Posted on 09/30/2008 12:57:05 PM PDT by o2bfree
Bah, Idiots Out Walking Around.
The ethanol scammeroo has increased corn prices, so the Iowans think they love it. The only .....OL that makes sense as a motor fuel as an energy source is METHANol, which can be made from low-grade coal, wood chips, that’s too dirty to burn in powerplants.
Amen.
They should use sugar for making fuel, not corn.
And the Gov't should not be subsidizing it.
there have been a number of studies - at best it yields a tiny bit more energy than oil inputs, but others report parity or a net loss. Without subsidies the whole thing would dry up and blow away fast.
Hydrogen(28%), methanol(50%), and ethanol(67%) as transportation fuels are all a complete waste of resources - and BILLIONS of dollars. For transportation fuel, volume energy density - not weight - is the key measurement.
Volume energy densities of these substitutes range from piddling to paltry compared to hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) and none of them is a reasonable alternative to the hydrocarbon fuel it purports to replace. All of them have been force-fit into some niche “demonstration” pproject, but the massive subsidies, forced accommodations (flex-fuel design, and lower MPG) and collateral damage (how does your lawnmower engine, tank, and fuel lines like “gasahol”?) present clear evidence of unsuitability.
Government meddling forced us to use MTBE “to save the environment” - UNTIL the Government banned MTBE due to its “environmental damage!” So the Government switched to mandatory ethanol - and then they “doubled down” by DOUBLING the percentage of ethanol that we would be REQUIRED to use in our vehicles. The result has been a WORLD WIDE disruption of food production, with results appearing here as dramatic price increases, but in other parts of the world as shortages, famine, starvation, and death.
Ethanol is as wrong as hydrogen, but between Government “investment” of tax dollars and forcing the car companies to modify their cars to tolerate adulterated and exotic fuels, we have wasted far more on ethanol.
Decades - and probably, centuries - from now, I believe that our transportation “fuel of the future” will be almost identical to the transportation fuels of today. However, the source will change. Today’s crude petroleum comes from KEROGENS - ancient organic matter - primarily algae - buried deep in the Earth, modified by subterranean heat and pressure into crude oil that we find, extract, refine, distribute, and use.
Tomorrow, I believe that we will shorten that process by growing “optimized” algae in bioreactors using CO2, sunlight, and sea or sewage water; extracting the “green crude oil” from the algae; and sending it to the same refineries that we use today. Productivity should exceed land-based agriculture by at least an order of magnitude, with the limiting factor being available sunlight.
Unfortunately, the Government still has its collective head in the same dark, smelly, stupid place, and is focused almost ENTIRELY on ethanol for the future. Their official Biomass Program Multi-Year Program Plan:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/biomass_program_mypp.pdf
shows this blindness in excruciating detail. They do mention other projects, but there is no purposeful plan for development and exploitation.
What we need is private investment, with the real and stark possibilities of roaring success and abject failure that the marketplace provides. And guards at the door, to keep the Government OUT OF THE WAY!
Subsidies like on tobacco here in NC just encouraged farmers not to put the land to use growing something that would sell and benefit themselves and others.
Start thinking about the country as a whole, instead of regions or states thinking about themselves.
>>>Screw Iowa and the corn they rode in on!!!!
Screw you too pal. How ‘bout we Iowans quit producing agricultural products...you can eat your shorts.
I’m in Iowa and McCain’s stance on ethanol was one of the few things I liked about him during primary season. It’s a scam, and just because our state benefits from it doesn’t make it right.
Um...what does this have to do with Ohio?
Ethanol subsidies should be stopped along will all other agricultural subsidies.
**The result has been a WORLD WIDE disruption of food production, with results appearing here as dramatic price increases, but in other parts of the world as shortages, famine, starvation, and death.**
The United States increased food exports last year with the exception of soybeans.
Food disruption and world wide price increases has been more the result of colder than normal weather in southeast Asia and elsewhere and the rise in ALL worldwide commodities prices due to both the low dollar and the effect of high oil prices on production and transportation costs.
What ethanol costs effect the most is domestic meat prices with beef cost per pound rises almost dollar per dollar with the rise in corn prices. Roughly Pork cost per pound will increase about half the cost of beef at around 50 cents per dollar rise in corn price. Chicken will be around half that at increasing 25 cents per dollar rise in corn price.
I won’t even get into the issue of subsidies but I think it is a stupid move to use FOOD for fuel.
When in area: Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, then hop over to Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada, or fly up to Michigan and Ohio.
And... Mr. McCain, Mr. Danforth! Get the documentation and get the word out about Obama's neo-Marxist co-conspirators. Ask Rudy Giuliani to help you. He knows something about that kind of thing.
Wasn’t it Fidel Castro that said converting food stocks to fuel is immoral?
FWIW, I used E10 exclusively until gasoline went above $3/gallon and the break for E10 stayed at 10¢/gallon. I figure it's enough that I'm subsidizing it through my taxes; I see no need to be subsidizing it at the pump, too. The ONLY good thing about Chet Culver's winning is Jim Nussle didn't get a chance to push for his statewide blend-it-all-with-ethanol mandate.
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