Saxby Chambliss’s Live Chat

by Erick on November 13, 2008

Saxby Chambliss will have a live chat with Peach Pundit readers and RedState readers at 10 am tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Also, if the Jim Martin campaign is interested in doing a live chat with Peach Pundit readers, please let me know.

{ 16 comments }

John Konop November 14, 2008 at 6:21 am

Erick

Do you have Jackie and Dunlap from Red State screening the questions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXbZss1lQVU

Chris November 14, 2008 at 7:57 am

Good for him. At the risk of getting banned from asking questions, I’d like to suggest the following:

1) What during your term in the US Senate do you most regret, or think you should have voted differently on?

2) In light of the US Treasurary and Federal Reserve changing the terms of the 700Billion bailout passed by the congress, and in light of the fact that Democrats now control the House and White House, and in light of the fact everyone from GM & Ford, to Shirley Franklin & Arnold Schwarzenegger, to Bob’s bakery down the street: Was the bailout a good idea?

Will Hinton November 14, 2008 at 8:06 am

Excellent! I can ask him why he has betrayed us all.

shortbusgeek November 14, 2008 at 8:12 am

Can we ask him why he didn’t run as a Democrat or as the Socialist Party candidate?

shortbusgeek November 14, 2008 at 8:16 am

Also, he has said something about Libertarians flocking to him instead of Jim Martin. When taking a look at his voting record, it seems to be quite contrary to free market capitalism beliefs; why then should Libertarians (and Republicans too for that matter) support him?

John Konop November 14, 2008 at 9:03 am

My question is will he endorse and contribute to the Farris in 10 for children campaign?

John Konop November 14, 2008 at 9:31 am

I would also like to hear why Saxby supports the bio-fuels scam? It drives food prices up, no not gain in energy via production cycle; cars perform worse and use more gas per mile. Please help me understand the upside?

rugby fan November 14, 2008 at 9:38 am

What are his proposals to bring Rugby Union to America?

Should we establish a national academy for scrumming?

Is he aware the U.S. has slipped to 19th in the IRB World Rankings?

Is he prepared to resign if the Eagles don’t qualify for the 2011 World Cup?

Those are the questions that simply must be addressed and answered.

shortbusgeek November 14, 2008 at 10:04 am

John Knopp – you’re confusing bio-fuels with ethanol derived from corn. There are various different types of bio-fuels, and even various different types of ethanol. I support bio-fuels and some ethanol sources. I don’t support ethanol derived from corn. With that being said, ethanol should stand on it’s own… not receive subsidies.

John Konop November 14, 2008 at 11:57 am

shortbusgeek

My understandind is it is all bio fuels. Please help me understand.

WIKI-Second generation biofuels

Main article: Second generation biofuels

Supporters of biofuels claim that a more viable solution is to increase political and industrial support for, and rapidity of, second-generation biofuel implementation from non food crops, including cellulosic biofuels.[26] Second-generation biofuel production processes can use a variety of non food crops. These include waste biomass, the stalks of wheat, corn, wood, and special-energy-or-biomass crops (e.g. Miscanthus). Second generation (2G) biofuels use biomass to liquid technology, including cellulosic biofuels from non food crops.[27] Many second generation biofuels are under development such as biohydrogen, biomethanol, DMF, Bio-DME, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, biohydrogen diesel, mixed alcohols and wood diesel.

Cellulosic ethanol production uses non food crops or inedible waste products and does not divert food away from the animal or human food chain. Lignocellulose is the “woody” structural material of plants. This feedstock is abundant and diverse, and in some cases (like citrus peels or sawdust) it is a significant disposal problem.

Producing ethanol from cellulose is a difficult technical problem to solve. In nature, ruminant livestock (like cattle) eats grass and then use slow enzymatic digestive processes to break it into glucose (sugar). In cellulosic ethanol laboratories, various experimental processes are being developed to do the same thing, and then the sugars released can be fermented to make ethanol fuel.

The recent discovery of the fungus Gliocladium roseum points toward the production of so-called myco-diesel from cellulose. This organism was recently discovered in the rainforests of northern Patagonia and has the unique capability of converting cellulose into medium length hydrocarbons typically found in diesel fuel.[28]

Scientists also work on experimental recombinant DNA genetic engineering organisms that could increase biofuel potential.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel

Stop the rush to corn biofuel

An EPA ruling only helps Congress keep pumping a fuel that’s escalating food prices.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0812/p08s01-comv.html

Icarus November 14, 2008 at 12:05 pm

Biofuel covers a pretty broad catagory of fuels. Some make sense, others, not so much.

