Dear Mr. Pickens,
This message is the fourth in a series of 6 messages on the energy sources that you enumerated on the You Tube video explaining "The Pickens Plan."
There are two BioFuels that have been proposed--Ethanol and BioDiesel. I've already discussed Ethanol in my message # 5 titled It's no longer funny. BioDiesel is made from some kind of plant derived oil (mostly rapeseed (canola) or soybean oil). In one respect BioDiesel suffers from one of the things that Ethanol suffers from--limited supply of the raw ingredients. Moreover, methanol or ethanol is used in the manufacture of BioDiesel. Using a food for fuel puts energy production in competition with food. This has the negative global effect of raising the price of food for developing countries.
One more recent development is the possibility of algae biodiesel (biodiesel derived from algae). This is still under development.
It is also possible to modify an existing diesel vehicle to burn used cooking oil directly, but this in not practical to replace the huge quantity of the diesel used for transportation. Rudolph Diesel originally demonstrated his engine using peanut oil for fuel.
A lot more information about Biodiesel is available at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel.
Some buses in Eugene, Oregon were run on commercially available biodiesel for one year. At the end of the year biodiesel was abandoned because it caused the bus company unspecified maintenance problems.
I have more to say, but this is probably already too long. My next message will be on wind power.
Larry Brown
Your Eyes and Ears in SW Oregon
Now using a Mac Mini (Apple)
P.S. I saw your plan in two different You Tube videos. As a Caltech grad (MS in EE, 1954), I was impressed. IMHO, we, as a nation, should consider all of the energy sources that you enumerated along with any new, "out of the box" technologies, but the "playing field" should be leveled. All government interference in the energy markets should be stopped. This will allow all technologies to compete--the market will select those technologies that are most cost-effective. It was government regulations, subsidies, and taxes that brought us the "energy crisis."