Cohousing-L Mailing List: Energy sources now and in the future

[Brian Tremback (brian.tremback]

Wayne Tyson: ""Biofuels" are only possible because of fossil energy 
inputs, now, and the basic con is that outputs exceed inputs. However, 
that is doubtful, and even the "calculations" made to justify this 
practice (which diverts agricultural space and products from food 
production, thus raising food prices, and increasingly lays waste to 
complex ecosystems) can claim only marginal net outputs in excess of 
inputs (like sugar-cane)."

Apologizing for continuing an issue mostly peripheral to cohousing, I 
couldn't resist adding my own concerns about biofuels. Cellulosic 
ethanol is commonly held out as a way to alleviate objections to 
diverting food crops from people to vehicles. What is typically ignored 
is that the so-called "waste" products that would be used for ethanol 
feedstock (eg. corn stover and wheat straw) is valuable for maintaining 
soil organic matter that is already usually well below optimal levels in 
agricultural soils, even those using organic practices. Because these 
crop residues reduce erosion, increase the soil's ability to hold 
fertilizers against leaching, increase infiltration/decrease runoff, 
decrease compaction, etc., we can expect degradation of farmland if this 
type of ethanol takes off.

Brian Tremback
Burlington Cohousing East Village
Burlington, VT<mailto:brian.tremback [at] burlingtontelecom.net>