Dolemite wrote:
] "If you take the electricity from the current energy mix in
] the U.S., then in fact it doubles the CO2 [produced] per
] mile," says John Turner, a principal scientist at the National
] Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
]
] Wow. I knew that there had to be some kind of catch to
] Dubya's endorsement of Hydrogen Fuel-Cell vehicles, but I
] figured it was along the lines of ADM producing lots of
] genetically engineered corn to create ethanol.

Bush has made several moves to reduce our dependence on forgein oil. Most of them have environmental impacts. The administration obviously beleives that the political impact outweighs the environmental impact. They are almost certainly right about that.

Ultimately, it makes sense to move to ethanol even if it doesn't reduce emissions, not just for political reasons, but because it gets the emissions away from where the people are, and puts them in an environment where they are far easier to control. Its much easier and cheaper to ensure environmental compliance from a few thousand power plants them from millions of automobiles.

Progress is being made putting clean power into the grid. Its estimated that you'll be able to buy green power in most places in the US by the end of the decade. It will cost more, but I think many people will choose to pay for it because the cost difference is negligable and people will feel good about doing it. In California this stuff was available before the power crisis made it go away, and the demand exceeded supply. The green power people had a huge power debt that they owed the power company. As more people invest in green power, it gets cheaper, and eventually it becomes a competitive option for companies. Factor in technology improvement and you can see how this is going to go...

RE: Not-so-clean cars