Mini-rants

The healthcare bill is still in the news, the townhall meetings are
mostly turning into mini-riots, and the lies are coming from all sides.
I was surprised to hear the mainstream media admit that we now have the highest deficit in the history of our country with two months left in the fiscal year. That isn’t George Bush’s fault.

Obama’s approval rating is dropping and several in his political party
are sounding a bit frazzled. I won’t go into that right now becuase until a final draft is made of the healthcare bill, nobody knows what might be in it.

I do find the cap and trade bill interesting though. I’ve heard someone
slipped in a rider that smells fishy to me. It involves ethanol and not
testing for the total carbon output. If it is indeed double what leaded
gas was isn’t this something we should know? It has been proven ethanol causes more smog than leaded gas and isn’t as efficient. I don’t see how ethanol could be considered a “green” fuel if it pollutes more than the fuel it replaced and it doesn’t get as many miles per gallon as gas.

Then there is the fact that food is getting scarcer every year and that destroying forests to plant more corn to cover production is making even more carbon emissions. Production cannot be ramped up using corn without some serious side effects. It’s going to get interesting.

I have also been following the world’s water problem. Today about 12% of the world lives with water shortages. In 30 years that number is expected to be at 33%. The way the population is exploding it is no
wonder. Rather we like it or not, if there is or isn’t global warming
going on, we’re going to get things rammed down our throat over this.

News came out that the Chevy Volt is finally here, and it gets an
amazing 230 miles-per-gallon. I think the real news is the cost. With
a sticker price of about $40,000 I think I’ll see how sales go for
a while. If you can’t live without one, go for it. Call me when the
price drops.

This isn’t a rant, but everyone on the City Council except Ian Frink
is running for re-election. I’m not sure what that will mean in the
long run but I’m willing to wait.
Comments are always welcome.

A couple of things

For those of us who live in the 5th Ward, Alderman Lynn is holding
a Ward meeting tonight at 6 pm. It will be held in the Police Station
located at 416 Harrison St. in the community room. This will be the
last meeting before we vote on the Promise and I’m sure the subject
will come up.

In the QC Times is a story about gas prices. It was about the reason
gas prices are going up while crude prices are down. While the article
put a good spin on it I don’t believe it covered the whole story. We
seem to have a perfect storm brewing for the price increase. For one
thing, our new President isn’t going to lift the ban on offshore
drilling, or drilling in Alaska.

And we have a more complex reason for prices going up and staying up. A group is pushing the idea that by 2030 biofuels could replace up to one third of all gas used in our country. Some of us already know that by 2022 a federal mandate calls for 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into gas. Groups are looking into cellulosic ethanol that uses switchgrass, wheat straw, and other non-food crops.

While all this sounds like a noble effort to keep our earth green, I
have some problems with it. One big one would be that ethanol pollutes as much, or more, than regular gasoline. Another is that gas prices have to be higher and stay higher for ethanol producers to make a profit. Some in the ethanol industry say that the government would need to protect the industry from low-priced competitors. There’s a novel idea, have the government step in to regulate an industry to keep prices artificially high to discourage competition.
Comments are always welcome.