[Brian Allen]

A not-bad look at the massive fraud that is the addition of grossly energy inefficient, $3.00-per-gallon to produce, ethonol, to $0.63 Cents per gallon production cost gasoline.

[rellimpank]

--AMEN--and will the ethanol advocates ever jump on this.

Me--I'll be in the middle of corn country in another few weeks and will carefully observe for any evidence of ethanol or bio-diesel being used in the growing, cultivation, or harvest of corn---

[CedarDave]

There is a whole other issue not considered by any of the economists. That is that in most of the Great Plains states, groundwater is used to grow the crops. That water is being depleted and not replaced. Using water to grow crops to produce vehicle fuel is to me a waste. It may make economical sense (then again it may not), but the water is irreplacable for use by individual farms, communities and for use in other crops. Here are some references:

http://www.kerrcenter.com/publications/ogallala_aquifer.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer

http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gcp/issues/society/ogallala/ogallala.html

http://www.choicesmagazine.org/2003-1/2003-1-04.pdf (Conserving the Ogallala Aquifer: Efficiency, Equity and Moral Motives)

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcsupply/3scisay2.html (Scientists say drought accelerating depletion of Ogallala Aquifer)

Read the first page of the first reference for some statistics. Sobering what depletion of the aquifer will mean for our agriculture.

[pikachu]

The author of this article, Ed Wallace, has a show Saturdays 8AM to 1PM on www.klif.com and a website at insidequotmotive.com.

[silverleaf]

And to this travesty may we add the prospect of damage caused by ethanol to automotive/fuel systems? Boat owners are already starting to discover an unpleasant truth as some fiberglass fuel tanks "dissolve" into sludge when ethanol is introduced. Of course there is no provision to exclude marine fuel from this short sighted special interest group driven government-mandated ethanol additive program.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQK/is_1_11/ai_n16019367

[immigration lady]

what no one sees is that there is a .51 tax on each gallon of ethynol, thanks to the corn lobbyists. the refining cost is unbelievable because of the greedy hands in the pot. If we could make the fuel from sugar cane, well, that would be different but nothing's going to change until our government decides to quit politicizing the problem and starts focusing on how to get this country independent of foreign oil.

[defenderSD]

What a mess--another disgraceful sellout by congress to special interests, at our expense.

[Daytyn71]

Another problem that the Left-Wing Enviroterrorists won't talk about - With the promotion and increased use of alternative fuels, i.e., corn and sugar cane based ethanol, soy bean and palm oils for blended diesel fuels, farmers in South America and elsewhere are clearcutting thousands of acres of pristine forest to meet the demand for these "greener" fuels.

Wouldn't a more sensible and more environmentally friendly solution (for the US) be to drill in ANWAR. So much for saving the Earth.

[Ditto]

Super Hustler to the World.

These are the people that should be investigated. But it won't happen since ADM has nearly every member of Congress in their pocket.

[moehoward]

Good read bump

[ketelone]

Haha lets not forget the HUGE subsidies going to ConAgra for the production of corn syrup, when buying sugar from abroad costs 1/10th the price.

Because the corn syrup industry has successfuly lobbied the powers that be to introduce tarrifs on sugar, everyone loses bigtime on sugar.

[chemicalman]

Delivering ethanol is a problem, also. It scavenges water, so if there's any water in a pipeline, the ethanol isn't any good. So no companies use pipelines to deliver ethanol. All ethanol has to be delivered in tanker trucks or railroad tankers. That type of delivery is expensive.

[CougarGA7]

I think the most interesting thing I've seen on Ethonol was in an article posted here yesterday. In order to make enough ethonol to meet America's current demand for gasoline would require us to uses 71% of our farm land to grow the fuel.

[Abcdefg]

ping for later

[jonrick46]

The only way that ethanol makes sense is when it is made from cellulose. Using food crops for ethanol will drive up the cost of food. Using a plant that has been genetically selected for high cellulose content and rapid growth would be the way to go.

So far, the process of converting cellulose to ethanol needs more development. It will be soon.

[GSlob]

proper "3 act tragedy with ethanol" goes like:
Act 1. Thirst
Act 2. Imbibing
Act 3. Catharsis and Hangover.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Ethanol is just rebranded Super Unleaded, 91 octane, and costs 10 cents more at the pump.

[The Red Zone]

Few if any anti-pollution measures would "survive in a free market." That being said I'm not sure we want to mimic Mexico City.

[rodeocowboy]

There are some discrepancies in this article. I personally heard the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States speak of how well the ethanol conversion has been for Brazil and how they are now energy INDEPENDENT they are and how the United States, one of their stronger allies, should follow suit.