Posted on 01/05/2010 5:03:06 AM PST by thackney
Fagen Inc. was pretty busy from 2006 to 2008, building 47 ethanol projects across the U.S., bringing in about $2.2 billion in revenue for the family-owned business in Granite Falls, Minn.
"Corn ethanol has been the best thing that has happened to the farmers since the invention of the combine," said 61-year-old Ron Fagen, who grew up in the tiny community of Maynard near Granite Falls. "It gives them another market for their corn."
But the ethanol party's over, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
...
Fagan is actually taking part in a project to build what is expected to be the largest biomass-fueled (i.e. wood scrap) power plant in the U.S. in the coming years for the City of Austin.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.chron.com ...
On one hand, the anti-development crowd whines incessantly about how awful high-fructose corn syrup is, while on the other hand, they complain about ethanol production depleting this crucial food source.
>>>So yes, your mileage per gallon of ethanol would be considerably lower.
10% ethanol fuel give me a lower fuel cost per mile driven. I’ve done the math.
Have you noticed the rising cost of food products produced by this obamanation...
>>>Have you noticed the rising cost of food products produced by this obamanation...
No.
please show your figures and math that produced that results...
“Ethanol does NOT compete with food.”
If that is true, then what pray tell, would the alternative be for the corn that is turned into ethanol if not for food?
Or you saying it is just more corn being raised?
What are your prices for 100% gasoline and 90% gasoline?
More corn is being raised, the distillers dried grain is more efficiently fed to animals than the whole corn was to begin with and, oh by the way, #2 yellow corn isn’t used for human food anyway.
“We make plenty of corn. I’d rather burn that than buy foreign oil, regardless of cost.”
You of the cap-and-tax crowd that we do things regardless of it making economic sense are what is killing this country.
Just talk to the poor farmers in California who cannot farm as their water is denied them to keep alive small creatures who have zero value. Environmentalist will do things “regardless of cost”.
“What are your prices for 100% gasoline and 90% gasoline?”
Also, what would the price for the 90% gasoline be without the tax subsides...
“oh by the way, #2 yellow corn isn’t used for human food anyway.”
That would be news to some that I found on google in 20 seconds.
http://www.allproducts.com/manufacture99/ksvtrading/product3.html
Come up with better facts.
Ethanol blends are always at least 10 cents/gallon less than non-ethanol fuel.
My typical 10% ethanol blend cost per mile driven is 9 to 11 cents. Non ethanol fuels is 13 to 16 cents.
The cost per mile driven is derived by simply dividing the fuel cost by the number of miles driven.
“If that is true, then what pray tell, would the alternative be for the corn that is turned into ethanol if not for food?
Or you saying it is just more corn being raised?”
There are corn byproducts left over from the corn after the starch is turned into alcohol. They make very good animal feed.
I would be all for ethanol if it was not dependent on massive tax subsidies. That’s on top of the normal crop subsidies that are paid out to farmers.
Ag subsidies are destructive, and they misdirect capital and the shape of agriculture.
All ag subsidies should go; they should have gone away 50 years ago.
To Keith in Iowa...must be a big difference in cost to transport the ethanol since that is NOT the difference in cost found in other parts of the country; it is usually the reverse of that.
To Keith in Iowa...must be a big difference in cost to transport the ethanol since that is NOT the difference in cost found in other parts of the country; it is usually the reverse of that.
Im in the energy business.
I am not a cap and trader, nor am I an environmentalist. Read what I wrote again.
I support creating fuel from our own sources with our own two hands and our own labor.
If we did away with subsidies (do you support the 50 yrs of farm subsidies?), ethanol fuel would be cheap as opposed to fossil oil. As fossil oil costs would sky rocket.
Our food is far too cheap in comparison to CPI increases over the last 5 or 6 decades, due largely to subsidies (and farming technology betterments).
Our oil is also far too cheap.
Our economy cannot recover until we get back to economic fundamentalism. Our economy is subsidized with cheap/free money, the same as our food.
I say burn ethanol. Its a product that is competitive in a truly free market; one where we aren’t subsidizing our lives away to big Ag and big Oil interests, the latter with the largest tax breaks of any industry in history, the former with direct payments of our tax dollars.
Once gas hits 5 or 6 bucks, ethanol is very competitive without tax credits.
Don’t try to impose an envirnmentalist moniker on me and try to think your posts through before slapping labels on your fellow freepers.
Our oil is also far too cheap.
Our economy cannot recover until we get back to economic fundamentalism.
LOLOLOL!
"Economic fundamentalism" indeed! You don't care for the fundamental market forces which have resulted in cheaper food and fuel, so which "fundamentalism" were you talking about?
The market is giving you cheap food and cheap fuel, which is to you a Bad Thing, apparently. You arbitrarily declare that both are "too cheap". Because the pathetically inefficient alternatives to petroleum and other fossil fuels cannot compete, it must be that they are "too cheap!"
Yeah, that's the ticket!
Is it possible, in your universe, that solar power, wind power, ethanol production, etc. are too inefficient and too expensive?
The US doesn't import corn from South Africa, but, in any event, "Corn fit for human consumption" is not co-mingled with corn sold as ethanol feedstock.
Maybe 10-12% of the US corn crop is consumed in some form by humans, the vast majority of this is in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, with a minor portion in the form of food such as corn chips, tortillas or canned corn. Almost of of this corn is "white" vs. "yellow" corn. Corn intended to be used as human food in the US is grown on direct contract with the food processor because of quality control, genetic and other concerns.
Subsidizing fuels is simply BS, that includes bio-diesel. If a product can't make it on its own, then that product needs to be dumped, not paid for by the taxpayer in order to keep the company afloat.
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