Their reply:
Dear Mr. Hackney,
I forwarded your question on to Dr. Michael Wang at Argonne National Laboratory, who conducted the research supporting the information in the brochure at http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/program/ethanol_brochure_color.pdf. Here is his response:
"The answer is that energy balance is based on fossil energy input vs.the energy in fuel output.
The chart in the brochure has total energy input, fossil energy input,and petroleum energy input. The purpose was to show the arbitrary natureof energy balance calculation."
I hope this answers your question. Thank you for your interest.
Suzanne Williams, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Program web team
“The purpose was to show the arbitrary nature of energy balance calculation.”
I’m kinda lost as to which things we are looking, so, that aside —
If that was the purpose of the brochure, why wasn’t it clear that that was the purpose? Why would you put something like that in a brochure for a specific purpose and then fail to explain that purpose?
Anyway, what’s the bottom line? Does it make sense to use corn for biofuel based on energy input vs. energy output, or not?
And also, understanding that corn used for fuel is not the same as that used for food, do the benefits of using land to raise fuel corn outweigh the benefits of using food corn for food? Or is it just an economic decision to made by farmers? If so, is it a decision based on market prices or do subsidies queer the market?