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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---

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  • From: "Greg and April" <gregandapril@earthlink.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 10:46:04 -0600

That is what I have been wondering.

Like Pat said, there is no single one replacement for fossil fuels, but that is not to say a combination of alternative fuels and energy sources and conservation can't do the job. Biodiesel for some applications, ethanol for others, wind for others, hydroelectric, solar, and even waste motor oil - they all have their place and uses.

There are many cities with power plants, near by, that produce electricity for people in the city, and these power plants have tremendous amounts of waste heat. In the winter,why not heat nearby business and homes with this waste heat, that is otherwise just released to the air????? Since when what it economical to heat and cool the outside????

Many remote farms need to produce there own electricity ( especially in the winter when storms knock down long range power lines ), so why not recover the heat from electrical generation to warm the buildings? It's not like the technology is unavailable, or that difficult to do on your own if your handy with tools. We saw something not to long ago, about a man that grows citrus in a Nebraska greenhouse, because he takes advantage of an heat source that would otherwise not be used.

I'm on a list that discuses alternative and unconventional energy use, and several of the people are off the grid. They grow vegetables and heat their homes in the winter with the waste heat, that comes from generating electricity that their homes and shops need. For fuel they use waste motor and vegetable oil, that would otherwise end up in landfills and pollute the land. Many of them have built greenhouses and/or work shops from scrap wood, plastic, and other materials. This is sustainable living almost at it's best.

Greg H.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Meadows" <pat@meadows.pair.com>
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 7:40
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol's Dirty Little Secrets ---


On Thu, 13 Jul 2006 23:53:37 -0600, you wrote:


This is something that occurs to me frequently: how come few, if any,
people ever mention that there are MANY partial substitutes for oil? No
one thing (solar, wind, tides, ethanol, etc.) can substitute for oil - no
one thing can even come into the same ballpark. Not even into the parking
lot....not even down the street from the parking lot.

But how about a combination of many other sources of energy?

Combined with strict conservation, this would seem - to me - to be the only
way forward.

So why is everyone discussing it pushing only their one pet source of
energy?

Pat





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