Check out that site. Gasoline vs. Hemp biofuel comparisons regarding carbon emissions, environmental concerns, toxicity, domestic and renewable hemp vs. foreign oil, etc.

It’s quite impressive, considering Rudolf Diesel designed his engine to run on hemp fuel way back in 1897. Funny how 112 years later, we haven’t come up with anything as safe and effective? I mean, something has to be the best, right? Why not a non-toxic plant that grows anywhere like a weed; which is renewable, eco-friendly, inexpensive, requires no pesticides, and boasts more than 10,000 other uses?

Cannabis. Hemp. Marijuana. Call it what you like: I say plant oceans of the stuff and let’s produce our own hemp fiber, medicine, food, textiles, hemp gasoline… hell, you can partially BUILD a car with compressed hemp composite. The next time you whistle at a Dodge Viper, you’re watching hemp look goooood…

Mark my words – eventually, the economic and environmental situation in this country will get bad enough that our elected leaders will have no choice but to accept that Cannabis Sativa DOES possess the solution to many of our current issues. What’s pathetic is before Marijuana Prohibition in the 1930s, humankind used this plant for thousands of years, depending on its myriad benefits. Our great-great grandparents were smarter and kinder to the planet than us!

What this study neglects to mention, is that 1 acre of the best Biofuels (with the exception of Algae – the only good Biofuel), burnt in a ICE vehicle. can be replaced by 100 sq.ft. of Solar PV, fixed tilt, average USA location, used to power a comparable electric vehicle. And that means put the Solar PV up once and your good for 30-40 yrs, rather than for the 1 acre of land – seeding, irrigating, weeding, harvesting, transporting, processing and shipping by tanker truck – EVERY YEAR. And I haven’t included any of the large energy inputs of doing all that work – EVERY YEAR! With Corn Ethanol – according to Pimentel – that would boost it up to more like 11 acres of land – to replace 100 sq. ft of Solar PV. Agro-fuels are Wacky, Nutty – a Crime Against Humanity.

8 people at 20 mpg = 160 mpgpp (miles per gallon per persons)
3 people (two adults plus two children) at 50 mpg = 150 mpgpp

Sure, I’d like a regenerative electric vehicle for around town, seating two adults and two children and groceries. But how much is that going to cost to purchase – and it MUST be a second car. Power outages prevent travel beyond, say 100 miles – assuming new technology and a fully charged car. If need be, I can travel 880 miles on a full tank. Do you think I have a good chance at getting to a diesel station that has power? 880 miles??? You bet I do.

Experience a Katrina (I did) or a major ice storm (no power for 9 days – I did), or tornadoes that knock out power for 2-3 days (I do every other year) or a rolling power outage (like what happened in the NE – I didn’t) and you still want to tell me that the answer is a battery powered plug in car? No way. Put a diesel generator in there, use an electric transmission – and yes, you have a winning solution.

Read up on bio-diesel producing algae from human and animal waste. Great solutions are just around the corner.

@Tom: Exactly how far up your rear end did you have to reach to get a figure of 700 miles?

Besides…ethanol was never meant to be anything other than a replacement for MTBE which poisoned the ground water.

Still…the future is definitely NOT in ethanol or biofuels.
Still the future is not in electric cars until batteries can store enough energy for a 700 mile trip.
The future is in hybrids and plug ins like the Chevy Volt.

The future is in ulta efficient small engines whether diesel or gas/ethanol and we are talking motorcycle engines to 4 cylinders that get 100mpg…as backups until batteries can reach that 500-700 range on a charge the way a tank of fuel can.

Has anyone here heard of the external combustion engine?

And no matter how “clean” biofuel may be on paper, I dare anyone, I mean TRIPLE-DOG DARE anyone to inhale fr9m tailpipe of a biofuel car for a breath or two.

What? No takers? Hmph! I’ll suck on the tailpipe of an electri- oh wait it doesn’t have one.

But then again, there is a 6 billion dollar marijuana industry in California. It’s high time we taxed that sh*t [pun not really intended but what the heck].

Also, hemp rope is the best marine rope in the world. Ask any sailor.

The main reasons hemp and marijuana are illegal is the paper barons of the early 20th century and Texan xenophobia regarding migrant Mexican workers.

Both marijuana and hemp could be used as a switchgrass substitute AND have many other beneficial effects (in fact, low doses of THC from the marijuana plant have been reported to help alzheimers of all things. in actual scientific studies, not just “my grandma smoked herself so silly she forgot she had alzheimers”) – too bad they’re both illegal.

South Dakotan farmers have been petitioning the government to grow hemp because it’s resistant to the diseases that are killing off their other crops (and thus their way of life), but so far the .gov has said no, continue barely scraping by, going into debt and otherwise failing as farmers, despite the many industrial uses of hemp and thus our money getting wasted on hemp imports rather than helping out our own struggling farmers.

I’ve heard it has flowers on it that, when properly cured, can have a very satisfying intoxicating effect. While that’s not for everyone (strange) it also interesting to note is capable of growing more than 30 feet in a single season. It can be made into fuel as well. Is rich in fiber which can be used for paper, cloth, and plastic; as well as having edible seeds which are rich in fiber, protein, and omega 3-6-9’s. It cleans the air (as any plant does) and is easily renewable (unlike trees).

How many other uses does switchgrass have? Not to be facetious.