Projo Cars Blog

There are increasing reports of serious food shortages around the world. Certainly food prices have been going up sharply everywhere, but in some countries it’s actually leading to starvation and riots.

What’s this got to do with automobiles?

Two whats. One, our old friend global warming which is causing serious shortfalls of some staple crops, particularly rice. Second, the shift to growing crops that can be used to make alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel is causing reduced amounts of crops as corn and soybeans being processed for human (and animal) consumption.

It seems we are getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Indeed, ethanol has suffered a number of major setbacks recently, with one serious study concluding that the clearing of land to grown crops to make into ethanol actually contributes more to global warming than the effort warrants.

Great.

What’s the solution? It seems to me that a change in perception is occurring regarding the entire alternative fuels debate. With the side effects of ethanol coming under attack and debate, and biodiesel still in a Professor Crackpot stage of development, we are left with: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which is totally marginal; hydrogen which is reliant on fossil fuels to make the hydrogen; hydrogen fuel cell electric/gasoline hybrid technology which still relies on fossil fuels for both the hydrogen and the gasoline and is still many years from commercial development (if ever); plug-in electric, which is still reliant on fossil fuels to make the electricity; gasoline/electric hybrids which are here and working but rely on fossil fuels; and clean diesels, which are here but also rely on fossil fuels.

In short, the two most effective alternative fuels currently out there – gas/electric hybrids and clean diesels – are both very dependent on fossil fuels.

And for good reason. Petroleum is an incredibly efficient source of energy. Consider that one gallon of gasoline contains about the same amount of energy as a man working in a field eight hours a day, five days a week, for three weeks.

Certainly, the issue involves more than global warming and “oil dependence on the Mideast” is a very real problem – made infinitely worse by such numbskull expeditions as George Bush’s tragic escapade in Iraq.

But those nations need us perhaps as much as we need them and certainly OPEC has always been careful to straddle the line between getting what it can for its oil and making sure it did not drive so hard a bargain that it would send the oil-dependent West into an economic spiral that would drastically cut its demand for oil.

But it seems to me that instead of talking about alternative fuels, we should be focused on making our machines – particularly our vehicles – more efficient and cleaner.

Oil is not going away. It certainly is not going to be replaced by biofuels that have their own limitations and problems, let alone solar and wind which will be making some but not significant contributions for the foreseeable future.

So while we develop serious alternatives, let’s accept they are decades away and learn to live with oil by focusing on green ways of using it rather than chasing pie-in-the-sky schemes to replace it with alternatives that are either equally polluting, more expensive or inadequate - or all three.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

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