“The oil price will drop because we will use less oil if we aren’t using it to farm and distill ethanol. “
I have seen a study cited several times now that says it takes 1.3 barrels of oil to make the ethanol energy equivalent of one barrel of oil.
The subsidies, as they always do, are distorting the markets, and should be done away with.
We have all seen that study and it is crappy lies.
No ethanol plant uses oil to run boilers. And
they don’t take into account the other products
from the corn processing, they throw in the rainwater
falling on the land and figure it needing energy like
irrigation. They talk about price supports when there
isn’t any on corn. And hasn’t been for couple years.
There is only a tax credit for BIG OIL to use
ethanol and it is a fraction of what price supports were.
And Dan’s mis-information about oxygenates
helping emissions, not aiding clean air is a lie.
Ethanol in gas works, for 40 years ago you couldn’t
see a 2 miles across Detroit for smog, and now it
is nearly as good as we have it here in central
Michigan. Oxygenates and other things they’ve done
works. Our larger engine vehicles run better on it.
The price of food is due to speculators driving it up
using every scare and excuse to do so, one being
articles like this, others like weather reports saying
we will have floods, we will have droughts, we won’t
have enough acres to plant, ad nauseum.It’s silly.
Why don’t they bitch at BIG OIL for not putting all
the oil they get into fuel. Well Oil Com can’t as
they have byproducts like asphalt. Well ethanol is
just another by-product of processing of farm
commodities. Like corn products are being used to
make biodegradable plastic bags, soy products are
used in making plastics, other farm products are
used by hunters to feed deer and other game,
and so on.Ed
I've about half a dozen of these studies and they are all over the map. Government studies show a positive yield and a few independent studies show a net loss of energy.
Farm lobbyists and ethanol producers have an incentive to lie about this for obvious reasons. Politicians have an incentive to lie because they just love all that power (will we have an "ethanol czar"?) Even oil companies profit from an fuel source that uses more oil than fuel produced.
Does the taxpayer even have a chance?