My comrade Mark's daring postthat shed light on Fidel Castro's opinions about ethanol got me to thinking about all of the alternatives to fossil fuels, and what is best and worst from a sustainability standpoint.
So here's my list of the solutions for reducing fossil fuel consumption, ranked from most to least sustainable.
Most Sustainable
Conservation (driving less, and walking, biking more)
Public transit (buses, subways, trains)
Electric/plug-in vehicles using renewable energy
Hydrogen vehicles using renewable energy
Ethanol/biodiesel from biomass/waste products
Electric/plug-in vehicles using fossil fuel energy
*Natural Gas Vehicles *
"Full" hybrid vehicles
Diesel vehicles
Enhancing fuel economy in gasoline vehicles
Ethanol/biodiesel from agricultural products
Coal-to-liquids fuel
Hydrogen/fuel cell vehicles using fossil fuel energy
Least Sustainable
The coverage in the media and the political discourse is completely skewed towards alternatives that are far from ideal, while the most effective (and disruptive to the Western lifestyle) are rarely talked about. Why, because they require changes in behaviors and do not have a direct connection to economic growth.
The attention-to-effectiveness ratio is nearly the reverse of what is should be. If you do a Google News search on ethanol, you get more than 13,000 hits. If you search using "vehicle" and "conservation" generates 768, and "public transit" and fuel yields 262 results.
None of these solutions will do enough individually, nor are they equally available in all regions, so reducing our fossil fuel use for national security and environmental reasons requires multiple strategies.
I'm ready to debate my position (I sure hope I didn't forget anything!) and would like to see your ranking, so fire away!
