Bush expected to stress energy security (More ethanol?)

ap via yahoo ^ | 01/22/2007 | milwguy

[milwguy]

For that, Bush told a renewable fuels conference last year in St. Louis, "we need to change how we power our automobiles. ... I like the idea of promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers."

Bush has supported lawmakers' push to use more corn-based ethanol as a gasoline blend and he is expected to call for a sharp escalation of ethanol use in his speech.

It is a political sure bet as ethanol has widespread bipartisan support.

Among the first bills introduced in the new Democratic-run Senate calls for using 60 billion gallons of ethanol, 10 times current production capacity, by 2030.

Two 2008 presidential hopefuls, Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware, are its leading co-sponsors.

Ethanol is "riding a big wave" this year, says Mark McMinimy, a policy analyst at the Stanford Group. "The renewable fuels-ethanol juggernaut enjoys one of the most prized commodities in Washington — broad-based support, bipartisan political momentum

[Keith in Iowa]

You can make corn flakes out of the waste product of ethanol?

Yes. It's not waste product, it's called 'co-products'.

WHAT'S IN A BUSHEL OF CORN?

Each bushel of corn can produce up to 2.5 gallons of ethanol fuel.  Only the 
starch from the corn is used to make ethanol.  Most of the substance of the 
corn kernel remains, leaving the protein and valuable co-products to be used
in the production of food for people, livestock feed, and various chemicals.  
For example, that same bushel of corn (56 lbs.) used in ethanol manufacturing 
can also produce the following: 

The wet-milling process:		The dry-milling process:
31.5 pounds of starch		10 one-lb. boxes of cereal
or		and
33 lbs. of sweetner		15 lbs. of brewer grits  (enough for 1 gal. of beer)
or		and
2.5 gal. fuel ethanol		10 eight oz. packages of Cheese Curls
and		and
12.4 lbs. of 21% protein feed		1 lb. of pancake mix
and		and
3.0 lbs. of 60% gluten meal		22 lbs. of hominy feed for livestock
and		and
1.5 lbs. of corn oil		0.7 lbs. of corn oil
and		and
17 lbs. of carbon dioxide		17 lbs. of carbon dioxide

The corn oil is used in producing food for human consumption.  For example, 
1.5 lbs of corn oil from a bushel of corn is equivalent to 2 lbs of margarine.  
The 21% protein feed is used in making high protein livestock feed.  The 
carbon dioxide is used as a refrigerant, in carbonated beverages, to help 
vegetable crops to grow more rapidly in greenhouses, and to flush oil wells.  
Only the starch of the corn (carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) is used to make ethanol.  

[milwguy]

"In terms of renewable fuels, ethanol is the worst solution," Patzek says. "It has the highest energy cost with the least benefit."

Ethanol is produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane. It may sound green, Patzek says, but that's because many scientists are not looking at the whole picture. According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Does ethanol have to be produced from corn?

No.

Many other things can be used to make ethanol - even the left-overs from growing corn...Iowa State is working on equipment that catches & bundles what's left after the combine harvests the corn kernels to be used in producing ethanol.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Patzek says.

Please. He's a liberal, oil industry shill who's research and data used to reach his conclusions used decades old assumptions about farming that are no longer true.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

What I DON'T like is the billions of dollars of subsidies ethanol has received....if it was viable, wouldn't private investors flock to it?

Every dollar that stays in this country rather than go to some islamo-fascist who wants to end our way of life because that dollar is spent on ethanol rather than oil is a good thing in my book.

So why not drill for oil or use clean coal technology here? I'm all for keeping energy dollars here.

[milwguy]

What happens when we have a drought? Simple law of supply and demand dictates that price rises, some get richer, most get poorer. Ethanol is a booondoggle only the gov't could love. Rather than extract oil and gas from our maasive reserves in Alaska, off the west coast, off the coast of florida, we prefer to produce an inferior fuel, which will raise the price of food, is subject to the whims of the weather, and uses as much energy as it produces. France gets over 80% of their electricity from nuclear, China is building coal polluting electric plants left and right, and has plans for 50 nuclear plants, but we in the US fiddle with ethanol while our competition laughs at us and goes about their merry way digging up oil sands, producing dirty coal plants, or drilling everywhere they can.

[Alberta's Child]

I agree with you. They may as well call this the Farm Bill version 2.0, since this is nothing more than a sop to major agribusiness interests.

[Alberta's Child]

The basic premise of "energy independence" has been exposed here on FreeRepublic as a complete fraud. We are no more capable of being "energy independent" than we are of being "cheap Chinese import independent," "Mexican immigrant independent," etc.

[milwguy]

High corn prices are wreaking havoc on Mexico's inflation rate and forcing shoppers to pay more for eggs, milk and tortillas

[Alberta's Child]

Every dollar that stays in this country rather than go to some islamo-fascist who wants to end our way of life because that dollar is spent on ethanol rather than oil is a good thing in my book.

Oh, sure.

The U.S. hasn't imported any oil from Iran in several decades -- but that hasn't kept Iran from being the #4 producer of oil in the world.

[Uncle Miltie]

"a sop to major agribusiness interests"

In addition, the local (Fargo, ND) corn farmers are buying Corvettes!

[milwguy]

Yeah 5500 lbs of the leftover produces all of 180 gallons of ethanol. The tradeoff is more erosion of topsoil and reduced future yields.

[BlazingArizona]

We need a ban on NIMBYism for energy producing projects of all kinds. If we set up a uniform set of regulations for each type of energy producer, covering safety, siting, emissions, and other impacts. Anybody who could raise private capital to build an energy project that met the guidelines for its type could build it, with NIMBY groups having no standing to oppose it. Your HOA could not object to solar cells on the roof of your home, and Greenpeace would not be able to stop a nuclear reactor.

[Moonman62]

For that, Bush told a renewable fuels conference last year in St. Louis, "we need to change how we power our automobiles. ... I like the idea of promoting a fuel that relies upon our farmers."

I like the idea of relying on American technology and innovation. W never has liked our technology sector.

[Moonman62]

Yes, batteries are the key to using multiple sources of energy.

[kinghorse]

Because they are renewable? Oil will be used to re-charge the main power plant, battery power. It's opposite today.

[kinghorse]

by oil I mean refined gasoline. carbon based combustibles.

[Uncledave]

The carbon dioxide is used as a refrigerant, in carbonated beverages, to help vegetable crops to grow more rapidly in greenhouses,

You're saying the ethanol producers bottle up their CO2 and sell it?

[Keith in Iowa]

You're saying the ethanol producers bottle up their CO2 and sell it?

Yes, those producers with plants designed to do so are - one is Broin.

[Rakkasan1]

This reminds me of the tobbaco silliness. Preach to us about how we are not to use it, but don't ban it, just tax the hell out of it. Same deal with gas. We're told we're "addicted to it" ,yet our gubmint collects $41 billion a year in taxes on it. How much do they collect from
"big ethanol" in taxes??