Toyota and BP Biofuels Research Partnership
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 07.16.05
Green Car Congress reports that Toyota and BP are negotiating a possible biofuels research partnership. "BP, which distributes light ethanol and biodiesel blends in a number of countries, is especially interested in the potential for the development of biofuels from feedstocks that don’t require intensive farming—cellulosic ethanol from biomass waste, for example." We are very excited about cellulose ethanol (and not just because the technology is being developed in Ottawa), and having two giants like Toyota and BP interested in it is great news. We'll keep an eye open for the official announcement of a deal.
::Toyota and BP Look Toward Joint Research, via ::Green Car Congress
Why would you think this is a good idea? Big Oil knows that oil is gonna run out, they want to become Big BioDiesel, and Big Hydrogen. All your doing is setting it up so that they will still have legislative control of these new fuels.
I'm not "setting up" anything, and legislative control is up to regular citizens - they need to shake off the apathy, get informed about things and grow a political spine - but I do think BP-Toyota is a good idea because they have the resources, expertise and infrastructure (Toyota can start building flex-fuel cars, BP can distribute biofuels), and that's the kind of backing that biofuels need. Especially if they are backing things that have great potential but that are underdeveloped now (cellulose ethanol) in favor of lesser forms of biofuels (energy intensive agriculture like corn monocrops).
I know it would be great if all this just sprung up from nothing in a decentralized "power to the people" fashion, and if you have a way to make it happen let us know, but in the meantime I'll be happy to know Toyota and BP are working on it instead of acting like Exxon.
And even in the hypothesis that some smaller companies were working on biofuels instead of big car and oil, who's telling us that in 15-20 years one of these small companies won't be the next BP and nothing will have been gained?
As long as we live in a capitalist system, people with money will work on cornering new markets.
Sorry for the long post, I get carried off sometimes.
I think this is a great Idea. We the people do not have the extensive resources to do the R&D that Toyota and BP have. We need auto makers to start producing vehicles that use the ethanol fuel
if you are interested in becoming a fuel(ethanol) manufacturer. Then start now, and get grandfathered in to any possible legislation of the "big" companies.