Posted on 02/12/2009 5:13:15 PM PST by Kaslin
Edited on 02/12/2009 7:26:30 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Energy: A fortune was spent on ethanol development last year when gas prices were in the stratosphere. Now a lesson has been learned: Worshiping the false god of ethanol carries a high price.
As the New York Times reported this week, ethanol, "just recently a savior" as the Times headline put it, has been found sorely lacking in its much-touted miraculous powers to heal America's energy woes.
Corn ethanol plants "are shutting down virtually every week." An alternative energy trade group says at least 10 of the nation's 150 ethanol firms have closed some 24 plants in three months, with a dozen other companies in distress.
Little more than a year after the Democratic Congress passed legislation launching a massive national effort to convert farm crops and agricultural wastes into auto fuel, it's become clear that the production deadlines aimed at greenifying your local gas station can't and won't be met.
The many investors who were tripping all over themselves to finance biofuel plants last year are finding that going green can mean losing lots of green.
Congress had a grand plan: It would double corn ethanol use by 2015. And by 2022, 21 billion gallons of ethanol and biofuels would be made from formerly useless stuff, ranging from corn stubble to switchgrass to municipal waste.
But reality has hit like a ton of corn stalks. The inescapable facts are that corn prices remain at a market-set high, and converting the corn alternative cellulose into liquid fuel is prohibitively expensive.
The problem with ethanol is that it is forced on people, mandated by government and subsidized by government using our tax dollars to foist this engine-destroying crap on us. further gas with ethanol is more damaging and polluting to groundwater than straight 100% gasoline. Nobody would use it if they had their choice except 1-2% of people or businesses.
That is not the free market. If the free market were allowed to work, this bad idea would fail.
Now maybe ethanol might find another purpose for it, but as for being a vehicle fuel, it sucks. It kills gas mileage, it makes engines run hotter, it kills two-stroke engines, and it is corrosive being an alcohol. It is dirtier than groundwater and it decreases fuel efficiency so you still have to burn more fuel to go the same amount of miles you could go on regular 100% gas.
You will not convince me ever of the benefits of ethanol as a gas fuel additive or replacement.
I meant to say gas with ethanol pollutes groundwater more than 100% gas does.
It is so nice to be validated. Last year I took a BEATING here at FR for telling people the idea of ethanol being our savior was a pipedream.
BTTT
Same here, everytime I leave my driveway it smells like I backed up over a wino.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.