4. Oil and Gas (Fossil Fuels)
These industries don’t want hemp legalized because the plant is so versatile. Its potential may well extend beyond expectation.
None see the threat of hemp more than the oil and gas industry.
These fossil fuels have held a chokehold on heating homes and fueling the world’s transportation. The world relies on them, despite the improvements with energy-efficient and electric vehicles. Still, the use of fossil fuels in transportation adds to almost 30 percent of all US global warming emissions. Finding and energy-conscious replacement that can power our vehicles and heat our buildings isn’t hard.
In fact, the solution is in that granola you ate this morning.
Yes, hemp could be the next thing to power your set of wheels. And if that sounds crazy, realize this idea isn’t new. Henry Ford himself recognized the value of hemp, not only in the form of hemp plastic for the body but as a fuel source. His brilliant design came to American consumers during wartime. So it failed to gain hype. This “fuel of the future” results when hemp-derived biomass burns in a reactor through the process of pyrolysis.
Remarkably, this process delivers 80 gallons of renewable gasoline fuel for every dry ton of biomass. The process also creates hemp pulp for hemp paper or plastic and hemp fibers for building materials.
Switching to hemp as a fuel also proves to be smart in other ways. According to UConn researcher Richard Parnas, hemp farmers already tending to a hemp crop could produce enough biofuel to run their farms. This means these farms could easily convert their method of sustaining their farms by using hemp as fuel.
These industries don’t want hemp legalized because it threatens their longevity. But it’s no use. Soon enough we’ll see the shift to this alternative fuel source.
