I'm writing tonight from the Third U.S. Conference on "Peak Oil" and Community Solutions. You may recall that I attended the same event last year, and it's been an amazing time again so far. It's also appropriate that I mention from this context my involvement in a new non-profit called Sustainable Indiana, Inc, founded by my friend Frank Cicela (who also hosted the Indiana Energy Conference earlier this year). We're constructing it as an umbrella organization to facilitate building community resources related to sustainable living in Crawfordsville, and then making the process and "kit" from our efforts available to help other Indiana communities (and beyond) recreate the same kinds of resources in their area. Of course, I'll be working on trying out a few particular projects in Richmond as well. And we've already got some press coverage, a front page article in today's Crawfordsville Journal Review...yay. More soon on these important topics.
I’m a journalist, publisher, software developer and entrepreneur with experience as a founder and organizational leader. Work with me or learn more about me.
What I want to know about sustainable energy in Indiana at this point, Chris, is what is the ratio of petroleum per acre of corn/ soy bean and ethanol produced per acre. My understanding is that, besides the fuel used in the equipment, there is a fair amount of petroleum going into the fertilizers and herbicides used in modern agriculture. As Indiana seems posed to launch into ethanol production on a major scale, I think we should know how sustainable this whole fuel from crops method is.