Posted on 02/28/2008 7:51:21 AM PST by rb22982
The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Cargill announces it's scrapping plans for a $200 million ethanol plant near Topeka, Kan. A judge approves the bankruptcy sale of an unfinished ethanol plant in Canton, Ill.. And that was just Tuesday.
Indeed, plans for as many as 50 new ethanol plants have been shelved in recent months, as Wall Street pulls back from the sector, says Paul Ho, a Credit Suisse investment banker specializing in alternative energy. Financing for new ethanol plants, Ho says, "has been shut down."
How can the ethanol industry be slumping only two months after Congress passed an energy bill most experts consider a biofuels boon? The answer is runaway corn prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Someone famous — I can’t remember who — was asked why economics was called “the dismal science.” His reply: “Because nobody listens.”
The ethanol boom was a stupid move.
The ethanol bust was inevitable.
How much wheat production will we fall short this year due to farmers electing to plant corn instead?
When the idiots are voted out, i.e. never.
Heard Brit Hume explain yesterday that you can’t put out an ethanol fire the same way you put out a gasoline fire. More expense and training for fire departments. Aren’t we lucky to have liberals telling us what to do?
SOMEBODY SHOULD TELL THIS JACKASS GOVERNOR IN MINNESOTA:
Pawlenty pumps ethanol
by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio
September 26, 2005
Governor Tim Pawlenty addresses the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition in St Paul. (MPR photo/Laura McCallum)
Governor Pawlenty is challenging other states to boost their ethanol consumption. He told a meeting of the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition that the corn-based fuel will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. The group consists of 31 states and five countries that support ethanol. But unlike Minnesota, few of them mandate ethanol use.
St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota was the first state to require that all gasoline sold in the state contain 10-percent ethanol. Montana and Hawaii have passed similar laws, although they haven’t gone into effect yet. This year, Pawlenty pushed for doubling Minnesota’s ethanol mandate to 20-percent by the year 2013. He says the events of the last few months have made it clear that the nation must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
“I think seeing Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, instability in the Middle East and $3 or $4 gas has hopefully shocked us all to say, “Hey, we gotta do something and do it better than we have in the past,” says Pawlenty.
Pawlenty challenged all states to achieve 10-percent ethanol use by the year 2010. He says ethanol can benefit states that aren’t corn-producers, since ethanol can be made out of sugar, other grains and even garbage. He also defended ethanol subsidies, which critics have questioned.
Pawlenty”Every other fuel is subsidized too,” he says. “This notion that ethanol is subsidized and somehow it’s therefore tainted is ridiculous, because we subsidize oil like crazy! Look at the federal tax code and the incentives we give to oil exploration and production and refining.”
Pawlenty says ethanol has the added benefit of creating jobs in rural America. He says only people on the far margins of the political spectrum oppose ethanol.
Global cooling got you down? Drink the ethanol ...
Smart money has already headed for the exits.
When in human history have we used food for fuel and survived? This is all madness. Oops, gotta go and fill the old tank....
I found this quote from an ethanol producers site. Isn’t CO2 said to be responsible for global warming?
“From the Ethanol manufacturing process MEP will produce approximately 24,553,571.43 Lbs of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as a by product, which we plan to vent to atmosphere each year until a viable market for capturing and compressing the CO2 is created.
We hope to have a market for this soon. If you have a USE for the CO2 please contact us.”
Pawlenty perhaps doesn't know about the gigantic taxes on petrol products that make up the bulk of its price. Or maybe, just maybe he is some kind of shill.
ADM’s Cedar Rapids plant has fluidized bed boilers that can accept high sulfur Illinois coal. I estimate their fuel price is less than $3.50 MM/BTUs which is nearly 1/3 the price of gas.
At least this is a potential solution to the obesity crisis going on in US.
From the beginning of the world until about the Second World War.
This is the outcome of government meddling in free markets. This is the result of politicians picking up on popular contemporary themes and offering “big government” solutions.
Those responsible will get away with it without a black eye. Seldom are the politicians behind such stupidity, the bureaucrats pushing and running the show held accountable. They reap in the political capital of being “green” or whatever else but then slip out from under the hammer when it comes down and the consequences are noticed. No different anywhere else. Germany years past had “Der Gruene Punkt,” a massive recycling program which was an utter failure and cost the tax payer billions, but it sounded very good and got some politicians elected.
“From the beginning of the world until about the Second World War.”
Care to elaborate? If you are referring to lifestock feed, try again.
Thanks! That’s amazing to me!
When Wall Street starts discounting and shredding the bs of Mythanol, its days as an investment and viable product will soon be history.
Put some ice on the Mythanol lumps and bruises and walk away.
Horses were a primary means of transporation. Traditionally, about 1/3 of agricultural production was applied to feeding horses.
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