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To Governor Crist:
I Have a Better Plan to Purchase 300 Square Miles of US Sugar...
for No Money Down!
Ethanol Production Needed Now
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By Howard Melamed |
Dear Governor Crist.
You and the State of Florida has decided to buy 192,000 acres ( 300
square miles) from US Sugar and will place a burden of more than 3.5
billion dollars to the taxpayers at a time where property taxes are
at an all time high, fuel cost skyrocketing and no relief in sight
from government spending. The land is being purchased to turn back
into wetlands to help with the recovery of the everglades to satisfy
environmental concerns.
What if both the taxpayers and the environmentalists can be
satisfied if the deal could be done at no cost? Not one cent! I
have a plan that will allow the purchase of the land, bring revenue
to the State of Florida, lower the cost of gasoline and satisfy the
environmental requirements, all at the same time. I will pay the
state of Florida $120,000,000 per year rent for the land, provided
the State of Florida allowed me to harvest the sugar crop and
produce ethanol from the cane sugar crops on the land, for the next
30 years. After 30 years, the land will be able to be used for
the restoration of the everglades there will be no need to continue
refinement, since no doubt that our country will find alternate
forms of energy. This would not only be a great deal for the state
of Florida, for the taxpayers , since the rent on the land would pay
for the mortgage , but a great deal for me. That is because I can
produce 120,000,000 gallons of Ethanol from the sugar cane harvested
there. At current prices, that would give me more than 480,000,000
dollars of sales, at a cost of 350,000,000 to produce.
How do I know that I can make money at this? I read the USDA report
(http://www.usda.gov/oce/EthanolSugarFeasibilityReport3.pdf
) concerning the feasibility of turning crops into ethanol. Not
only does this report give me the ammunition needed for my business
plan, but it can in fact save the entire country billions since we
can use the money we pay farmers not to grow crops to grow them.
Corn can be used as well to make Ethanol. We have a lot of corn in
this country. I figure that with all of the corn that we normally
would sell to the middle east, we can turn it into liquid gold,
Ethanol!
According to the conservative estimate of the USDA, the production
of sugar on 192,000 acres can product 120,000,000 gallons of ethanol
each year, that’s where I got the conservative figure from. This
replaces the same amount of gasoline in something called E10
gasohol. That is a mixture of 10% ethanol to 90 percent gasoline,
and is perfectly safe for any and all of the automobile made today.
There is a current bill in front of our Governor that requires
signing that would in effect put into production the need to replace
gasoline with gasohol, or E10. This is timely considering the need
to reduce our dependence on oil, and to make this country energy
independent.
With the passing of the new Energy bill requiring 10% of the
gasoline used in our cars to become Ethanol, why not kill two birds
with one stone ( please environmentalists…this is only an expression
:) ) and turn the Sugar Cane of the US Sugar into ethanol.
The USDA states that Florida accounted for 44% of the production
of sugar in the United States. In 2006, there was a total of
376,000 acres harvested of which ¼ is US Sugar’s and the land that
is going to become yours and mine. At least if you believe that we
have a government for the people and by the people. It is the
people that are now the proud owners, and the people that should
decide what to do with it. Shall we turn it into the everglades, or
shall we instead stall these efforts for 30 years, and turn this
into a renewable resource by which Florida can reduce its Carbon
Foot Print so to speak, and get into the energy business in a big
way.
The USDA claims that each acre of sugar cane can produce 965
gallons of ethanol. Based on these figures, and not taking into
account any harvesting of seed, we end up with 120,000,000 gallons
of ethanol a year from the 192,000 acres of US Sugar land. This
makes up only 10% of what we really need in the state of Florida
from ethanol production to reduce our dependency on the oil industry
but is a great start. We can make up 40% of what is required if the
sugar mills are able to turn the rest of the sugar cane crops into
the new energy cash. It is not hard to figure out that we can in
fact find the other 60% from land that we are paying farmers not to
grow stuff.
This is but a start in what I would call our needed drive to become
the ethanol capital of the world. With our ability for farming, and
our ability to take some of that corn we are selling to the middle
east and other oil producing nations and turn it into fuel that will
replace their oil, our country can soon become the most powerful and
wealthiest nation in the world. Our farmers will start to see the
day, where crops are more valuable than oil, and where growing
agricultural products which do nothing but provide us with both
oxygen and energy, will once again rule the world. Stick that in
you pipe and smoke it. Expand this to every state in this country
that produces corn, yes corn can be used to make Ethanol as well,
and soon our country will be self sufficient reducing our carbon
footprint, lessening the dependence on fossil fuels and lower the
effect of global warming. Al gore would be proud of me. Since the
burning of alcohol has less of a flash pint or temperature than the
burning of gasoline! Global warming. Bah! Then again the byproducts
of Alcohol are simple. Water and Oxygen. Not bad. But the growing
of any crop, cane sugar, corn or any crop produces oxygen! In
less than 5 years we can become the energy giants in the world
pushing aside the middle east oil as Brazil has done and forging
ahead with a renewable resource, non polluting that can replace oil
and nuclear power and …whatever we want. Farmers are to become
Sheiks. And guess what. We will become energy independent really
quickly.
Thirty years from now, the land can revert back to the
environmentalist which they can do what they want with it. What
will happen to the wheat, corn and sugar we send to the middle east
and other oil producing nations that will now be turned into energy
in our country needed to replace their fossil fuels that they are
now price gouging us with? Well, we have enough to feed our country
and most of the third world. The oil producing nations can eat their
own oil. It won’t taste as good as our wheat, corn and other
essentials. But after all, we all have to make choices in this
world don’t we? And best of all. I will make a lot of money, help
save the everglades, reduce our carbon footprint, lower the effects
of global warming. Maybe I can even win the Nobel Peace Prize just
like Al Gore. |
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