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600,000 Jobs on the Horizon...
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<blockquote data-quote="Jogeephus" data-source="post: 738067" data-attributes="member: 4362"><p>There are a lot of new jobs and a lot of money to be made in this greenery business. Ethics, honesty and values will keep many out of these fields but greed should fill any vacancies. My main question is, "are these options self sustaining without gov't subsidies?". Their argument is that you can't expect a fledgling industry to successfully fly right out of the nest so a hand up is in order till it gets on its feet". I think three generations have shown that many prefer a hand out rather than a hand up but that's another topic. </p><p></p><p>Last month there was a seminar on this subject in Colorado with many prominant speakers. When asked whether the carbon sequestering was an effective way of curbing carbon emmissions or simply a tax disguised as a shell game. Speaker admitted that the sequestering did notthing to directly benefit the environment but indirectly it did from the stand point of imposing higher costs on industry thus forcing them to look at alternatives plus monies (taxes) generated from this could be used to subsidize the alternatives.</p><p></p><p>More recently, I attended a greenery meeting concerning one of these alternatives - bio fuels. Seems a land grant university came up with a grass that would produce 25 tons of fiber per acre which would make 100 gals of ethanol. The wonderful thing about this plant is that - according to them - it does not require fertilizer once established and it will not deplete the soil. On top of this, their charts and graphs showed you would make $2500/acre with minimal if any input AND the gov't would pay you to do this. On top of this, we would be saving american lives since our soldiers will no longer have to invade countries for oil.(his words not mine) This would stop our dependence on foreign oil. Of course this golden opportunity to save the world, save the lives of our soldiers while getting rich to boot would come at a small cost. $30,000 for 1200 sprigs a $100,000 if I wanted to really get rich. (of all days to leave the check book at the house)</p><p></p><p>Probably just me but this just didn't settle well with me. I'm all for severing dependence on foreign oil and for saving lives. Also don't mind making a dollar - especially if I actually get to keep my earnings - but if this is such a good deal for our country why don't they give us the seedstock so we can work together and gain energy independance instead of selling the stock like snake oil. Was it not our tax dollars that originally paid for the research? I may be wrong but I just always thought land grant universities were working for the taxpayer.</p><p></p><p>Nevetheless, I'll straddle the fence on this one to. Seems I'm good at that. The good thing is this board reaches out to a lot of people who can give info on a subject and using their figures I can ask a few questions and maybe get some answers. First is based on the info given. They say that their is 37,000 acres of this grass is planted in England and it is working really well. Anyone know about this? Secondly is, are there any people raising switch grass for biofuels? If so, based on the figures given in the meeting the switch grass producers should be making about $1,250 per acre per year. Does this sound about right or was this simply sales talk? Or should I just toss my morals and hire a sales staff and peddle this stuff?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jogeephus, post: 738067, member: 4362"] There are a lot of new jobs and a lot of money to be made in this greenery business. Ethics, honesty and values will keep many out of these fields but greed should fill any vacancies. My main question is, "are these options self sustaining without gov't subsidies?". Their argument is that you can't expect a fledgling industry to successfully fly right out of the nest so a hand up is in order till it gets on its feet". I think three generations have shown that many prefer a hand out rather than a hand up but that's another topic. Last month there was a seminar on this subject in Colorado with many prominant speakers. When asked whether the carbon sequestering was an effective way of curbing carbon emmissions or simply a tax disguised as a shell game. Speaker admitted that the sequestering did notthing to directly benefit the environment but indirectly it did from the stand point of imposing higher costs on industry thus forcing them to look at alternatives plus monies (taxes) generated from this could be used to subsidize the alternatives. More recently, I attended a greenery meeting concerning one of these alternatives - bio fuels. Seems a land grant university came up with a grass that would produce 25 tons of fiber per acre which would make 100 gals of ethanol. The wonderful thing about this plant is that - according to them - it does not require fertilizer once established and it will not deplete the soil. On top of this, their charts and graphs showed you would make $2500/acre with minimal if any input AND the gov't would pay you to do this. On top of this, we would be saving american lives since our soldiers will no longer have to invade countries for oil.(his words not mine) This would stop our dependence on foreign oil. Of course this golden opportunity to save the world, save the lives of our soldiers while getting rich to boot would come at a small cost. $30,000 for 1200 sprigs a $100,000 if I wanted to really get rich. (of all days to leave the check book at the house) Probably just me but this just didn't settle well with me. I'm all for severing dependence on foreign oil and for saving lives. Also don't mind making a dollar - especially if I actually get to keep my earnings - but if this is such a good deal for our country why don't they give us the seedstock so we can work together and gain energy independance instead of selling the stock like snake oil. Was it not our tax dollars that originally paid for the research? I may be wrong but I just always thought land grant universities were working for the taxpayer. Nevetheless, I'll straddle the fence on this one to. Seems I'm good at that. The good thing is this board reaches out to a lot of people who can give info on a subject and using their figures I can ask a few questions and maybe get some answers. First is based on the info given. They say that their is 37,000 acres of this grass is planted in England and it is working really well. Anyone know about this? Secondly is, are there any people raising switch grass for biofuels? If so, based on the figures given in the meeting the switch grass producers should be making about $1,250 per acre per year. Does this sound about right or was this simply sales talk? Or should I just toss my morals and hire a sales staff and peddle this stuff? [/QUOTE]
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