Have you seen the research on ethanol from hemp? Makes using corn look ridiculous.

Would you care to identify these “massive subsidies” given to the oil industry? I have no clue what you’re referring to. Certainly tax breaks do come into play for certain production projects, etc, but in general the gov’t gets makes money off oil when they lease lots for exploration, when they collect royalties on production, when they collect the highway fuel tax, and when the oil companies pay corporate taxes. Are you arguing that oil companies receive subsidies in excess of these taxes? What are they?

If you look at ethanol, the federal gov’t provides a 45 cpg incentive, which is nearly 3 times the 18.4 cpg federal gasoline tax. Considering ethanol wholesales around $2/gal currently, the subsidy is nearly 25% of fair market value of the product. That’s a massive subsidy. Gasoline and diesel are absolutely not being subsidized to the tune of ethanol. Either way, it sounds as if you support removing subsidies on fuel production, in which we both agree. Neither oil nor ethanol (nor any other fuel) should be subsidized; the market should determine the winners and losers.

As for the externalities of oil, there are externalities of any fuel. For example, burning ethanol in vehicles tends to produce more NOx and less carbon monoxide than gasoline. The pollutants are different, but it’s not entirely clear which is worse. To assume the choice here is between oil, a fuel source riddled with hypercostly externalities, and some other fuel source that has no environmental impact is pure naivete on your part. Besides, if you’re concerned about the environmental impact of oil, then by all means, don’t use oil products. Ride a bike to work; I won’t stop you. If there truly are enough people who think like you, oil won’t be demanded and an alternative may pop up as oil loses economy of scale.

Oil from a physical point of view is a great fuel source. It’s a high energy density liquid, which is exactly what we need to fuel vehicles. Refining is a relatively minor upgrading step to make crude into usable gasoline and diesel. Converting low energy density solids, particularly ones that have to be cultivated, into a high energy density liquid fuel just doesn’t make as much sense. I’ll grant you it makes a lot more sense than trying to have vehicles running on gaseous fuels, but it’s just inherently tough for crops to compete with oil as a cost competitive feedstock for transport fuels.

Better to just keep the hemp in the textiles.
Magnetism boys, that’s the wave of the future.