Enemies of the Corn: The Ethanol Scammers Produce a Top Ten Enemies List

Energy Tribune ^ | Jun. 15, 2010 | Robert Bryce

[epithermal]

Last week, Tom Waterman, the editor and publisher of The Ethanol Monitor, published a list of the top ten enemies of ethanol. Here’s the list:

#10: Business Week/Ed Wallace (Bloomberg)

#9: GRIST

#8: “Big Oil”

#7: Grocery Manufacturers Association

#6: David Pimentel

#5: Robert Rapier

#4: Tim Searchinger

#3: Wall Street Journal (editorial board)

#2: California Air Resources Board

#1: Time Magazine (Michael Grunwald)

Of course, Waterman can write whatever he likes, but the fact that the ethanol boosters would produce a list of enemies is indicative of just how paranoid the ethanol scammers are getting. And their nuttiness appears to be rising along with their efforts to vacuum up yet more taxpayer subsidies in the wake of the BP blowout.

[org.whodat]

I would have thought the educated public would be enemy number one. They know when they are getting screwed.

[Red Badger]

1st rule of civilization:

DON’T BURN YOUR FOOD.........................

[Nervous Tick]

>> 1st rule of civilization: DON’T BURN YOUR FOOD

ROFL! I’m stealing that and you can’t stop me!

[Venturer]

It’s much like the first rule for energy Independence. Ban all drilling.

[preacher]

[trad_anglican]

DON’T BURN YOUR FOOD

What makes you think that the corn that's grown today has nutritional value? Unless you consider high fructose corn syrup to be nutritional.

[muir_redwoods]

burning a gallon of oil to produce a gallon of ethanol made from corn on a planet where a third to a half of the people go to bed hungry is a gross obscenity.

[capt. norm]

They have to hide from the fact that fertilizer run-off has killed a large area in the Gulf of Mexico now known as the "Dead Zone".

The fertilizers carried by the Mississippi River causes algae blooms which deplete the oxygen and nothing can live in those waters.

Ethanol production is an environmental disaster.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Corn is used as animal feed to produce meat and dairy. Land that might have been used to grow other grains, such as wheat, rye or oats is now being used to grow corn for ethanol. The policy is insane.

[Cicero]

They’ve used the hippie environmentalists on this issue as their stooges for years. But even those jerks are starting to get the clue. There’s nothing “green” about ethanol. It’s a money-making scam between the politicians and producers.

We had a local gas station that sold ethanol-free gas for use in chain saws and lawn mowers and the like, and I drove over several times to fill up.

No more. They trucked it down from Canada, but the Feds have ordered them to stop doing that. So our chain saws, weed whackers and 2-cycle engines will all start rotting again.

And our local boatyard sent out a letter this year complaining about what it does to outboard engines. Ugly stuff, destructive and useless to anyone but the scammers.

[Moonman62]

The fertilizers carried by the Mississippi River causes algae blooms which deplete the oxygen and nothing can live in those waters.

We should harvest the algae and make fuel out of it.

[trad_anglican]

Corn is used as animal feed to produce meat and dairy.

Another non-healthy use. Cows are much better off - and taste better - when they're grass fed. Plus, they get no more nutrition from the crap we now call corn than we do. They get fat from it, fast, just like we do.

The fact is that we grow way more corn than we need and it has precious little nutritional value. There may be really good arguments against ethanol, but the loss of the food value of the corn is not one of them.

[dalereed]

I’m really disapointed, i’m not on their list!

[dalereed]

“Another non-healthy use. Cows are much better off - and taste better - when they're grass fed. Plus, they get no more nutrition from the crap we now call corn than we do. They get fat from it, fast, just like we do.”

I hate you and all your followers for ruining my beef!!!!

I hope you die from your ruining beef and quickly!!!!!!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The acres used for ethanol production could be used for pasture. No matter how you look at it, ethanol production raises the price and lowers the availability of food.

[woodbutcher1963]

Maybe the Ethanol producers really make all their money on fuel stabilizer and replacement carburators.
FYI, never leave any fuel in 2 cycle engines for more than a month. It dissolves the fuel lines and plugs the carburators.
I just replaced the carburator in my Echo hedge trimmer. The ZAMA distributor in OH said he had shipped over 2000 of my ZAMA carburator so far this year. I now run all my 2 cycle engines dry if they are not to be used for more than a week. I empty the gas back into the ONE gallon can.
I have also gone to mixing it in ONE gallon quantities only.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Remove all govt subsidies from agriculture and this nonsense would end.
Subsidies have greatly distorted American agriculture over the decades.
Ethanol gets subsidized on the corn production end, and then the ethanol is exempted from most of the tax that a gallon of gasoline pays at the pump.
It is a sham that can't stand on it's own.

[Balding_Eagle]

DON’T BURN YOUR FOOD.........................

What should be done with the mountains, and mountains, and moutains of surplus food and food stuffs?

See my tagline, it's more true this year than any.

[Balding_Eagle]

The fact is that we grow way more corn than we need and it has precious little nutritional value.

LOL!

Statements of an idiot. You couldn't support that nonsense even if your very life depended on it.