Robert Zubrin's book could not be more relevant to the current political scene. The compromise energy bill is moving toward a vote in both the House and Senate. A simple majority is assured, but will it be filibustered to death or vetoed by the President? A few more Republican votes would assure passage over against such resistance, and Zubrin's book just might produce that effect.
Zubrin is quite hawkish in his views about the current world-wide struggle by the democratic West against "Islamofascism." His critique of Wahhabism (the puritanical version of Islam widely affirmed within the ruling elite of Saudi Arabia) seems well grounded. (He draws heavily for his historical interpretation of Islam on the writing of Ibn Waqrraq, whom I believe to be quite reliable.) He then draws an analogy between the vulnerability of the Nazis and the Japanese to the American attacks on their sources of oil in World War II, to our vulnerability to "Islamofascism" in the current war on terrorism. (He opines, for example, that the reason the first President Bush did not provide air support for the Kurds and Shiites who rose against Saddam Hussein after the First Gulf War, was because the Saudi's were able to enforce their desires on us through back channel threats of oil disruptions.)
What is his solution to this threat by the Saudis to our political autonomy? Simply develop bio-fuels in the form of methanol and/or ethanol as a substitute for petroleum as a transportation fuel.
This solution has been on the table since the Carter admisistration. But it has been negated every time it has gotten close to implementation by two countervailing forces. The Saudi's have been able to reduce prices enough to make the transition to bio-fuels economically unattractive, or else the oil industry supporters have been able to use their money to sabotage such policies in Congress. Zubrin hopes there is now enough political support to push through a bio-fuels program despite such resistance. His book is part of that push to realize his ideas.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has emphasized there are two "platforms" for producing alcohol fuel from biomass. There is the "Thermochemical" platform and the ""Biochemical" platform. The former produces alcohol by heating the biomass until it breaks down into "syngas" (carbonmonoxide and hydrogen). Syngas can then be condensed into methanol (wood alcohol), or with suitable catalysts and refining it can be made into ethanol. The biochemical platform is what is getting the most publicity today as the preferred way to make "cellulosic" ethanol (ethanol produced from corn stover rather than from corn starch). Zubrin really favors the other thermochemical platform because we know it works with any kind of biomass, and because it can be used to make alcohol fuel from coal as well as from biomass. This shows that he is much more interested in energy independence as a way to defeat "Islamofascism," than he is in cutting carbon-dioxide emissions to mitigate global warming.
Zubrin claims the technical breakthrough which made his alcohol liquid fuel program possible was the "flex-fuel" technology first developed by an inventive woman engineer at Ford named Roberta Nichols. Her invention enabled an engine to run on any mixture of alcohol or gasoline. (It could not, however, tolerate mixing different amounts of methanol and ethanol. Later developments first used in Brazil allowed an engine to run equally well on any mixture of gasoline, methanol and of ethanol.) Flex-fuel vehicles provide the key to the Zubrin's alcohol revolution. All that is required is an additional $100 per new car for the flex fuel technology. Initially most cars will run on straight gasoline or on E-10 (10% ethanol). But as the price of oil rises, alcohol alternatives will become ever more cost competitive, and drivers will choose to "fill up" on various mixtures of cheaper alcohol as they become available. This transition has already happened in Brazil, and Brazil has now become energy independent. Zubrin is proposing that we do the same.
The oil lobby is still trying to prevent this transition from occurring here in the U.S. Zubrin is grateful to the farm lobby for having provided a countervailing political force to the oil lobby (even though the farm lobby is no more virtuous than the oil lobby). The selfishness of corn growers might just free the world from dependence on Mideastern oil, the malevolent influence of "Islamofascism," and lift third world farmers out of their abject poverty. (The limitless market for bio-fuels will improve the economic viability of farmers world-wide.)
Meanwhile, Congress must pass the energy bill to get this ball rolling. I can only hope Zubrin's book helps bring about the optimistic energy future he foresees.