Posted on 04/18/2008 3:51:36 PM PDT by PROCON
I read somewhere that ethanol production might actually use more energy than it produces. If so, this is all a PC shell game anyway.
I suspect something about the whole ethanol deal, and why George W. Bush suddenly endorsed it a while back. Remember that Bush is an oil man, and has a real good grasp of the reality of ethanol and energy.
What if there was a sudden cut off of OPEC oil, right now?
Despite the high price of crude, President Bush has been buying oil right, left and sideways to put in the strategic reserve. Right now, there is enough crude there for a 60 day supply.
Since we can’t count on Venezuelan oil anymore, in that Chavez would probably join an OPEC shut off, how much new oil production could be started in the US and Canada in 60 days? Maybe not enough.
But interestingly, by adding ethanol to gasoline, up to 15% less gasoline is consumed, without affecting gasoline engine performance. While certainly not enough to replace all of our gasoline, it gives the US and Canada more time to pump and refine oil.
The answer to the supposed brainlessness of ethanol production might have been answered in the last week, when a group of congressional Democrats asked Bush to stop putting more crude oil in the strategic reserve “...which would enable the United States to go to war with Iran.”
Other than having utter disgust for these Democrats, it might answer the question of why the price of food is going up right now. Food used to produce alcohol.
Despite their insistence to the contrary, George W. Bush is no fool. And if we do get into a war with Iran, we will kick their butt, despite the passionate desire of the Democrats that we lose and be both humiliated and defeated.
Sweet corn is sold in the grocery store. Not the same as field corn used for ethanol.
AMEN! Thank you!
Somehow cheap food has become a constitutional and human right. Also, the most hated country in the world is responsible for everyone's well-being. It is truly a bizarro world.
Was there any mention at all of crop failures around the world and ever-growing populations in relation to tighter food supplies?
SAY WHAT???
Are you a farmer or have relatives who are benefiting from the biggest BONDOGGLE I've seen in my 64 years.?
http://www.igreens.org.uk/ethanol_from_corn_.htm
The real problem with ethanol from corn is that it requires fuel to make the corn. David Pimentel a professor from Cornell has done the analysis [i]. An acre of U.S. corn can be processed into about 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel. That is $1.05 per gallon of ethanol before the corn even moves off the farm.
The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps and other treatments are needed to separate the ethanol from the water. All these need energy.
Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol which has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way," Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you make 1 gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU."
Overall ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of petrol. "That helps explain why fossil fuels -- not ethanol -- are used to produce ethanol" Pimentel says. "The growers and processors can't afford to burn ethanol to make ethanol. Drivers couldn't afford it, either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower the price."
Everything that I have read, indicates that Ethanol is much less efficient as gasoline and we have not even touched on the fact that it has to be trucked to all outlets.
Sorry, I just don't buy it, although, I am forced to do so, against my will and better judgment.
This is so much bull pucky!
There is a shortage of rice and beans in Haiti. When supplies get there the folks can’t afford to buy the food, so they riot. What are we supposed to do? Take over the island and nation-build Haiti for the umpteenth time! Enough is enough.
There was a failure of the wheat crop in Ukraine. A drought has destoyed the rice harvest in Australia, and thus Asian nations are not exporting rice, period.
So - what has that got to do with how we handle our corn harvest, much less allocate the crop? It is not the business of Mexico or India to tell us what to do - they can all starve (I am hard hearted) because their stupid, backward socialist run governments can’t feed those nations.
And since when have the south Asian Indians eaten corn? They grow and eat rice.
Oh, before I forget: the crop of corn for this year is predicted to be 20% larger than last year’s, and the crop for next year is being predicted (by commodities traders) to be half-again as large as this years. Free markets responding to increased demand - it’s a beautiful thing!
Thanks to W. He was the one who came up with the terrible phrase that Americans are addicted to oil.
Hurrah! I finally see someone other than me saying just that.........Let 'em starve.
The small amount of corn used to produce ethanol in this country will not save the world’s population from starving. Most of those folks eat rice and beans, not corn. It is because of crop failures in other countries that people are going hungry.
It isn’t our fault. And the idea that Asia will just be fat, dumb and happy eating the tiny bit of corn we’re turning into ehtanol is nonsense!
I was saying this long ago. Since when is hungry people in third world countries going to dictated american energy policy? If ethanol is a bad idea, it should be halted INDEPENDENT of world opinion. It should be halted by our own economic analysis...NOTHING MORE!
The amounts of corn diverted to biofuels are responsible for a minor part of the rise in food prices. Even 1/4 of the US corn crop is a very small amount of the world’s total grain crop.
The big issue is that hundreds of millions of people in Asia have recently climbed out of poverty and for the first time are able to eat something besides grain. Producing a pound of meat takes anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds of grain.
I thought it was a good thing when people are no longer absolutely poor.
BTW, a great deal of corn is eaten in India, especially in the North.
<...If ethanol is a bad idea,...it should be halted by our own economic analysis...>
Agreed.
At anytime in the past few years W could have called for coordinated intervention to strengthen the dollar and that would have arrested skyrocketing oil prices. But he’s not going to do that. He’s tried ignorantly to turn our country into a commodity based economy, with ever higher prices, and a weaker dollar has been a big part of that.
The price in the grocery store has risen as well—not saying I know why, but it has.
I've got news for the author. Haitians eat dirt cookies whether other food is in supply or not.
<...a great deal of corn is eaten in India, especially in the North.
I didn’t know that, and am very surprised. None of my Indian freinds have ever said anything about that, except that they feed corn to their cattle. Do you know, have there been widespread crop failures in India too, just like in Australia?
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