Ethanol is probably the most widely used, and Brazil uses it extensively. There, is it made from abundant sugar cane. Here, we make it from corn. Because of our import duties, we can’t import ethanol from Brazil, but instead subsidize our corn farmers and draw corn away from our food supply, both in the form of raw corn as well as increasing the cost of animals that feed on corn.

A lot of people interchange the term biofuel with bio-diesel, which is generally recycled cooking grease. As a recycled fuel, it has very little downside, but has limits from a practical/volume standpoint as to how much of the nations fuel supply bio-diesel can contribute.

shortbusgeek November 14, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Looking for a writeup I did discussing this matter on a forum somewhere, as much of it is repetitive. Basically, it goes something like this. Where your post says “Stop the rush to corn biofuel”, I agree with that partially. The term biofuel can mean any of many different fuels currently in existence as well as in development. That’s like going to a candy store and saying you don’t like candy just because you don’t like jawbreakers. Never mind that you like the runts, skittles, snickers, 3 musketeers, butterfingers, etc. To say you don’t like biofuels because one of the most publicized ones out there – corn-based ethanol – is just like that.

Icarus mentioned bio-diesel. There’s plenty of different types of biodiesel out there even. One of the most common ones that you hear about is WVO – Waste Vegetable Oil. So instead of all this oil going into a landfill, a truck (running on biodiesel) goes around collecting the used oil out of the deep friers that fry your french (american) fries, chinese food, etc. From there, you have two options. If a diesel vehicle is modified, it can run on it directly. If not, you’ll have to put it through a simple chemical conversion to get it to biodiesel.

Anyhow, back to ethanol. Ethanol can be made from any number of cellulosic materials. One of those happens to be pine. There are thousands of acres of pine in Georgia, and there are actually a few plants being built here to use the waste from these tree farms. Once the log is harvested and sent to the paper plant or wherever else it may go, there are lots of leftover branches, needles, sawdust, etc. If it’s being cut into boards, there’s more excess wood. Now, what generally happens to all that excess wood? Well, apparently quite a bit of it makes it’s way into landfills. Now, what if we didn’t waste the gas transporting it to landfills, but instead turned it into cellulosic ethanol? Taking something that’s going to be thrown away anyways but making something useful out of it for a reasonable price? Yep, sounds like a good idea to me.

There are other things that cellulosic ethanol can be made from as well – go do a bit of research – algae, sugar beets, hemp, etc…

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol …..

“However, cellulosic biomass is cheaper to produce than corn, because it requires fewer inputs, such as energy, fertilizer, herbicide, and is accompanied by less soil erosion and improved soil fertility. Additionally, nonfermentable and unconverted solids left after making ethanol can be burned to provide the fuel needed to operate the conversion plant and produce electricity. Energy used to run corn-based ethanol plants is derived from coal and natural gas.”

Go back through and fully read the article you posted from Wikipedia on biofuels. Notice how it mentions vegetable oils such as palm (not good, since they’re cutting down rainforests to grow palms for this use), soybean, algae, jatropha – for use as diesel alternatives, and then goes into the other types of biomass and bio waste biofuel alternatives.

Writing an article on biofuels is like writing an article on politics. There’s just too many points and areas to cover in a small space.

John Konop November 14, 2008 at 1:20 pm

shortbusgeek

Very interesting and thanks for the information. You should write an op-ed and I would post it on my site.

laura November 14, 2008 at 11:50 pm

Erick,

I bet Ray McBerry would do a live chat with you. :) I really like his candidacy for Governor of Georgia for 2010. He hasn’t made a commitment, but I’m trying to “draft him”. He ran in 2006 in the primary, last minute when he was asked to, for Republican nominee. He’s going to decide in the next few weeks if he’ll run in the primary for Governor. Can you please check out my blog?? http://draftraymcberrygeorgiagovernor2010.blogspot.com/

I’m not in Georgia right now. But if he wins, I’ll move to Georgia. ;-)

Game Fan November 14, 2008 at 11:56 pm

rugby fan
Do you think it’s a good idea for ethicists to study philosophers?

Taft Republican November 15, 2008 at 2:56 am

The questions asked and the answers given were as lame as any I’ve heard on his rip-roarin’ bus tour across the state.

What a loser.

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