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The National Biodiesel Board has published the following rationale for biodiesel:

"With agricultural commodity prices approaching record lows, and petroleum prices approaching record highs, it is clear that more can be done to utilize domestic surpluses of vegetable oils while enhancing our energy security. Because biodiesel can be manufactured using existing industrial production capacity, and used with conventional equipment, it provides substantial opportunity for immediately addressing our energy security issues.

If the true cost of using foreign oil were imposed on the price of imported fuel, renewable fuels, such as biodiesel, probably would be the most viable option. For instance, in 1996, it was estimated that the military costs of securing foreign oil was $57 billion annually. Foreign tax credits accounted for another estimated $4 billion annually and environmental costs were estimated at $45 per barrel. For every billion dollars spent on foreign oil, America lost 10,000 - 25,000 jobs."
(NBB, 2003)

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How do biodiesel emissions compare to petroleum diesel?
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The use of biodiesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter compared to emissions from diesel fuel. In addition, the exhaust emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates (major components of acid rain) from biodiesel are essentially eliminated compared to diesel.

Of the major exhaust pollutants, both unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are ozone or smog forming precursors. The use of biodiesel results in a substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons. Emissions of nitrogen oxides are either slightly reduced or slightly increased depending on the duty cycle of the engine and testing methods used. Based on engine testing, using the most stringent emissions testing protocols
required by EPA for certification of fuels or fuel additives in the US, the overall ozone forming potential of the speciated hydrocarbon emissions from biodiesel was nearly 50 percent less than that measured for diesel fuel.


Can biodiesel help mitigate “global warming”?
A 1998 biodiesel lifecycle study, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture, concluded biodiesel reduces net CO² emissions by 78 percent compared to petroleum diesel. This is due to biodiesel’s closed carbon cycle. The CO² released into the atmosphere when biodiesel is burned is recycled by growing plants, which are later processed into fuel..Is biodiesel safer than petroleum diesel? Scientific research confirms that biodiesel exhaust has a less harmful impact on human health than petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel emissions have decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrited PAH compounds that have been identified as potential cancer causing compounds. Test results indicate PAH compounds were reduced by 75 to 85 percent, with the exception of benzo(a)anthracene, which was reduced by roughly 50 percent. Targeted nPAH compounds were also reduced dramatically with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1-nitropyrene reduced by 90 percent, and the rest of the nPAH compounds reduced to only trace levels.

This corn things is ridiculous, Like GM said, it's bad for so many things it's insane to use. It's even bad for your cars plastic and rubber parts, thats why they can only put like 10% in the damn blend, It'll eat through the seals.

 It's also causing the general food prices to rise, the simple laws of supply and demand. Less corn to eat( in the thousands of products we make w/ it ) , so teh supply goes down, and the price goes up. It's also more expensive.  Just another " just plain stupid " idea.

The first Flexible-fuel system installed in a vehicle was the Ford Taurus (1999).

Since the oil crisis in the 70's, Brazil has been selling ethanol as a fuel. Car manufacturers modified gasoline engines to support ethanol characteristics (Changes are on compression ratio, amount of fuel injected, replacement of materials that would get corroded by the contact with ethanol, use of colder spark plugs suitable for dissipating heat due to higher flame temperatures, and an auxiliary cold-start system that injects gasoline from a small tank in the engine compartment to help starting when cold) and have been selling ethanol powered cars since then.

FIAT has introduced in 2006 the FIAT Siena Tetra fuel, which can run on 100% ethanol, E25 (Brazil's common gasoline mixture of 75% gasoline and 25% ethanol), pure gasoline (not available in Brazil) and natural gas.[8]

Here is a world first for automotive technology: the four-fuel Fiat Siena developed under Magneti Marelli of Fiat Brazil. Are you a big fan of ethanol as fuel? The Fiat Siena's got you covered. Only pressed, distilled dinosaur on the menu when your automobile tank gets hungry? Pull over and tank 'er up, not a problem for your Fiat Siena. Are you getting "fuel envy" listening to your green friend rave about their recent retrofit to use Compressed Natural Gas? Pull your Siena into the queue, you can run on CNG too. Number four, well, its a bit of a stretch being gasahol--a combination of alcohol and gasoline, fuels 1 + 2. The Siena ELX 1.4 Tetrafuel does another trick too: it is smart enough to choose automatically between the various available fuels, optimizing performance and fuel economy. The system is based on a fully integrated system, and is not a "cheat-by-retrofit to grab some headlines" item. The trick is a unique engine control unit (ECU) system which manages the different types of fuel equally well.

The tremendous expansion of the ethanol sector raises a key question: Where will ethanol producers get the corn needed to increase their output? With a corn-to-ethanol conversion rate of 2.7 gallons per bushel (a rate that many state-of-the-art facilities are already surpassing), the U.S. ethanol sector will need 2.6 billion bushels per year by 2010—1.2 billion bushels more than it consumed in 2005. That’s a lot of corn, and how the market adapts to this increased demand is likely to be one of the major developments of the early 21st century in U.S. agriculture. The most recent USDA Baseline Projections suggest that much of the additional corn needed for ethanol production will be diverted from exports. However, if the United States successfully develops cellulosic biomass (wood fibers and crop residue) as an economical alternative feedstock for ethanol production, corn would become one of many crops and plant-based materials used to produce ethanol

Where Will the Corn Come From?
Drop some CRP land, drop some exports, use other things besides just corn.

How to use your IRS Rebate check

As you have heard, most of us will be getting a rebate check  to stimulate the economy.
If we spend the money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China.
If we spend it on gasoline, it will go to the Arabs.
If we purchase a computer, it will go to India.
If we purchase  fruits & vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras, & Guatemala.
If we purchase a good car, it will go to Japan.
If we purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan.
None of which will help the American Economy.
We need to keep that money here in America.

The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at YARD SALES since those are the only businesses left in the U.S.A.