The ethanol scam: Big money & politics

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | Friday, March 11, 2005 | editorial

[Willie Green]

There's a speculative boom in the struggling Corn Belt. Ordinary folk are investing, often with borrowed money, in small plants blooming like sunflowers that convert corn into ethanol.

Be careful, folks. There may be less here than meets the eye. Agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland, the largest ethanol producer, is not adding capacity, but is pleased to accept subsidies.

Fly-by-night speculative booms can and do burst, and the big fellas' eyes are keen for what may be worth cherry-picking from the wreckage.

Considering the price of oil, the balance of trade deficit and the plight of farmers, adding ethanol to gasoline is seen as a salvation.

It is not.

[2banana]

All factors considered, it takes 1.3 gallons of petroleum to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. As such, ethanol production increases dependence on foreign oil.

According to Pimentel's research, the total cost of a gallon of ethanol is $4.70, counting the subsidies.

Well, this is government logic - ie - how many votes does it buy...

[Willie Green]

ping

[w6ai5q37b]

These ethanol plants consume more power than they output. The environmentalists say these plants enable California to have "cleaner air" because of the ethanol substitute in gasoline.

Whether you believe that argument or not, there's the added issue that these plants themselves produce alot of pollution, from the cancer-causing formaldehyde they emit into the atmosphere, to the poisonous sludge spewed into nearby streams and lakes. I know; I live within a few miles of one of these environmentalist's follies.

[w6ai5q37b]

All factors considered, it takes 1.3 gallons of petroleum to produce 1 gallon of ethanol.

Not only that, but a gallon of petroleum contains more energy than a gallon of ethanol.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as 'unsustainable subsidized food burning' in analysis by Cornell scientist

FOR RELEASE: Aug. 6, 2001

Contact: Roger Segelken
Office: 607-255-9736
E-Mail: hrs2@cornell.edu

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what one Cornell University agricultural scientist calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.

At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food processors and some lawmakers, Cornell's David Pimentel takes a longer range view.

"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says the Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of the corn-to-car fuel process. His findings will be published in September, 2001 in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology .

Among his findings are:

o An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 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's analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol.

o The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps are needed to separate the 8 percent ethanol from the 92 percent water. Additional treatment and energy are required to produce the 99.8 percent pure ethanol for mixing with gasoline. o Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol 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."

o Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline. "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. U.S. drivers couldn't afford it, either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower the price."

o Most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production overlook the costs of environmental damages, which Pimentel says should add another 23 cents per gallon. "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethanol."

o The approximately $1 billion a year in current federal and state subsidies (mainly to large corporations) for ethanol production are not the only costs to consumers, the Cornell scientist observes. Subsidized corn results in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs because about 70 percent of corn grain is fed to livestock and poultry in the United States Increasing ethanol production would further inflate corn prices, Pimentel says, noting: "In addition to paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, consumers would be paying significantly higher food prices in the marketplace."

Nickels and dimes aside, some drivers still would rather see their cars fueled by farms in the Midwest than by oil wells in the Middle East, Pimentel acknowledges, so he calculated the amount of corn needed to power an automobile:

o The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans.

o If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100 percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the total land area of the United States.

-30-

| August release index | | Cornell News Service Home Page |

[Redbob]

For once, a little truth about ethanol.

Not only does a gallon of ethanol cost $4.70, but it will move your car only about half as far, so if you measure your gas mileage in miles-per-dollar rather than miles-per-gallon, ethanol is a far worse deal.

About 4.7 times worse, given today's $2 a gallon gas.

[The Great RJ]

Out here in corn country ethanol production is a matter of faith...despite all the economic and scientific arguements why it isn't a good deal new plants are springing up all over.

[alloysteel]

The production of ethanol from corn is far less cost effective than the production of a fractionable grade of petroleum from swine fecal matter. There is an excess of energy input with both processes, but the production of petroleum from animal waste takes care of two problems simultaneously, removing the waste matter from the effluent stream, and the grade of the crude petroleum is much more uniform than what is pumped out of the typical oil well, making it easier to tailor the end product for most efficient production.

Both processes require heat, and if there were less superstitious fear of nuclear energy, we would have almost ENDLESS supplies of energy to drive the processes. The "spent" fuel rods that are now being held in storage at various places around the country would be a most economical source of this heat, as these old fuel rods have to be kept in a continual bath to keep down the excess heat they continue to produce.

[Redbob]

Pimental's right; it's much better to feed the corn to cattle to make steaks!

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Out here in corn country ethanol production is a matter of faith...despite all the economic and scientific arguements why it isn't a good deal new plants are springing up all over.

It's more than that.

It's like the Farm Mafia has taken over the state legislatures, demanding and getting anything they want.

And God help you if you disagree.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Ethanol is logical when low rank fuels are used to make high rank fuels. Coal, residual fuel oil, etc., are low rank fuels and difficult to use as motor fuels. Using these lower cost fuels to cook corn is a net BTU loser, but allows conversion of some of this value into motor fuel which is quite useful.

[jec41]

All factors considered, it takes 1.3 gallons of petroleum to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. As such, ethanol production increases dependence on foreign oil.

I am a chemical engineer and have watched this scam for 20 years. The normal production for corn in the 20's was 16 bushels per acre. Once we started using high grade fertilizer made from oil, production increased to 36 bushels per acre. As the price of oil increases so will the price of fertilizer.
The only reason ethanol is produced is because enviormental groups and farmers lobbied for subsidies to make up the cost and insure a profit of big producers. It also lacks the BTU content of gasoline and can only be used in a 90% gas and 10% ethanol mixture for your car. Without your tax money (government subsidy) making up 2/3 of the cost of production there would not be any ethanol. It would be too expensive to produce ($4.00 to $4.50 per gal).

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Can you tell me how to get sub bituminous coal to make my car go ?

[BurbankKarl]

There is an ethanol bubble too....and that will take down a lot of investors.

[Mr. Lucky]

Truth is the first casualty of any war. Be as wary of an ethanol analysis coming out of a state with a vested interest in the petroleum industry (or in the consumption of cheap corn as a feedstock) as you would be of all the glowing reports coming out of the corn belt.

Your writer, for instance, assumes the average yield of an acre planted to corn at 120 bushels per acre and he uses an estimate of fuel consumption based upon anachronistic tillage practices. In my home county, the average corn yield last year exceeded 180 bushels per acre and virtually everybody used minimum or no-tillage practices.

Just so you can keep score, a bushel of #2 yellow corn will generate about 2.8 gallons of pure ethanol; a car fueled with pure ethanol would, theoretically, realize about 2/3 the mileage per gallon of a car fueled with pure gasoline.The production of ethanol also yields various by-products which have an economic value and which your article ignores. Ethanol produced by a dry milling process yields Distillers Dry Grains (DDG's) which are used for cattle, swine and poultry feed. Ethanol produced by a wet milling process generates gluten meal, gluten feed, steep liquor (an animal protein supplement, not a human beverage) and C02.

[newgeezer]

All factors considered, it takes 1.3 gallons of petroleum to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. As such, ethanol production increases dependence on foreign oil.

Bullsh*t. How many gallons of petroleum does it take to produce a gallon of gasoline?

[redgolum]

Bookmark

[redgolum]

That Cornell scientist is a hack. He includes in the energy mix the cost of building the roads to the plant.

We have such a surplus of corn in this country, using some to make ethanol has little effect. In fact, the byproduct is a much better feed for cattle than ground corn. Less carbohydrates and more protein.

[jec41]

Follow the German model.