Got Milk . . . In Your Tank? - August 19th, 2007
AutoblogGreen is reporting on milk ethanol, which has just gone on sale in New Zealand. The fuel is made by Fonterra, a dairy cooperative and sold by Gull, a chain of 30 family owned “petrol” stations in the country.
Fonterra has a capacity to produce 30,000 litres of ethanol daily and is part of New Zealand’s national initiative to bring greenhouse gas emissions down and create sustainability. In fact, when it comes to being green, it’s pretty hard to beat the Kiwis for dedication. They have a mandate in place for 3.4 percent biofuel use by 2012 and they want to be the first carbon neutral country in the world.
The AutoBlog Green post does bring up the increasing debate about which is more important, food or fuel. It is a fact that food prices go up when products like milk or corn are used to make biofuel rather than taking their traditional route to the table and the bottle.
No one has ever said that changing the fuels we use is going to be easy. There are ethical debates in almost any real life situation. I prefer to think of initiatives like New Zealand’s as transitional moves in the right direction. If nothing else, the real viability of biofuels is being proven daily.
Do I want to take food out of the mouths of children? Of course not. But neither do I want them living their lives inside because they’ll fry like crispy critters if they go outside without SPF 5400. We’re getting there folks, and I hope learning from each experiment like this one in NZ.
Posted on August 19th, 2007 by Shorty
Filed under: alternative fuels |
