Soydiesel, ethanol, ILSR

tabeles@tmn.com
Mon, 8 May 1995 20:25:53 GMT

Regarding J:ohn Lozier's questions on the Institute for Local self
reliance and the agriculture/energy issues, I suggest that you cntact the
principle behind most of this, David Morris who operates out of an office
here in Minneapolis, MN. Most of this work ils ususally done under
contract.

David is an economist and critical thinker with strong preferences for
lcoal or community based economic development and is identified strongly
with sustainable agrilculture and value added ecomoics for producers in the
ag arena.

there are a host of other activities which have been and are bieng done in
the environmental and socially repsonible arena by ILSR, but the Ag arena
is David's forte

You might ask David why the hilgh prices on these documents, uless ILSR
wishes to be seen to be issuing profound research of the same class as RFF
and prices to create the image- my thoughts only

tom abeles
tabeles@tmn.com

the biggest problem with both soy deisel and ethanol is not the energy
inputs vs outputs is the fact that such fuels seek government subsidies to
play in the subsildized fuels ilndustries like the oil companies and, as
such do nothing to confront the issue of excessive energy consumption in
the transportation sectors, particularly in the developed countries. Thus,
it essentially says that it is ok to consume energy in vehicles as we have
in the past as long as it is renewable and benefits the farmers as well as
the big oil companies. It does not address the net overall effect of
increased consumption of fuels in the transportation sector and the long
term impact on the earth's resources. I believe that this would be the
concern of Paul Hawkins in his recent book and speeches.

tpa