U.S. lawmakers push sugar as fuel source

[cal04]

With the market for corn-based ethanol booming, lawmakers from sugar-producing U.S. states are hoping that beet and cane growers can soon jump onto the renewable fuel bandwagon.

They cite the model of Brazil, which produces ethanol made from sugar cane. But critics, pointing out that sugar is much cheaper in Brazil than in the United States, question whether the economics of sugar-based ethanol would work in America.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to issue a long-awaited study around July 1 on the viability of converting sugar into ethanol.

Keith Collins, the USDA's chief economist, said that the soaring demand for ethanol and Brazil's successful track record make it worth discussing sugar-based ethanol in the United States.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060618/ap_on_go_co/sugar_to_ethanol

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. and yet no one is pushing hemp as a fuel or clothing or paper source

[TAPat]

3. Hemp is great! nt

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. sure is!

[bridgit]

8. the original American Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution

were printed on hemp paper :patriot:

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. And once upon a time all farmers grew it.

[Rosemary2205]

2. IMHO it'll never happen

the Feds would have to stop the price supports to US sugar czars in order for sugar ethanol to really take off. Corn has the same problem.

Corn ethanol has the addition problem that it fucking sucks.

[Greeby]

4. In America

First you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

;)

[tanyev]

6. Betcha' if the Walker/Bush family still had their millions of dollars

of holdings in West Indies Sugar, our government would have been doing this years ago. No wonder they hate Castro so much.

[Vidar]

11. Good call.

[Igel]

7. It would be a good thing, but not enough.

I'm holding out for cellulose > ethanol processes.

[diamondsndust]

9. aw shit! next thing ya know, it's gonna cost me $3 per gallon

to make my tea!

[TahitiNut]

10. When I was a kid, some of us would put sugar in gas tanks ...

... (not me, of course). I never realized how avant garde that was. Go figure. :dunce: