SmartEnergyViews

News reports indicate that milk and dairy prices will increase dramatically because the price of corn is going up due to the demand for corn to make ethanol. (Yes, our economy is a tangled web!)

But even more serious is talk of a tequila shortage because Mexican farmers are planting corn instead of agave due to the demand for ethanol.

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(I don't understand the math, here. A gallon of ethanol would be, what, $3 or $4 at the pump? A gallon of decent tequila is $80 to $100 and up, right? But the article says that blue agave takes up to eight years to mature, so maybe that has something to do with it.)

In related news, this year's Indy 500 marks the first time that every car in a major motorsports event ran on 100% ethanol.

I'm still on the fence. Some say that ethanol is just a way to "burn up the last five inches of our topsoil in our gas-tanks."

And in the 21st century, shouldn't we have evolved beyond burning stuff for propulsion and energy? Shouldn't we have retired the internal combustion engine by now? Shouldn't we have safe nuclear power or cold fusion or something by now? Shouldn't our houses be self-sustained by efficient solar power? But no, we're reverting to an even more primitive solution -- grow stuff, then burn it.

On the other hand, 10% or 15% ethanol might put off peak oil for a while, and buy us more time to address the problem. And it would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But so would higher CAFE standards and more hybrid cars on the road. Together, these approaches would make a huge difference.

So I don't know. What do you think? I think a tequila shortage is pretty serious.