The perils of Ethanol

[BERIGAN]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story...l_boondoggles/1

[mikeweil]

I always thought turning food into gas was perverse considering so many people on this planet die of starvation.

The greatest potential for saving fuel is designing better motors - the technology is there, but the petrol lobby is stronger ...

Same for saving electrical energy etc. - saving has the greatest potential. Standby positions, old light bulbs. I saved some by turning off all standby operated equipment and switching to modern bulbs.

[Jazzmoose]

Ethanol is nothing but welfare for corporate agriculture.

[jazzbo]

As one of my coworkers would say, "Oh sure, just find a stickier band-aid, that'll work!"

[Joe G]

A Pennsylvania farmer was quoted as saying, "Looks like we're going to burn up the last 6 inches of midwest topsoil in our gas tanks."

[MoGrubb]

....Ethanol itself is propped up by hefty subsidies, including a fifty-one-cent-per-gallon tax allowance for refiners. And a study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development found that ethanol subsidies amount to as much as $1.38 per gallon -- about half of ethanol's wholesale market price.

.....

I don't really know the exact facts and don't usually like RS's "selective memory/facts," but, I'll bet a dime to a donut that the refineries have padded their production costs and the illustrious gov have turned a blind eye to it; how else can such a high demand item justify such subsidizing? If true, it's another example of the mob gone legit; of course it's all built into the system, perfectly legal like.

Edited August 2, 2007 by MoGrubb

[Guy Berger]

Ethanol is nothing but welfare for corporate agriculture.

Preface: I don't have the time to read the article until the weekend, so I don't know what it says. I'll try to comment once I read it.

What Moose is saying is largely true for the US. (The conventional wisdom is that ethanol subsidies have held up to a large degree because of the importance of the Iowa Caucuses in securing either party's nomination.)

However, AFAIK, Brazilian ethanol (made from sugar) is much cheaper than corn ethanol. We have very high tariffs on sugar ethanol so it isn't imported.

Guy

edit: One additional comment. (Perhaps this is a point mentioned in the article.) We frequently hear that ethanol is necessary to create "energy independence". In one sense of the term, this is feasible -- in an extreme emergency where there is a real worldwide shortage of energy (and we are willing to strictly enforce restrictions on exports/smuggling), having a homegrown source of energy will give us "independence". However, in all other scenarios, we will never achieve independence -- energy from fossil fuels and energy from ethanol are substitutes, so an increase in the price of one will drive up the price of the other. (Thus, even if we entirely stop importing petroleum, events in the Middle East will still affect US energy prices. In fact, AFAIK only a small fraction of currently imported gasoline (US) comes from the ME.)

Guy

Edited August 3, 2007 by Guy