I swear I did.
The only people left claiming that ethanol production TODAY is inefficient are complete environazi loons, and oil industry hacks. Tad W. Patzek is a Berkeley nutjob; population control...you know the drill. He's their last remaining kook still promoting the idea that ethanol production is a net loss.
Let's have a little sample of some of Tad's other ideas, shall we:
As we can see in figure 1-3 a short food chain is more efficient than a long one. Hence eating vegetables is more efficient that eating meat....Land is cleared of tropical rain forest to provide beef for us, through McDonald's, Burger King, etc"
Source:http://patzek.berkeley.edu/E11/Food.pdf#search='tad%20w.%20patzek'
I heard this nutcase interviewed on the radio a couple of weeks ago. He couldn't get two sentences into his "anti-ethanol" rant without his little population and food control edicts. The guys who were interviewing him were laughing their A##es off. Yet, we still have freepers quoting the fool...
Oh, and so much for your some of our sugar cane lovers...according to your resident envirowhacko:
Patzek is also concerned about the sustainability of industrial farming in developing nations where surgarcane and trees are grown as feedstock for ethanol and other biofuels. Using United Nations data, he examined the production cycles of plantations hundreds of billions of tons of raw material.
Source: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0305/patzek.html
But then, why wouldn't we base our entire U.S. energy supply on a man with this stellar educational background:
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Silesian Technical University, Poland 1980
M.S. Chemical Engineering, Silesian Technical University, Poland
Oh, and did I mention, he's a geologist who seems to have extensitively studied OIL?
Here's more:
"Maybe the problem is Pimentel is an entomologist instead of an engineer," Corzine said, adding that Patzek was a longtime employee of Shell Oil Company and founder of the UC Oil Consortium, which has counted BP, Chevron USA, Mobil USA, Shell and Unocal among its members. Patzek also is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, making his ethanol energy balance analysis hardly impartial, Corzine said.
Poor Mr. Patzek...he cannot decide whether to be an oil baron or a communist community planner.
Source: http://www.hpj.com/dtnnewstable.cfm?type=story&sid=14776
From the same source:
In June 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its 2002 analysis of the issue and determined that the net energy balance of ethanol production is 1.67 to 1. For every 100 BTUs of energy used to make ethanol, 167 BTUs of ethanol is produced. In 2002, USDA had concluded that the ratio was 1.35 to 1. The USDA findings have been confirmed by additional studies conducted by the University of Nebraska and Argonne National Laboratory.
Some people really need to take a closer look at their "friends" before spouting off.
Regarding subsidies: many of them are in the form of tax credits...are we now going to reach a new FR low and call for tax increases?
My family made a ton of money when my GG Uncles struck oil in Texas; we still have ownership in the oil claim. Can we move on already?
That's funny!!