Being that energy independence is one of the top three most important issues facing the nation, ethanol is a step in the right direction.
Nuke power! Clean and plentiful. Just need to make it more practical.
You are joking, right? I did not see a sarcasm tag, so I have to ask.
Depending on who you believe, ethanol saves either an insignificant amount of energy or none at all. The energy required to produce and transport ethanol is roughly equivalent to the energy produced - no savings - just a big fat payday for ADM and corn belt farmers. Who in turn fatten the campaign war chests of our elected officials.
you can’t really do that by having the govt specifically target ethanol when the market could come up with real alternatives on its own
Too many studies say that ethanol made from corn takes nearly as much energy to produce as it provides. Add in the costs of transportation, marketing, etc., and you've not gained anything.
The future is not corn ethanol, anyway. The brazilians don't use corn.
The future for America is coal and probably nuke.
ethanol is a step in the right direction?
YEAH, IF YOUR INTENT IS TO GO OVER A CLIFF!................
“Being that energy independence is one of the top three most important issues facing the nation, ethanol is a step in the right direction.”
Not really, it requires subsidies, is land and food source intensive and barely breaks even on net energy production.
Nuclear energy, on the other hand, would immediately substitute for oil and coal usage.
Ethanol has never been about energy independence. It has always been about tax monies changing hands.
Corn based ethanol is too expensive to compete, corn is too precious to burn and it never really changed our net energy importation.
If you really want to be energy independent, you need to increase production and decrease demand. We have a 180,000,000,000 gallon yearly shortfall in domestic oil production.
Oil companies will turn the screws on the thumbs of those in DC not to encourage alternative fuels....there are also a lot of energy saving patents not allowed to be used too because of 'market concerns'.
When you look at our technology and the corporate forces being applied, no real change will come for a while.
Ethanol burns 20% faster than gas,why would any sane person use it?.
I don’t see any advantage to the corn whiskey additive. In theis area we are forced to use gasoline that’s 10% corn whiskey. My gas mileage also dropped 10%. What’s the point?
ANWR would be a better step.
Personally, I think ethanol was a corny idea in the first place. Actually, the first step to enenrgy independence is to tap our our own petroleum and natural gas resouces. They abound and there is no reason not to do it. Let the market place take care of the rest. It works every time.