Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
Book Reviews
"Brilliant! This book should be on the reading list of every American!!” — Thom Hartmann, New York Times best-selling author, and nationally syndicated host of The Thom Hartmann Program on Air America.
"Everything you wanted to know about alcohol-fuel production but were afraid to ask.
For those who think ethanol is the be-all and end-all of the alternative-energy revolution, think again.
More than 20 years ago, veteran biofuel guru Blume (Alcohol Can Be a Gas, 1983) beat the drum for alcohol-based alternative fuels. Despite an impenetrable foreword by R. Buckminster Fuller, Blume’s latest book is a well-researched and expanded update to his original work, incorporating 21st-century concerns over global warming, domestic-energy policy, grassroots biofuel solutions and the challenges of going green in a world dominated by the fossil fuel “oiligarchy.” Blume systematically and entertainingly builds his case for individual responsibility and activism in dealing with the nation’s domestic-energy challenges,. and he excludes no one in preaching his gospel of alcohol-fuel independence. For the novice, Blume tells the story of alcohol production’s rich history in America, from the Civil War to today, and effectively demystifies the thorny pros and cons of the current national energy-policy debate regarding ethanol. This education alone is worth the cover price. Make no mistake, the book is more than a bully pulpit for championing sociopolitical opinions on global-energy woes—it is a technical how-to book. Written with enterprising do-ityourselfers in mind, Blume offers countless hands-on technical solutions ranging from home stills to for-profit manufacturing strategies and builds chapters on detailed charts, graphs and step-by-step building instructions, giving activist-minded readers the data and resources they need to implement personal and individualized energy solutions.
A well-executed, socially conscious proactive and rigorous call to action. " - Kirkus Discoveries, a review service that allows authors to receive authoritative, careful assessment of their books.
“I have personally worked in the renewable energy sector in one form or another for close to four decades and I can recommend David Blume’s Alcohol Can Be a Gas! as the most comprehensive and understandable book on renewable fuels I have ever read on the subject. The petroleum age is only about one hundred years old – a tiny blip on the history of mankind – and, according to many experts, it is over half over. It is time we review our energy systems options– biomass, ethanol, wind as well as solar -- if we are to understand how we can attain our future energy independence. David Blume’s Alcohol Can Be a Gas is a “must read” to prepare anyone for this critical endeavor.”
- Larry Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer, American Corn Growers Association
“Humanity has used up roughly half of the world’s oil and topsoil. Just in time, David Blume has given us Alcohol Can Be A Gas! It’s a practical road map for supplying all of our energy needs without drilling, strip-mining, and/or depleting the soil. In fact, following Blume’s model, soil fertility would actually increase worldwide; energy production would be not only sustainable, but democratic—and highly profitable on the small scale. This is a brilliant visionary work. And, with Mr. Blume’s witty personality, reading it is certainly a gas.” — Larry Korn , Soil Scientist, Translator, and Editor of The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming.
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"Dave Blume has written the definitive opus on alcohol as a fuel. From the 30,000-foot view to the most minute technical detail, Alcohol Can be a Gas! makes a strong case for the practical, ecological, political, and economic sense in converting to ethanol. It's heartening to see the world's original “alcohol pioneer” stay abreast of the times with a book that has the promise to knock some sense into our insidious fossil-fueled economy. This book is much needed in this era of Peak Oil and fast-accelerating climate change." —John Schaeffer, President and Founder of Real Goods, and Executive Director of the Institute for Solar Living.
As intersections of the food-energy-climate matrix form in Iowa cornfields, Amazonian rain forests and Canadian gene splicing labs, and end-game battles for their control pit theocratic flat-worlders against biologists, climatologists, and tree-huggers over the very survival of life on Earth, David Blume emerges like a wizard on a misty pinnacle, back-lit by the full moon, revealing a gemstone in his extended palm. -- Albert Bates, author, The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times (New Society, 2006)
The over-arching importance of this delightful book is that it demonstrates how beside the point is the current pseudo-debate about the net energy from corn ethanol. As Blume demonstrates, fuel alcohol must be an important component of our solar-based future. It can be made from a huge variety of feedstocks, including sugar beets and cane, nuts, mesquite, Jerusalem artichokes, algae, even coffee-bean pulp; there is no real scarcity of land to grow fuel. There is a scarcity of independent, original thinking--and Blume’s book provides plenty of it, along with ample doses of amazing, startling, and sometimes scary information--ecological, technological, and political-economic. This is a vast, detailed compendium drawn from decades of experience by an alert, smart, and skeptical hands-on thinker. Blume has given us his biofuels bible, and we can learn from him and survive quite nicely, or follow what he calls MegaOilron into oblivion.—Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia, Ecotopia Emerging, and Ecology:A Pocket Guide
What a tour-de-force! This is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide through all the controversy about ethanol as transportation fuel, showing it as a clear winner in the quest for solutions to our environmental and geopolitical problems. Engagingly written, full of important and amazing information and resources, this book meets every challenge to the vision for a clean, democratic path to a prosperous future for all.-Joe Jordan, Atmospheric Researcher, NASA/Ames Research Center
Finally, an alcohol book for the layman and backyard enthusiast. In our culture's collective, industrialized love affair with mega-everything, Blume cuts across the government-subsidized factories with ecologically practical models. Here is a viable energy system that can be embedded in a region, linking rural producers to urban users of energy and food. Self-reliance and resiliency follow community-based alcohol production, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to Blume for codifying his life's passion in what is a veritable compendium of information. - Joel Salatin, Farmer, and Author of You Can Farm and Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.
Ethanol champion David Blume has completed his opus, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! It is a great read. The history of petroleum, history of alcohol, technical coverage of production process, vehicle development (conversion), and feedstocks: It's all in the text, complete with charts and pictures. David's wit, wisdom, and hardcore experience illuminate this biofuels potential. We have eagerly awaited this publication and will use it in our Sustainable Transportation and Biofuels courses. - Dr. Jack Martin, Appropriate Technology Program, Appalachian State University; Vice-Chair of Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division, American Solar Energy Society
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