27 May 2004  BIOFUEL POWER OF THE FUTURE: NEW WAYS OF TURNING ORGANIC MATTER INTO ENERGY by Chris Hayhurst, (The Library of Future Energy series), Rosen Publishing Group, 2003. 64 pages. 18-point type. ISBN: 0-8239-3659-7

"The history of biodiesel is similar to that of ethanol. Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine more than a century ago. The original engine ran on peanut oil, but Diesel's goal was for his engines to operate on a variety of vegetable oils.

"Unfortunately, the vegetable oils that Diesel hoped would power his engines were too expensive to compete with cheap petroleum-based diesel fuel. Petroleum-based diesel was easy to make, quite efficient, and plentiful. For consumers, it became the fuel of choice.

"Today, with scientific proof that global warming is real, some people are working to bring back biodiesel as an alternative to petroleum diesel, a heavy polluter. Many buses now operate on biodiesel, as do some large trucks, airport shuttles, boats, military vehicles, and other government vehicles."

I know some local cyberdudes who fill their Mercedes sedans with a canola oil-based fuel that they pick up somewhere over in Santa Rosa. I had no concept that doing so was an old idea coming back around. What do you know!

With the country mired in a Middle East war, gas prices rapidly escalating, a global warming movie about to hit theaters, and the release of Michael Moore's new award-winning film being negotiated, I've been trying to uncover some good introductory books for kids focusing on alternative energy, and so far BIOFUEL POWER OF THE FUTURE is among the cream of the crop. Chris Hayhurst's timely, easy to comprehend text is loaded with important, up-to-date information regarding the social, historic, environmental, political, and economic issues that shape the debate both in using biomass for generating energy, and for energy policy in general. There is more than enough information that was news even for me--and I consider myself reasonably well-versed in alternative energy technologies. (In fact, I just used my 20 year-old solar clothes dryer again today.)

The author lays out the essence of our nation's current dilemma quite succinctly:

"Importing oil from foreign countries comes at a price. Right now, the United States depends on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) for more than 50 percent of its oil supply. Unfortunately, many of the countries that belong to OPEC have terrible human-rights records and are known sponsors of terrorism. In an age when we've declared war on terrorism, many Americans feel that this presents a difficult double standard. They tell us that, on one hand, the United States government says "no" to terrorism. But on the other hand, it politely asks those countries that support terrorism to sell us their oil (and keep the price down). Observers say that when the United States buys oil from these countries, money from the sale is used to fund the terrorists. They emphasize that the United States financially supports countries like Saudi Arabia because of their continued supply of oil.

"As a proposed solution to this problem, the U.S. administration has recommended picking up the pace of oil drilling on American soil--places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The idea is that if we increase the amount of oil produced in the United States, we can decrease the amount we need to import.

"Unfortunately, this creates an entirely new dilemma. If we start drilling in pristine natural areas, we'll end up destroying more wildlife and more of our environment. If we replace some of the oil we import from foreign countries with oil from the United States, we would minimize our problems overseas. But in drilling for oil, we would do even more damage to our air quality, water quality, and overall environmental health.

"Many people suggest that a better solution would be to consider the real needs of the human population: clean air, clean water, and good health. But these things aren't easy to achieve when politics and the financial needs of corporations get in the way."

Hayhurst explains the variety of technologies that are evolving to utilize biomass as an energy source. Such potential biomass sources as lumber mill waste, manure, landfill methane harvesting, crop waste, and crops grown specifically for biofuels are all discussed. He also weighs the ecological benefits of biofuel in comparison to fossil fuels, along with the drawbacks of biofuel as compared to wind and solar power.

It is not easy finding alternative energy books for kids. Most of what I've come across in libraries and on Amazon are titles that are now out of print. (Chris Hayhurst lists in his "For Further Reading" page the same ones I'd found.) I expect we'll see some other new titles sooner or later, but at this point, BIOFUEL POWER OF THE FUTURE: NEW WAYS OF TURNING ORGANIC MATTER INTO ENERGY is THE book for getting 10-14 year olds up to speed on this one particular alternative to the mess we're dug ourselves into.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com