The Boys from Brazil

Robert Rapier has an excellent post on why, exactly, ethanol has worked in Brazil - and why it won't work here (all by itself):

According to Per Capita Oil Consumption and Production, oil consumption in Brazil is 4.2 barrels per person per year. In the U.S., oil consumption is 27 barrels per person per year, 6.4 times as much per person as Brazil's....This is the factor that the media and the politicians have overlooked. On the other hand, if the U.S. had the same per capita energy consumption as Brazil, we would be net oil exporters. In fact, our per capita energy consumption could be 11 barrels per person per year - triple the consumption of Brazil - and our production and demand would be in balance. We would be energy independent.

This is one of the reasons that I keep thumping on plug-in hybrids and other forms of conservation. Without conservation, alternative fuels are worse than useless. With conservation, they open up some truly spectacular possibilities.