One of Mr. Will's, and mine, favorite quotes is, "ideas have consequences". Having won just enough of the GW debate to cause the issue to be economically marketable (that is, regardless if it's true or not, here's how we're gonna make some money off it) the US and Detroit, who realizes that while their bread may not be buttered in Washington, DC a certain amount of deference to DC's crack-pot ideas may limit the carnage, have embarked pell-mell on the notion of growing our fuel.
Sailors can appreciate the size of ships. A ULCC, or ultra large crude carrier, runs about 1300 feet loa and draws over 100' of draft. I use those figures because no one other than an imagianary on the order of George Lucas can conceive of what 600,000 tons of crude oil amounts to. I perform this little exercise because a ship of that size passes through the Straits of Malacca about every half hour. And folks, that ain't popcorn. The world uses quantities of oil that are quite simply unmeasureable in real-world terms.
I've got one question, well, actually two. How many cars do you own, and how big is your back yard? Because you're going to have to get rid of a few of the former and I'll be over to plant the latter in a couple of months. There are a lot of issues in the upcoming election; most politicians seem to be finessing this one. It could be the most important one issue of them all in just a few years.
Mr. Will has some even more fun facts for us to know and tell:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/107575/page/1