One of the things we try to be vigilant about is a sort of inflexible all-or-nothingism. We recognize it as a minor character flaw, and lately we’ve been working on it. It’s not that the dough of our idealism has lost its leavening. It’s just been punched down by a bit of realism. Nowhere has this been a harder biscuit to swallow than in the area of the environment. We frequently argue that the minimum acceptable level in our lakes of, say, mercury, E.coli, or cigarette butts is zero. But no one seems to take us seriously. Thus, we now pledge to meet everyone halfway.
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Progress comes in fits and starts, if it comes at all. So we’ve been rededicating ourselves to counting our blessings. While we’d love to see a car that gets a hundred miles to the gallon, or, for that matter, one that runs on orange-juice concentrate, we can be happy with one that gets fifty miles on a gallon of the standard stuff. Also, a hybrid vehicle, like the one our mayor and our publisher each drive, should not make people giggle, or natter about empty gestures. Sure, that old Ford Fiesta, running on nothing but regular unleaded, got the same mileage. But it doesn’t represent a dramatic future, and it’s lousy at impressing the ladies.
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The other day, Governor Pawlenty got our attention. It had been months, possibly years, since he’d said anything we hadn’t already heard from more powerful and charismatic Republicans. The governor made an unusually progressive and heartfelt speech on behalf of alcohol—specifically, the controversial fuel additive ethanol. He promised to get for himself (at government expense, of course) an automobile that runs on E-85, a fuel mixture that is eighty-five percent alcohol derived from corn—a sort of industrial, forty-five proof bourbon. Shortly after these announcements, the governor started cussing in public. This was impressive; frankly, we may need to take new bearings before the next election. The rationalist naysayer has developed many complaints against the use of ethanol: It is a subsidy to farmers, who are already drunk at the teat of public largesse; the production of ethanol consumes great quantities of energy, which seems rather like pouring water out of one boot into the other; it also excites worries about engine trouble. But the naysayer is wrong. So far, ethanol additives show no harm to automobiles other than a tiny reduction in mileage; it is odd that subsidies to farmers always get a certain type of person exercised, but never the numerous subsidies given to the oil, coal, and natural gas industries for exploration and extraction; and most important, ethanol production today adds up to a net energy gain, which is to say that you have more energy at the outcome than at the outset. Since ethanol can be produced just as easily with domestic coal or natural gas, it could mean a measurable reduction in our reliance on foreign oil and the medieval governments that provide it to us.
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Ethanol can be made from almost any vegetable matter, even municipal waste. In the U.S., the corn-producing states like Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa create eighty percent of domestic ethanol. Elsewhere on the planet, sugar cane and sugar beets are used. Fuel-grade ethanol is produced the same way as any other liquor, and is actually drinkable, sweet in dilution but caustic at higher concentrations. (The intoxicating element in beer, wine, and whiskey is ethanol, too.) Environmentalists have raised legitimate objections about the petrochemical farming used to produce large quantities of ethanol vegetables, and nutritionists worry about the surplus of corn syrup. But only the callous would argue that it would be better to do nothing, to let the marketplace sort it out in the sudden panic of global warming, terror, and energy crisis. That’s no way to act.
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This is one area where leaders are supposed to lead, not follow. A progressive state like Minnesota, which also has a tremendous wind-power charter, stands on the brink of becoming an energy exporter—that is, producing more energy than we use. On this issue, we have to admire Governor Pawlenty. His commitment to an E-85 car should be appreciated as an important symbolic gesture. The fact that his vehicle will be a behemoth Suburban—along with the Hummer, an icon of suburban solipsism—does not cancel the gesture. We’ll still award him a gold star of merit.
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In this, Mr. Pawlenty is merely ensuring continuity of government. Minnesota has been working toward energy independence for decades. It was the first state to require all fuel to contain ten percent ethanol, and the governor is busy lobbying other states to do the same. This is the correct role of government: mandating enlightenment, in cases where market self-interest runs up against the public interest. Quibbling about profit margins and nanny-state legislation can be dumped on the doorstep of supply and demand. If you require the entire fuel supply to meet a certain standard, then it obsoletes the demand for anything else—just the way leaded gas was phased out three decades ago. This is how necessary progress is subsidized.
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In the short term, we can expect a cold winter. We’ve already pulled out extra wool and goose down to take the edge off the high cost of natural gas. Even the price of cordwood is going up, which proves that we’re not the only ones in a panic. But we feel reassured that there a few politicians who are willing to tiptoe across party lines to embrace the idea that the moon shot of our time must be the serious development of renewable energy resources and technologies. (Wouldn’t it have been interesting if the current administration in Washington had spent two hundred billion dollars on hydrogen cells, wind power, and biodiesel initiatives as the best way to fight terrorism? We heard someone say renewable energy is homeland security. Yes.) These are cold, sobering times—but we’re gratified that Minnesota cars are running on a shot or two of bourbon.
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Before ethylene glycol coolants, the parched man whose car stalled in the desert could, in a personal emergency, uncap the radiator and find succor there. Just so, the nation in energy crisis could find a taste of its future in Minnesota’s gas tank.
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