Word: ethanol
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...wind power and biofuels - also stand to benefit from the transition to clean power. Montana can't produce a lot of the corn that currently goes to make most biofuel in the U.S., but it does have vast acreage that could be used to raise waste crops for cellulosic ethanol in the future, or biodiesel today. Schweitzer points out that his administration was able to pass a renewable energy portfolio standard, mandating that 15% of the state's power come from alternative sources by 2015. That's exactly the sort of standard - intended to speed the development of renewable power...
...what if biofuels could be made without food crops, using an inedible plant grown on less than optimum farmland? That's exactly the thinking behind the push to develop cellulosic ethanol from the waste plant switchgrass, which grows throughout the Midwestern prairies, with little input from farmers. Instead of fuel from food, switchgrass cellulosic ethanol promises fuel from virtually nothing - and a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) argues that it's worth making the switch...
...South Dakota grew switchgrass over five years, and kept track of how much fuel and fertilizer they used during the trials. Vogel and his colleagues showed that switchgrass yielded 540% more energy as a biofuel than the amount of energy used to grow, harvest and process it. (Corn ethanol yields just 25% more energy.) Greenhouse gas emissions from switchgrass fuel would be 94% lower than emissions from petroleum fuel - almost carbon neutral. Previous studies had come up with similar numbers in small-scale trials, but this was the first study on the level of a working farm. "The idea...
...switchgrass. Getting energy out of the tough cellulose molecules in a stalk of switchgrass is much more difficult than distilling it from corn, or better, sugar cane. Both the Department of Energy (DoE) and private companies like Broomfield, Colo.-based Range Fuels are developing the technology to commercialize cellulosic ethanol, but that day might still be years away. "We're doing serious technological innovation on this," Khosla told TIME recently. "Oil is a big market, and there will be breakthroughs...
...maverick above partisan politics is well-earned. Calling on his own experience as a prisoner of war, he has ardently opposed torture and criticized many in his own party who do not. While campaigning in Iowa, he refused to “drink his morning glass of ethanol,” as he jokingly refers to other candidates’ support of ethanol subsidies to pander to the Iowa constituency. Time and time again, he has come out against special interest groups and wasteful government spending, all in the name of serving the people...