Today, Fishwrap. Tomorrow, the World! Old Newspaper = Fuel

First, butanol is not butane. The article confuses the two, which is like saying that natural gas [methane] is the same as wood alcohol [methanol].

If history repeats itself, again, still, yet, some more, then the following will happen with this: A brief period of interest, followed by studies that show petroleum to be safer, greener, cheaper, and that widespread cellulosic butanol production will lead to famine, illiteracy, runaway price escalations, and dental decay. Then cellulosic butanol will experience a rapid descent into the dark abyss of obscurity.

The plain and simple fact is, Petroleum has a 100-year head start. They have successfully convinced conservatives that petroleum subsidies, artificial pricing props, and federally maintained sources are part of a ‘Free Market’.

Meanwhile, they have convinced liberals that all the alternatives are causing poverty, starvation, and the extinction of all that is cute and fuzzy. According to this paradigm, the only viable solution is to sit back and wait for the government to solve the problem [the government of course, not being in the business of actually making anything, hands the ball to their financial supporters in private industry, being coal and petroleum.]

Methods of converting waste, such as autumn leaves, paper, sewage, manure, sawdust, grass clippings, ditch weeds, etc. into fuel have been known about since before any of us were born.

I really doubt any new development is going to break through the hedge of apathy, misinformation, and politics.

The bright side is, while the petroleum industry has been holding its own against other motor fuels, electrics have caught on, again. If we can get away from the incredibly toxic battery technology recharged on coal-fired electricity, we might be able to run our transportation network on fuel cells [remember those?]

Tiny fuel cells that run on alcohol have been around for a while, larger ones for cars are just around the corner. There is a worthwhile application for biologically extracted fuels.