Advantages Of Alternative Fuels

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Alternative Fuels and the Renewable Fuel Standard
In the contemporary world, the environment is becoming constantly polluted with several pollutants that are extremely harmful to human beings and the environment as well. Several of these pollutants emanate from trash that we pile and the emissions from vehicles. As a result of gasoline becoming scarcer, there is a strong push for transportation companies to use alternative fuels that are clean and safe for the environment. Several searches have been put in place to replace the oil industry in as far as alternative fuels are concerned. However, the costs of producing these alternative fuels are not as cheap as producing oil (Newman, 2008). Some of these alternative fuels include; biodiesel, …show more content…

Bio-fuels use corn together with other agricultural produce to manufacture ethanol, an important alternative to petroleum-based fuel. Recent reports indicate that the quantity of corn and other agriculture produce are declining leading to the rise in the price of bio-fuel based agriculture. The main controversy that arose with this was the food crisis of 2007 and 2008 (Elam, 2008). Additionally, the increase in oil cost has also contributed a great deal to the upsurge in the costs of industrial agriculture, food transportation, as well as fertilizers. These increases may be attributed to the rise of bio-fuels in third world countries and the demand for various diets across the growing middle class of Asia. All these factors combined with a decline in food stockpiles lead to a global rise in the cost of food (Spencer, 2008). Bio-fuel use increased the price of food since food was being used to produce fuel instead of being consumed by human beings. Consequently, a decrease in the food stockpiles led to an increase in the price of daily …show more content…

In this regard, the interests in alternative sources of fuel are steadily increasing since oil prices are also on the upsurge. It is a fact that the nearly the entire American transport sector depends on oil. Since oil is not renewable, the available oil sources should not be used entirely on transportation. Oil is still being used to supply power in the country and other areas that need oil. Therefore, before oil runs out completely, cars should be made that do not rely on oil (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, n.d.). These cars will not only assist in the preservation of the depleting oil supply, but they will also help in protecting the environment from pollution from carbon dioxide as well as other harmful emissions. Some of the car companies that are responsible for producing some of these hybrid vehicles are Mazda, Mercury, Lexus, Ford, Chevrolet, Saturn, just to mention but a

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