Chance Conversations on Energy

Often while traveling I run into other salesmen that I have met through the years. It is interesting how we often end up in the same places. The cattle industry is worldwide and yet fairly small in the number of people that are involved in it. Those companies that serve the cattle industry are few. Anywhere that cattle are concentrated, you tend to run into the same people. The advantage is that you occasionally have company for dinner that otherwise would be eaten alone.

Tonight I was visiting with an acquaintance from Colorado who happened to be eating in the same place that I was. We talked about all of the wind generation fields that are going in throughout the plains. For both of us it seemed that no matter where we travelled, we saw wind generators being installed. We both agreed that it was a good thing. We also were both in agreement that there are a lot of ethanol plants being built and they are not necessarily a good thing.

I think biofuel plants should be limited to converting human waste and garbage to fuel. They should not be converting plant mass to fuel. Ethanol production is a losing proposition for the taxpayers of this country. Converting crop acres to corn production that will be used for ethanol only drives up food prices. It is not an efficient use of our land resources. Ethanol production continues to be subsidized. It should not be. Spend the subsidies to develop technologies for converting garbage and human waste to fuel. Spend the subsidies to develop efficient solar and wind technologies. Lets develop nuclear fuel generation plants and fuel cells. Quit wasting our tax money on ethanol. It doesn't really help us.