But biofuels will save the day(sarcasm off).

We probably don't appreciate yet how much our lives are going to change again as the petroleum age fades away and we make the transition to the next fuel - biomass and other renewable sources such as wind and solar energy.

A glimmer of the change was on display last week at Iowa State University during the annual Biobased Industry Outlook Conference: Growing the Bioeconomy. This conference is largely attended by practical people who have started or are considering starting businesses that use biomass as feedstock or a biological process in production. Attendance at the conference has tripled in three years.

The biggest industrial users of biomass in Iowa are the ethanol and biodiesel industries, but those are just the beginning.

And then we have this: Biomass could supply 66% of U.S. gas needs

The bioeconomy articles in the Aug. 27 Register are a tremendous public service to the people of Iowa, educating them about a subject important to the future economic prosperity of their state.

The lead editorial on the Opinion page, "Ethanol Is Just the Beginning," includes a statement from the joint Department of Energy-U.S. Dept. of Agriculture "billion ton" study that actually underestimates the potential of biomass to replace gasoline consumption in the United States.

As stated in the report's summary, its purpose was to determine whether land resources in the United States are capable of providing a sustainable supply of biomass "sufficient to displace 30 percent or more of the country's present petroleum consumption by 2030." This is the federal government's so-called "30 by '30" vision.

The report answered "yes," but many assumed that they meant that the most we could displace was 30 percent. This widely held misperception was recently pointed out to me by government scientists. The 1.3 billion tons of biomass identified in the DOE-USDA study could displace as much as 66 percent of our current gasoline demand.

There is room for additional optimism: Retooling our spark-ignition engines to take advantage of the high octane number of ethanol could move us very close to substituting ethanol for all of our current gasoline demand. Alternatively (or additionally), we could demand higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for our automobiles, which could close the remaining gap. Of course, we need to quickly perfect ways to turn plant fibers into fuels if this vision is to be met for the next generation.

- Robert C. Brown,

professor, mechanical engineering, chemical and biological engineering, and agricultural and biosystems engineering; director, Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/gore032199.htm
Vinton G. Cerf, a senior vice president at MCI Worldcom and the person most often called "the father of the Internet" for his part in designing the network's common computer language, said in an e-mail interview yesterday, "I think it is very fair to say that the Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the vice president in his current role and in his earlier role as senator."
The co-author of a history of the online world, "Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet," agreed. Katie Hafner said people have been haggling over the true beginnings of the network for decades. "As we all know, there are many paternity claims on the Internet. That's a given, because it's so successful. But there are so many people who did at least one pivotal thing in either creating the network, or encouraging the use of the network, or bringing the network to the public -- and Gore was one of those people."

Perhaps if he were president, Domenici said, he could direct the country in a massive effort to become energy independent.

Oh, yeah!

It's good to be the King!

If you are old enough to remember Firesign Theater,  the "Beat The Reaper" skit.  Well we are fast approaching the point where people in the studio and audience started mumbling softly "the plauge" which starts building on itself to where people are running for the door screaming
"The Plauge, The Plauge".

Well, anyways it was a great comedy skit by some pros ahead of their time.

But having PEAK OIL on billboards on Route #95 may give us all the biggest lesson on Crowd Dynamics that the world ever seen.  

How many remember the picture of the Guy in China stopping that line of Tanks?  I remember seeing it live.

The point is the Feedback Loop on this mass hysteria will be Instant and Global in scope.  Sort of the 100th Monkey thing.

Here we go.

JC