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Message to OPEC, screw us on oil prices and we’ll burn your food!
That's OK since auto fuel prices have dropped significantly...Wait! Fuel prices are still going up. What are they doing with all of the corn and soybeans? Someone must be getting fat on tortillas and tofu.
Since nobody studies science any more, especially the MSM and the politicians, some basic concepts escape people in this debate.
The bottom line is this:
Until you develop a substance or fuel that will take up as little space as a suitcase, will propel 3000 pounds of metal and people 300 miles at 65 MPH, can be stored safely for a very long time, and can be replenished in several minutes at facilities all over the world, even the remotest corners, nothing will displace the gasoline engine-driven car.
You can dream all you want about your battery cars and fuel cells, but the old-fashioned gasoline powered car will be around a long, long time.
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1 energy unit of fossil fuel is consumed in producing 1.35 energy units of corn-ethanol.
As I point out on as many of these threads as possible: the price of food is going up because the price of diesel fuel is going up.
The ethanol market for corn is a side-issue, and has little carry-through into other markets aside from possibly eggs.
The diesel fuel issue, however, cannot be underestimated, but it is consistently ignored by these “analysts” that figure they know something about the ag sector. Since 2001, the price of off-road diesel has more than tripled. The US Farmer uses about 8% of all diesel fuel in the US consumption. Then there’s trucking costs that get added onto the farm inputs (fertilizer, seed, equipment shipping, etc) and onto shipping harvested crops. Wha-la: food inflation.
When you went to grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, you probably got there by the grace of gasoline.
The turkey got there by the grace of diesel fuel.
This is its intent. Raise the price of everything via higher gasoline costs, also raise the cost of food and fuel, then invoke the anti-inflation god via the familiar "excluding volatile food and energy prices" chant, and abra cadabra!: a higher proportion of actual inflation is waved away than would have been.
Corn is no longer seriously considered as a source to make ethanol for fuel. They are considering waste biomass and grasses, however my analysis was that this is not practical at the scale needed and will not be competitive with the use of oil sands or shale. Initially I was the minor opinion, but in the past year the majority of decision makers where I work have adopted my view.
A little side note on this subject. When considering the prices of your food......The price of the beef and other meats will rise dramatically. Hay to feed these animals is going out of site. The result is higher prices for the meat. Hay farmers are planting corn instead of hay. The price of hay in many areas has doubled. In some instances, $20.00 a bale. A horse eats 1 bale a week.
No.
No. Next topic.
No, it won’t catch up with the hype. It didn’t in the 70’s either when we thought corn-based ethanol was a good idea.
Now, you just pay double for a box of corn flakes, and double again for gas.
But, there is absolutely NO inflation to speak of. Trust me on that.