway. This appears to one more dubious argument being put forward by the "Oil Connection" and repeated by others without checking on sources. It is well known that Tad Patzek, Pimnetl's partner in crime, has strong ties to the oil industry. He is a former Shell Oil  employee and has served as an expert witness and consultant to Shell and Chevron. He also  established the UC Oil Consortium in 1994. Why should anyone trust either of these two fools?   The American Petroleum Institute recently stated, "We are disappointed in the vote by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to increase the Renewable Fuels Standard to 8 billion gallons of ethanol... Clearly, the oil industry, which is enjoying record profits in 2005, views an 8-billion-gallon RFS as a potential monkey wrench in its well-oiled money-making machine. A recent Consumer Federation of America study states oil companies could and should use far more ethanol solely to help keep gasoline prices lower for consumers, but says they are refusing to do so. Why?   The answer is simple on one level and complex on another. The market is not competitive enough to force them to worry about price oil price increases BUT this is only true as long as there is no option to oil. Ethanol is that option. They do not own the ethanol, and they cannot control its distribution. Once ethanol gets entrenched in the market, they become just another distributor with NO control over the obscene profits they now command. Exxon will have about $25 billion in after-tax profits this year, and as much as double that in untaxed cash flow. Ethanol is a huge risk for them.   They prefer to process more crude oil AT ANY PRICE and make more money by keeping the price up as they **always add-on a markup.** This will not be possible with a swtich to ethanol and especailly not with Alkane-Aquanol, which  theoretically can be controlled at the level of a farmer's co-op.    In my opinion it is as simple as that. Big-oil does not like ethanol - do not want to see it become entrenched 0 and has paid and cajoled second-rate scientists, and MANY politicians to back their viewpoint.   Jones