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Plastic and Fuel That Grow On Trees
Tim Hanlon writes "Biofuels continue to lead the field in the search for a renewable, environmentally friendly replacement for crude oil. Besides its use in the transport industry, crude oil is also used to produce conventional plastics and chemical products such as fertilizers and solvents. Now chemists have learned how to convert plant biomass directly into a chemical building block that can be used to produce not only fuel, but also plastics, polyester, and industrial chemicals, cheaply and efficiently."
As someone who has worked in the 'energy' business and knows lots of people in the 'energy' biz, I can summarize the ENTIRE mentality of that entire industry: drill, drill, drill.
The concept of better, faster, cheaper applies to them - the fastest and cheapest thing to do is move a rig from one well to another.
I wrote: Could you please describe the micromechanics of exactly how commercial interests will prevent this from happening? Who will speak to who? What will they say?
You replied: People with money who back campains and make "donations" .. - will whisper sweet nothings about how harsh or unproven this is. And the government will some how make it not exactly impossible but just out of reach of being cheaper.
Somehow you fail to answer the question. How would the government do that? If person X owns a tree farm, and wants to use this technology to convert the trees to raw material, how would the government stop them? A tax on this? Do you have examples of special taxes applied in the field of purifying naturally occuring raw material? If it's clearly environmentally friendly, as the summary implies, how would it be barred?
I'll just repeat the original question. The best way to examine any myth, religion or belief is to question it in a structured and detailed way.