Wednesday, March 5, 2008 3:34 AM
From: "Arnold Nelson" ah_nelson@yahoo.com
To: "WSJ Letters" <wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Chicago IL Wednesday, March 5, 2008 Gentlepeople: A Tuesday, March 4 article 'The World Has Plenty of Oil' was refreshing, so no surprise that it appears in WSJ.
When I first heard of bio fuels, I thot: Here's the way to convert energy from the sun into fuel for our cars. Who cares if we run out of oil. After a while, I thot further: virtually all biofuel sources, and corn especially, come from a two-dimensional space. the surface of the earth. But 70% of that space is under several thousand feet of water, unavailable for any crops in the traditional sense. Of the remaining 30%, there's not a whole lot af space to grow anything convertible to biofuels. Rule out the deserts - Sahara, Arabian, Gobi, etc. Not much corn grows there. Same for the mountains - Himalayas, Rockies, Andes - not much market for combines.
Another potential plus for bios, their replenishable. But how often? Corn especially I understand takes so much out of the soil that it cannot be grown in the same fields, year after year.
Now take oil - it comes from a 3-dimensional space. Except for some minor nibbling on the continental shelf, 70% of this has never been tested for oil availability, and if found, it will be a while before we develop the tools needed to extract it. But we will, when cost effective.
Arnold H. Nelson
5056 North Marine Drive B-8 Chicago IL
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