Originally posted by: BrownTown
not really sure how well sugarcane grows in the US, but from what I know it takes very little fertilizer, which also means that it likely produces less NOX pollution since it needs less nitrogen based fertilizers. Also, the good part about growing your fuel is that it produces no net CO2 production. The cars release CO2 when they run of course, but that carbon is all fixed from CO2 in the air by the plants themsleves. Well, anyways, the key is of coruse that no one technology can replace everything. Coal and Oil and still increadibly important materials, even if you dont burn them as fuel, they are the source of chemcials used to make plastics and a huge chunk of the rest of the chemical industry. So, you need a diverse energy profile, use wind turbines, hydro, and geothermal where the conditions are good. Use solar panels if they get cheaper. Use nuclear for base load, and coal+natural gas for peaking loads. Use a combination of oil and biofules for transportation. Yeah, your are still producing CO2, but if you cna produce alot less than its nto as bad. Especially if you do stuff like plant new trees and such to try to take some of the CO2 out of the atmosphere. IT would also buy you more time to identify where flooding might occur and build levees, and too have longer to find new and better energy sources. (fusion, safer fission, more efficient solar etc...)