ForewordThe way history follows success stories, you'd almost think that coal, oil, andleaded gasoline had been among the crowning achievements of an advancedcivilization. And you'd have to think that renewable energy, particularly ethanol,had been a colossal failure.Search any big library or online book seller. Thousands of histories have beenwritten about fossil fuels. Only a handful have been written about ethanol, solar,wind or any renewable energy alternatives.And yet, despite the fractured historical record, ethanol, solar and wind havebeen wildly successful. They have become cheaper, cleaner, healthier and better for national security than the fossil fuels they are swiftly replacing.Why is this success so little known? Part of the answer is that discussionsabout the history and policy issues surrounding renewable have been foggedby the oil industry and its public relations campaigns.Despite the historical gaps this has created, it seems we are approaching atransitional moment. Not only are our energy priorities shifting, but our views ofthem are swiftly changing as well.At moments like these, advocates like Marc J. Rauch have a special role to playin skirmishing ahead of the main currents of discourse and puncturing the inflated self-images that once-dominant industries are still trying to project.Although ethanol is not perfect, we are far too accustomed to thinking aboutthese issues as either black or white. Ethanol, from any public interest perspective, is closer to beige and silver, and rather distant from the crude oil-coloredend of the spectrum.
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