Just because our current foreign policy and dependence on oil leave a lot to be desired does not mean that Gov. Blunt’s plan is a good one. For one thing, you don’t need crop land to grow saw grass, but if saw grass is more profitable to grow than corn (or whatever), what would you choose to grow on your crop land?

Remember, one side being wrong doesn’t automatically make the other side right.

Nobody cares about corn based ethanol, and we can all agree that corn can not supply the US with enough fuel for cars.

Nobody cares about corn based ethanol, and we all can agree that corn can supply the control with enough fuel to power all US cars breaking ourselves from the Middle East.

Ethanol will work as a fuel if cellulosic technology advances and becomes a commercially viable solution within the next 5 years as all college researchers are saying it should.

Think of this scenario in the US.

1. Grow saw grass in every ditch (think along interstates) and large fields. Doesn’t have to be arable land since saw grass grows anywhere and it won’t affect American food supply…unless you eat saw grass regularly.
2. Place MANY ethanol plants across the US. These plants will serve to supply refined ethanol regionally alleviating any problems with transportation logistics. In other words, you harvest the saw grass, dump it in a rail car, or truck and ship it to a ethanol plant very close buy, refine it, and distribute the fuel to regional gas stations.
3. From a national security standpoint, say a terrorist doesn’t like us not buying as much petroleum from the Middle East anymore and decides to bomb a plant, then the other regional ethanol plants pick up the refining load and distribute with minimal impact to the economy. This is true energy independence! What about a hurricane or tornado wipes out a plant, again, pick up production regionally around the affected area and adjust supply.

The US sits on tons and tons of coal and can start making nuclear power plants so the energy increase won’t be a problem.