Drought West

Another reason to move agriculture to the East and kill agriculture subsidies. And to fight global warming.

Fural to be green VI: Frugal tax policy

If the shortest path in the kitchen to being green is being frugal, what is the obvious green tax policy? Consumption tax! Why Not Shift the Burden to Big Spenders? doesn't cover the environmental implications but is good background.

However, Kitchen Linker has concerns with the way this proposed tax is cooked. It requires reporting of income and savings: new frontiers in zero privacy.

Far better to concentrate consumption taxation on carbon, which has no privacy concerns and very directly attacks the number one global environmental concern (global warming, of course).

Algae a viable biofuel?

Ethanol from corn is nothing but a shakedown, and other biofuels are marginal, but what about algae? --

Yield of vegetable oil in gallons per acre per year:

• Algae: 100,000

• Palm: 700

• Rapeseed: 130

• Sunflower: 110

• Soybeans: 50

• Corn: 29

Source: GlobalGreen Solutions; Valcent Products

Is there anything to this? And why in dry West Texas?

The two companies behind it, El Paso's Valcent Products and Canadian alternative energy firm Global Green Solutions, have developed a system they claim will allow for cheap mass production of algae in just about any corner of the world.

Why not in the wet East?