Biodiesel America

A couple of weeks ago, Josh Tickell was on the Tonight Show talking about his documentary Fuel and his book Biodiesel America.  He had what I thought were some excellent ideas about how we could wean ourselves from fossil fuels, so I ordered the book the next day.  While it got a little repetitive in places, I thought it was an excellent book.  In fact, I loaned it to Shane right after I finished it.  It has been a while since a read a book from cover to cover in one day, but I did with this one (even longer since I read anything non-fiction cover to cover in one day).  The book made me aware of a few things I hadn't been before.

1. The largest oil field in the world, in Saudi Arabia, has seen declining output for nearly 2 decades.  The US oil fields (primarily in Texas) peaked in the early 1970s.  That means we are running out of oil much more quickly than folks are probably aware.
2. I was stunned at the number of jobs that buying oil from overseas costs the country.  I don't have the book here now, so I don't remember the number mentioned there, but it was appalling.
3. Even mixing a relatively small amount of the biodiesel he described with petroleum diesel greatly reduces the harmful emissions.
4. There are diesel vehicles available in Europe that get 70+ mpg, but none available here in the US.
   

Now is the time we need to do something about our (the world's) reliance on fossil fuels.  Unfortunately, with the drop in price from their highs last summer (just like after the two oil shocks of the 1970s), I think the will to do it has evaporated again.  I'm hopeful that the president will pump some research and development funds into this area anyway because I fear that we'll wait until the supply becomes dangerously low and then it will take too long to develop the new sources and the prices will be ridiculously high.  This also reminded me of some exciting news I heard last summer about a company that was developing a new aviation fuel to replace the current 100LL.  This is being developed from switchgrass and sorghum (which have no food uses).  Anyway, I highly recommend the book (even though, as I said, it gets a bit repetitive at times) and if (when?) the documentary makes it to this area, I intend to go see it.