Grass To Fuel

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a warm-season grass and is one of the dominant species of the central North American tallgrass prairie. Switchgrass can be found in remnant prairies, along roadsides, pastures and as an ornamental plant in gardens. Other common names for this grass include tall panic grass, Wobsqua grass, lowland switchgrass, blackbent, tall prairiegrass, wild redtop and thatchgrass.


Miscanthus is a genus of about 15 species of perennial grasses native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, with one species (M. sinensis) extending north into temperate eastern Asia.

Lawnmower technology could be answer to world energy problems

Get out your lawnmower to make fuel. What do you think oil is? It is nothing more than biomass that has been converted to that black goo known as oil. No magic, just chemistry. With all the problems afflicting oil, such as funding terrorists, there is no wonder the best minds in the world are turning to a way to short circuit the oil creation process -- Just remove the time factor.

Both miscanthus and E-Grass can act as carbon dioxide neutral fuels because of their ability to use carbon dioxide highly efficiently in photosynthesis. As these plants grow they remove carbon dioxide from the air so effectively that when they are used to supply energy, little, if any, more carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere than was removed from it by the growing plants. The result is a stable, steady-state situation: the amount of carbon dioxide that is added to the atmosphere when the plants are used to produce energy is approximately equal to the amount of carbon dioxide that is removed from the atmosphere by the growing plants.

Great advantages await us as we move into a cellulose based biofuel future. A highly favorable carbon dioxide balance, and the resulting positive impact on our global warming crisis; a markedly decreased dependence on uncertain petroleum sources from the middle east and elsewhere; and stable food prices for consumers are some of them. These benefits will accrue not only to U.S. consumers, but also to people throughout the world. How can we afford not to pursue this uniquely promising "growing" energy future?

Carbon neutral fuel, it's what Bush has been talking about long before the Goracle showed with his outlandish tale of woo.

I wonder where the Republicans are telling this tale? The enabling legislation was passed in 2005.