Switchgrass

I read an article on C|Net today that Shell calls food crop biofuels ‘morally inappropriate.’ This is, of course, true but what is also true is the Shell company is being pretty hypocritical when making such a statement. I can take them on the face value, but under that is the fact that they still are a very large supplier of fossil fuel based products.

I’m no expert on the subject, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, so instead of whatever thing Shell is coming up with, why not focus on Switchgrass. I’m kidding about the Holiday Inn, but I did watch a show on the Discovery channel last week that quickly went over this as a biofuel alternative to stuff we actually eat. You can read about it on that Wikipedia link, but the thing that is attractive about it is it grows fast, is a perennial, doesn’t need attention (like watering, pesticides, etc.), is drought resistant, and can be harvested with existing wheat harvesting equipment.

I’m on-board with maize as a source, as long as it’s not the kind that we’d eat and we aren’t putting much attention into, so more back to what it originally was before us pale-folk invaded North America. The wood chips scare me because does that mean in addition to how we are already seeing the forests of the world razed for lumber and agriculture, that we start using it for biofuel? I hope not.

I could go on more, but I’m not a huge treehugger or anything, but it’s something with which everyone should start educating themselves.