Vinod Khosla's Simple Solution at the Pump - 5/24/06

Vinod Khosla at the age of 51 is a self made multibillionaire that owns Sun Microsystems. He has done research and believes there is a simple solution to spending less at the pump. His solution would be greener and cheaper for consumers and it does not feed Mideast terrorism. His solution is producing a new generation of ethanol made from plants delivering 4 to 10 times the energy of ethanol produced form corn. He is a bio-medical engineer and has talked to top scientists and believes the new generation of ethanol can replace gasoline.

He believes in less than five years we could the energy independent by switching to homegrown fuel. Khosla has visited Brail where they are doing just that. In Brazil every gas station sells ethanol. Brazil has been committed to ethanol production for 30 years. In Brazil you can choose gasoline, ethanol or the mixture of the two. Most drivers choose ethanol because it costs less. American car makers like GM and Ford has helped them with this transition. The production of flex fuel vehicles do not cost anymore to produce than gasoline vehicles.

Brazil converts its plentiful sugar cane into the equivalent of 300,000 barrels of oil a day. Their homegrown fuel has made them completely free to foreign oil.

The juice produced from crushing sugar can is fermented into alcohol. The operation is simply a giant moonshine still. Khosla says the new technology can take the mountains of left over crushed sugar cane and triple the amount of the ethanol produced.

Khosla’s vision for America is putting these new generation ethanol plants next to paper mills and orange juice factories turning their leftovers into ethanol. Khosla says billions of gallons of ethanol could be produced from prairie grass.

Khosla wants to make the U.S. an ethanol nation but is concerned the major oil companies could manipulate the priced of oil enough to drive ethanol out of business. He believes the battle is just beginning. His mission is to get the message out of how simple it is to be independent of foreign oil.

Source: Dateline NBC
Anchor: Stone Phillips
Report aired Dateline Sunday, May 7

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