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Ethanol Fuel is not so Green
The Oil Drum Forum ^ | February 6, 2008 | Phil Hart

Posted on 02/07/2008 3:33:32 PM PST by JerseyHighlander

Ethanol Fuel is not so Green

The Australian Department of Parliamentary Services has released a research paper on "The economic effects of an ethanol mandate". Published on 22 January 2008, it is available from the Parliamentary Library website.

Paul Syvret, in the Brisbane Courier Mail article Ethanol fuel is not so green, expressed his view on ethanol and summed up the paper by saying:

ETHANOL is not the answer for Australia's future fuel needs.

It is not green, it is not economically viable, and any move to mandate its inclusion in fuel would have enormous repercussions for other sectors of Australian industry.

Here are a few of the highlights from the report:

The research paper was fairly blunt about the competitiveness of ethanol:

How would a mandate work

A mandate increases demand for ethanol above what market forces (supply and demand) would otherwise determine. It generally costs more to produce ethanol than petrol (allowing for the fact that ethanol contains less energy than the same volume of petrol).

In the absence of a subsidy to encourage the use of ethanol, and with a tax regime that is neutral between petrol and ethanol, motorists would prefer to buy petrol rather than fuel ethanol because petrol is cheaper.

A mandate is thus a form of ‘compulsory demand’ because it obliges motorists to buy ethanol even when ethanol is uncompetitive with petrol. Because it generally costs more to produce ethanol than petrol, a mandate would increase the price of fuel in the absence of an ethanol subsidy. The price increase is a redistribution of income from motorists to ethanol producers.

A mandate is, in effect, a subsidy to ethanol producers paid by fuel users.

Read the rest and some excellent commentary here (Pops to new window): http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3578



TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aussielist; australia; corn; ethanol
Looks like a very thorough discrediting of the Ethanol lobbyists talking points and underlying claims from the Australian Government. It's a good thing too, wheat and cattle feed is in no need of a further pricing shocks in Australia.
1 posted on 02/07/2008 3:33:36 PM PST by JerseyHighlander
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To: steelyourfaith; xcamel

GW ping


2 posted on 02/07/2008 3:35:40 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Global warming is to Revelations as the theory of evolution is to Genesis.)
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To: JerseyHighlander

LOL. The Emperor has no clothes.


3 posted on 02/07/2008 3:36:06 PM PST by saganite (Lust type what you what in the “tagline” space)
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To: JerseyHighlander
Another thing that environmentalists and welfare farmers and bureaucrats neglect to tell us:

After you process all of the green stuff that goes into making ethanol, when it comes out the other end it is no longer green!

Imagine how much dye we would need to buy to keep this process green?

Not to mention that we might price a lot of smaller cities out of being able to dye their local rivers, lakes, and kegs green for St. Patrick's Day.

This is truly an abomination!

4 posted on 02/07/2008 3:36:48 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: naturalman1975

Thought this might be of interest to you. If you have a AU ping list maybe post this to it.


5 posted on 02/07/2008 3:37:09 PM PST by JerseyHighlander
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To: JerseyHighlander
Allow me to dismiss this in the same way the pinko echo-Nazis will.

There guys are just paid off by big oil!

6 posted on 02/07/2008 3:38:17 PM PST by chaos_5 (McStain and Suckabee 2008)
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To: JerseyHighlander; OKSooner; honolulugal; Killing Time; Beowulf; Mr. Peabody; RW_Whacko; ...

FReepmail me to get on or off


Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown

New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH

Ping me if you find one I've missed.


'Bout time.. I think about it with every food purchase too... ready for $5/gal Milk??
7 posted on 02/07/2008 3:45:42 PM PST by xcamel (Two-hand-voting now in play - One on lever, other holding nose.)
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To: JerseyHighlander

Ethanol is a dead end.

Except for perhaps getting the opponents to REAL energy self-sufficiency into such a falling-down drunken stupor, that they mistakenly vote to lift the restrictions on energy extraction within our own borders. Like open up the coal reserves in the Escalante country in Utah, tap into the PROVEN and the potential reserves in the Alaskan North Slope and off our own coastal waters, including ANWR, begin extracting fissionable material to fuel the new technology that will be used in the nuclear power plants in this country, applying known and proven technology to dispose of the waste stream in this country (the Plasma trash reduction process), even going back and opening up old landfills to extract the methane that has been accumulating there.

And new sources of energy, most notably Methane Hydrate, would be collected from the base of the continential shelf that surrounds every land mass in the world. In fact, it may be to our advantage to harvest this accumulation of Methane Hydrate, to prevent its eructation under the influence of warming ocean currents reaching the depths where it is known to exist. This removal of a potential hazard, and harnessing it for use in the generation and distribution of energy may be the new frontier in the coming future of general prosperity.

Again, ethanol is not the way to go. It may bring some short-term prosperity to crop production, but at what cost? Reclamation of waste from farming operations, in the form of Thermal Depolymerizaton, may proved to be a better use of resources than continously mining the soil, to produce crops suitable for the production of ethanol.


8 posted on 02/07/2008 4:05:50 PM PST by alloysteel (Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue)
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To: alloysteel
continuously mining the soil

Oh, please. Privately owned farmland in the US is far more fertile and productive today than it has ever been. There is a continuous trend of better yields with fewer energy and chemical inputs and that trend has been accelerating with the advance of plant genetics.

9 posted on 02/07/2008 4:14:15 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: JerseyHighlander
http://www.twincities.com/ci_8197147

Study: Converting land into biofuel crops worsens global warming

10 posted on 02/07/2008 4:37:48 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB (Conservatives are to McCain what Charlie Brown is to Lucy.)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion; Beowulf; Defendingliberty; WL-law; Normandy
Thanks again TAC!


Beam me to Planet Gore !

11 posted on 02/07/2008 4:45:36 PM PST by steelyourfaith
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