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 cannot fault your logic or your facts since your post was devoid of both.
Given a choice, I choose “Big Oil” over you. Your uninformed rants don’t power my car or any other vehicle, or generate electricity or fertilize crops. Even at these prices, Big Oil is infinitely more valuable than you are, since any number, divided the zero that represents your worth, is infinite.
The energy requirement in the study does not count the sun input into the corn/ethanol. If it did, it would be an order or two of magnitude higher. We went through that exercise once on FreeRepublic.
It is a strawman issue.
It is if you start counting sunlight that falls on the earth regardless of what you do with it. But when you start counting the coal consumed and power from our electric grid along with the petroleum consumed, it is a real comparison. There is no doubt we have limits to our energy sources. Selecting one that consumes more than it puts out doesn't appear to me to be the wisest choice in a time of expensive fuel.
Do you understand that crude oil is a blend of many different hydrocarbon molecules and they don't all make into gasoline and diesel?