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6. The Temptation of Biofuels
Journey through Mendocino County where quiet roads take you past green vineyards and happy communities with farm homes and country stores. The roads will ascend through rolling hills covered with live oak, continue into mountains with hundred mile vistas, and then descend into majestic redwoods, until you arrive at rugged cliffs overseeing the Pacific Ocean.
Mendocino County is now home to a growing number of people who want to live sustainably and home to Parducci, the first winery in the U.S. to reach a carbon neutral status. They installed solar power, utilize biodiesel in their farm vehicles, use energy efficient florescent lighting, and plant trees.
A new home in Mendocino County inspired Louisa Aronow and Sandy Turner to move their family from New England to California in their 1989 VW Jetta, averaging 45 miles per gallon. Crossing the nation, fill-ups were often 100% biodiesel fuel that was processed from local soy fields and local waste. Sandy and Louisa also used the move to make the big decision to be a husband and wife who share a single vehicle. The decision has helped them enjoy bicycling, walking and using public transit.
Needed is biofuels from wood and waste, not food and haste. Progress that is being made to create fuel from waste sources and from cellulosic energy crops with many times the yield per acre of food sources such as corn and soy. Readers may be surprised to learn that ethanol may not become a major fuel solution; a better solution may be gasoline and diesel made from wood and waste, blended with less petroleum.
Get 20 pages of details about the latest in biofuels and the future of transportation in John Addison’s new book - Save Gas, Save the Planet.
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