Son of a gun!

Just received an email reply to a petition I sent to my state representatives concerning the hazards of biofuels. She writes:

Thanks for your email.  As you know, Iowa is moving forward with several initiatives for cleaner energy and moving toward energy independence.  I'm curious why you are opposing biofuels specifically since it is good for the Iowa economy and is only a small part of the larger plan which includes wind, solar, and future energy from hydrogen or another such source (ammonia is being studied). 
Thanks,

I have replied:

I am glad to know that we are working on alternatives. There have been some recent breakthroughs in thin-film solar technology that are fascinating and hold great promise. I also heard about a team of MIT scientists who have developed a working model for a storage battery that can keep excess solar production and make it available for use. This and it looks as if it could be affordable and reliable, something other forms of storage have not been to date. I haven't studied hydrogen or wind power's pros and cons at this point but am planning on getting to that. Ammonia is an interesting idea, as well. Anyone who has ever had to shovel out a chicken coop or cleaned a hog farrowing house knows quite a lot about where ammonia can be found.

My concerns about biofuel have very little to do with the economy and much to do with the impact of the system. From over-planting corn, year after year, on the same ground to the emissions from the actual production process. (My husband drives a semi for a co-op hauling corn and beans, too, so we are between a rock and a hard place on this one.) There are opinions on biofuel that range from those stating they are a harmless way to replace oil and are great for our economy all the way across the spectrum to those that state that biofuels are starving the world and raising co2 levels.

This issue, like the plethora of issues we are facing, has no easy, simple or cheap solution. It isn't merely a question of lessening our dependence on oil, it's beginning to look like a debate on where it is we plan to go in the future. How will we lessen the effects of pollution? How can we create a way of life that is sustainable? We certainly can't become Luddites and throw technology to the wind nor do I believe it is possible to return to a agrarian lifestyle. The thought of entirely reworking our infrastructure? Probably impossible.

Biofuels are not a single concern, set apart to be considered in and of that particular issue. Energy, of whatever sort and wherever it comes from, has to be thought of with a wisdom I am not sure the human species possesses. We can't continue on as we have been but where do we go from here? How do we retool our world without bringing it to it's knees? We have to unravel a tangled skein of interdependent issues. How we will do that, I simply do not know. We must do the best we know now, though. There must be some way to make it possible for our children and our children's descendants to have a decent life without constant fear that there will be no "next meal," that there will be no future free of environmental destruction, pollution, disease...

There must be some way. The alternative is unthinkable.

Wonder where this will lead?