Two issues are dominating the political agenda today. Greenhouse gases including all aspects of fossil fuels and the war in Iraq.

The common thread in this has to do with oil.

What are we all going to do? Petrol prices: a rip-off. Electric cars never worked. Public transport, well, no one lets it work. Someone once said:

"they were not the solutions they promised to be, the answer was here all the time..."

OK, you can stop the Evita Peron lip sinking now...lol...

We actually export ethanol cars motors from Australia to Brazil. Does that hit you like a brick like it did to me when I read that? We are already making them in Australia, but our Governments and Corporations have neglected to legislate the use of ethanol friendly car motors in Australia.

We could be using cars with up to 80% to 100% ethanol ability. All we need are the engine modifications, or the engines built to Brazilian specifications. The fuel will come from our sugar cane in Queensland, canola oil in NSW and Victoria. Even corn, wheat, and possibly eucalyptus leaves can be used to make ethanol.

Last year, a Queensland inventor found a way to almost double the efficiency to produce ethanol in refineries wasting less, and making better fuel. So it is cheaper to produce now. Why are we waiting?

We don't need the oil from the middle east. Let's end this night-mare right now and start our own direction. In Australia we have all the oil we need in ethanol.

Good grief saintfletcher! Haven't you read a single article concering the end of cheap oil? Also known as "Peak Oil" although I prefer not to use the term peak oil, as it tends to conjure up all sorts of doom and gloom. Maybe you're simply doing a bit of stirring and if so, then you've got me hook, line and sinker. However, I'll try to explain simply just why your idea won't work. What you're attempting to do I surmise, is to keep your current lifestyle in an age of ever increasing fuel costs, ie: keeping on with "business as usual." Keeping our enormous and ever growing fleet of private cars on the road. Forget it right now!
I don't have exact statistics, but to convert all the feed stock you mention into ethanol fuel, would service something like just 2% of private and commercial transport on Australian roads. You badly underestimate just how much crude oil the World uses. Eg: The energy contained in just one barrel of crude oil = 250,000 hours of physical labour. And here's the real rub...To grow the feedstock in the first place, you'd need all of the arable land we have and Australia doesn't have much arable land. And while it's true that certain plants can be grown for fuel oil in remote locations, it would use so much more fuel to cultivate, plant and harvest them, not to mention the water requirements. The equasion is very negative. There's mountains of stuff about this on the WWW. When it comes to growing plants to feed the auto industry or growing food to feed the Nation after cheap oil is gone for good, then I know which way it will go. Look it up. Sorry saintfletcher, but very soon we'll all be walking, growing food locally and living a much simpler lifestyle than the wasteful one we live today and I can't wait!

The problem with biofuels:

http://ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1169519086

Excellent link freediver. What we need to be doing is asking serious questions of Government and the biggest question of all is just what they intend to do once oil demand far outstrips supply? Even John Howard himself recognises that "Peak Oil" as it's popularly called, will become a serious problem by year 2050 at best. Most World experts on the subject are looking at a date much sooner than that. Popular conjecture is between 2010 & 2016. In the meantime, we'll see fuel prices rise significantly as the Chinese & Indian manufacturing economy eats into oil reserves at an ever increasing rate. Certainly, Bio-fuel will take a small role in offsetting the problem, as will solar, geothermal, wind and other forms of renewable energy, but even though the Government recognises the looming problem, it does very little to address it in a timely manner. My guess is that they can't allow the general population to know what's waiting around the corner, caused largely by our addiction to their growth policies and over population to fund it, but that's another discussion subject in itself. Eventually, we'll be forced by nature to give up out decadent ways. The trick is to crash with as soft a landing as possible. The longer we leave it, the harder the bump at the bottom. If the experts are right and "peak oil" happens before 2027, then we're in for one hell of a fall. It takes 20 years to implement new technology, but one thing is for sure. We'd all best get used to walking and learning to work the land with sustainable organic methods. Failure to do so will result in starvation and death on an unimaginable scale. The World population has exploded beyond all expectations since the discovery of oil. It's only the enegry in oil that's allowed it to happen. Forget trying to keep a car on the road. The coming crises will be a struggle for survival, yet there's so many who fail to recognise the looming dangers.

There is vast research into alternative fuels taking place world wide, and yes, it is a shame that Australia is not taking a bigger role. As for there not being enough biomass, the United States already throws away nearly enough biomass each year to meet its liquid fuel needs. Rather than see biofuels as a means of denying food to the world, they may well become a saviour, as the non-fuel byproducts can include clean water, animal feed and fertiliser. And by combining biofuel production with effluent treatment, they offer the opportunity for multiple uses of the same infrastructure.

The doomsayers might like to look at some of the advances in renewable energy, including this article on algal biodiesel, where the algal feedstock can be grown in areas with a minimum annual rainfall of 50 mm.

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47237

Ethanol is not the only solution. I can see that from the article: thanx Fester. Good to see the discussion going. It works in Brazil, but there has to something else in the mix. There is no one solution to all of this.

I once mentioned that Solar Thermal Power stations can offer all the energy needs of Sydney. We already have a model in Lidell. There are other ways to generate energy. It was get the right mix, energy can be a solved puzzle.

We can go solar in the city. It will only take 3 years to build the power stations needed for the whole city. The Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, Chris Haris likes this idea:

http://www.chrisharris.org.au

Again, this is only one alternative, there will need to be a mix of a few. If electrical power can use less CO2, then maybe we can bring back the idea of electric cars, hybrid cars, and hydrogen cars. There is no point in having these other cars unless the power is low in Co2 emissions.

Naturally, public transport including light rail and more trains need to be built in the cities.

What ever we do, we need to think sooner rather than later. I can't see us all living on hobby farms in Potts Point when we work in Ryde. Lets have a reality test here. We can use more ethanol, less fossil fuels and look at other alternatives