I am baffled by this ethanol madness. I am baffled because corn-based ethanol should be something that the left and right can agree is a bad idea. On balance, corn-based ethanol has no environmental benefits. In the Rocky Mountain region, ethanol has been identified as a net pollutant. Ethanol fails miserably in net energy usage. The poor fuel efficiency and the difficulty of production are strong negatives. Corn-based ethanol will substantially increase transportation costs.
Yet the madness continues despite cries from many informed sources. The loudest voice should be the market place. No one wants corn based ethanol. Corn based ethanol is a boondoggle of epic proportions. I am not sure that these other bio fuels will be better. Please rats, rinos, and conservatives: let the market decide. Do not force any more mandates on us.
Mandates buy votes, which is why the entrenched power interests on both sides of the aisle want them. (Sorry for the economy and the other 99% of Americans who won’t benefit from the boondoggle, though.)
Unless you are cranking it out to drink as opposed to running your car.
re: post 3
soooooooo the logical thing to do is not to make it out of corn then....right?
“After nearly three decades of work, Brazil has succeeded where much of the industrialized world has failed: It has developed a cost-effective alternative to gasoline. Along with new offshore oil discoveries, that’s a big reason Brazil expects to become energy independent this year.
To see how, take a look at Gildo Ferreira, a 39-year-old real-estate executive, who pulled his VW Fox into a filling station one recent afternoon. Instead of reaching for the gasoline, he spent $29 to fill up his car on ethanol made from sugar cane, an option that’s available at 29,000 gas stations from Rio to the Amazon. A comparable tank of gasoline would have cost him $36. “It’s cheaper and it’s made here in Brazil,” Mr. Ferreira says of ethanol. If the price of oil stays at current levels, he can expect to save about $350 a year. “
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6817
Repeat after me.... Archer, Daniels, Midland
They own congressmen in several states. They’re the ones getting rich off this boondoggle.