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Comment 1 for Phase 3 Reformulated Gasoline (carfg07) - 15-1.

First NameChristopher
Last NameCalder
Email Addresscalderhome@yahoo.com
Affiliationnone at all!
SubjectBiofuel disaster must be stopped now!
Comment
Biofuels are causing food and water shortages, rapid food cost
inflation, and are speeding global warming.

Oil price increases have not shrunk the human food supply, but
biofuel production has!  The more biofuels we produce, the less
food we have to eat, because we grow biofuel crops, even
switchgrass, using the same land, water, fertilizer, farm
equipment, and labor we use to grow food.  The world is running
out of wheat because too many wheat farmers have switched to
growing corn for ethanol production.  The USDA states that by May
US wheat supplies will be lower than any time since 1948.  

The FAO states global food prices rose 40% in 2007.  When America
foolishly turns its food into fuel, we raise food prices worldwide
which gives other countries a financial incentive to burn down
rainforests in order to grow more food.  It takes 9,000 gallons of
water to create just 1 gallon of biodiesel, so biofuel production
aggravates water shortages. 

The twisted logic of biofuel advocates has been that we should
gladly starve the world today by turning our food into fuel, but
in a few years the world can eat again because we will soon make
biofuels out of easy to grow inedible cellulose crops instead of
food. Three agricultural economists with insider knowledge from
Iowa State University have published a study which states that
ethanol made from cellulose will never be affordable.  Federal tax
credits would have to be raised from the current $.51 per gallon
for corn ethanol to $1.55 per gallon for cellulosic ethanol.  That
means no ethanol from switchgrass, wood chips, or crop waste will
ever be sellable.  
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/08wp460.pdf 


This comes on top of the recent Princeton University study
published in the journal SCIENCE that concludes that all current
and  proposed future biofuels, even switchgrass, are far worse for
the environment and global warming than using ordinary gasoline.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1151861  

Nitrogen fertilizers used to grow anything unleash nitrous oxide,
a greenhouse gas 296 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. 
Farming contributes more to global warming each year than all
land, sea, and air transportation combined, so farming should only
be used for essential food production.

The global destruction caused by biofuels makes no sense
strategically because by 2015 it is estimated that oil from shale
will cost only $30 a barrel to manufacture, and there is far more
oil potential in American shale than in the entire Middle East
before drilling began in 1908. 

The "energy independence" argument for biofuels is a hoax because
American biodiesel made out of soybeans costs the equivalent of
making regular diesel out of oil at $232 a barrel.  Making ethanol
from corn costs the equivalent of oil at $81. a barrel and uses 28%
more fossil fuels than gasoline. 

MORE BIOFUEL FACTS -
http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html  

Christopher Calder - concerned citizen with no connection to any
special interest group
377 W 8th, apt. 114
Eugene, Oregon 97401
541-345-6372


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Date and Time Comment Was Submitted 2008-03-17 16:58:58

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