ETHANOL is Evil!

[ÜberDoober]

How long will Indycar take their Ethanol money and sponsorship? My guess that by next year, the backlash against biofuels will be widespread and the association of Indycar and Ethanol might not be the best thing for the sport?

What was touted as the next best thing, isn't. It's not better for the environment, suspected as raising food costs (including beer! Ummmm beeer) and generally gaining the rep as not the great salvation it was supposed to be.


Biofuels backlash in US as food costs hit home

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A biofuels backlash has erupted in major ethanol producer the United States, as lawmakers and experts debate the merits of converting food to fuel to support America's age-old love affair with the automobile.

With gasoline at record prices at US pumps, and soaring corn, rice and wheat costs sparking a global food crisis this year with deadly riots in several nations, some have questioned the wisdom of President George W. Bush's call for higher US biofuel mandates that divert US crops, like corn, to fuel production.

"Why are we putting food in our gas tanks instead of our stomachs?" Richard Reinwald, owner of Reinwald's Bakery in Huntington, New York, asked members of Congress at a hearing last week on skyrocketing food costs.

Biofuels are derived from foodstuffs such as corn, soybeans and sugarcane, and plants like switch grass and their cellulosic waste.
Touted just months ago as an answer to spiking gas prices, biofuels are enduring closer scrutiny by US lawmakers alarmed by the high cost of food staples and how they are sapping millions of American households. Source article: external link (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gFrpSyEZtHxPkpMpUJPDP9-_WYrA)


Ormat Should Benefit from the Ethanol Backlash

With people rioting all over the world because of surging food prices, we have started to see a backlash against the cause of the food inflation - ethanol. As global warming alarmists convinced legislators and the media that we need to pour money into ethanol in order to solve the global warming “crisis,” and use it as an alternative to crude oil. So backed by government subsidies, farmers changed their crops over to grow corn, thus creating shortages of other food stuffs and soft-commodities. With smaller supplies, the prices have soared, and now the developing world is taking it on the chin, as citizens are unable to purchase even the most basic food.

What we are starting to see is a backlash against this. The media has started to run stories about the wisdom of ethanol. Better late than never, I guess. The fact that it takes more energy to produce it than it does produce. It also uses a large amount of water in the process, and it's not as if the world is full of spare water. Source article: external link (http://seekingalpha.com/article/72657-ormat-should-benefit-from-the-ethanol-backlash)


Welcome to the Corn Ethanol Backlash
Written by Hank Green

Nothing can break down faster than a technology supported 100% by government, 50% by industry and 10% by reason. Which is why the ethanol industry in America is suddenly looking to be on shaky ground. It seemed like a godsend a couple years ago: Replace foreign oil by helping local farmers and reducing greenhouse emissions! WHERE DO I SIGN!

Politicians loved it, and so subsidies were thrown at producers and ethanol is booming. Unfortunately, it turns out to not be the silver bullet that everyone hoped it would be. And featured this week in three of the four magazines I receive in print form are stories pointing out some of the weaknesses of our current bio-fuels situation. Full article: external link (http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1015/)

:ack2::ack2::ack2:

[LittleAlguy]

Though I did not know about the inefficiency of ethanol until recently, I found it weird that the IndyCar series went to "100%" ethanol in the first place. Even if it were the savior for solving problems with regards to fuel prices and global warming, I didn't see how using near-pure ethanol was of any use for cars out on the road.

In addition to the new package for the series in '10 or '11 (still not sure which), I think it would be great if they opened it up so that any sort of alternative fuel can be used. That would be a nice way to accelerate that effort. Of course, I don't know how viable it would be but it would be something different from being a part of an increasing backlash. That's about the last thing the series needs is for this sort of negative association.

[Cornbread Red]

http://www.carryabigsticker.com/images/ethanol_300.gif (http://www.carryabigsticker.com/images/ethanol_500.gif)

[ÜberDoober]

Anybody catch Emerson Fittipaldi on WindTunnel Sunday night? He's definitely been drinking the ethanol kool-aide.

[gonickygo]

As you can see from my pic and "location" I am from the Midwest... Iowa. Ethanol is huge here... unfortunately. It's the UN all over again... "food for fuel"... and it will come to bite us (or the U.S.) in the ass. It takes $1.25 to produce $1 worth of ethanol, it is driving prices of ANYTHING where corn is used for production thru the roof. Ethanol is subsidized by more tax money than you will ever realize, it's a joke. It is not an efficient form of energy, it costs roughly 3% less per gallon here in Iowa (due to tax subzidies) for the 10% mix, but you lose nearly 6-7% in gas mileage. I don't use the crap in any of my vehicles, b/c it actually costs more money in the long run due to the decreased fuel efficiency. Basically the same holds true for other "biofuels" such as soy based diesel, but again it's not as efficient and costs more to produce than what it sells for.

If every acre/kernel of corn were used to make ethanol, our current production would fall short by several million bushel per year to replace oil based fuels. And then we would have nothing left over to make tortillas, corn syrup, cereals, yada yada yada.


And for the eco-greenies to ponder:

“[S]upport for corn ethanol seems to be ebbing in Congress. As political news goes, this is of the miracle variety, but apparently the market distortions caused by ethanol mandates are finally having an impact... Let’s review: the House energy bill taxes oil to subsidize ethanol, drawing Senate opposition, while the Senate bill forces U.S. consumers to buy more ethanol, drawing House opposition. Seems to us that the two chambers could simply agree that expanding on the already enormous subsidies for ethanol is a costly mistake and go home to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, but we don’t pretend to fully understand the ways of Congress. What we do understand is that opposition to corn-based ethanol from environmentalists has Speaker Nancy Pelosi seeking a rewrite of the Senate’s mandate. As the speaker attempts to fashion a stripped-down bill that can move in both houses, the House’s tax-and-subsidy scheme for ethanol also doesn’t appear to be part of the package. And with good reason. Last month, the National Academy of Sciences reported on the impact of ethanol production on water supplies. A University of Iowa professor chaired the report committee, so Big Corn might have hoped for a home-court advantage. But NAS reported that, ‘in some areas of the country, water resources are already significantly stressed... Increased biofuels production will likely add pressure to the water management challenges the nation already faces as biofuels drive changing agricultural practices, increased corn production, and growth in the number of biorefineries.’ When ethanol is criticized by scientists at Iowa’s two largest state universities, you have to wonder who is for it.” —The Wall Street Journal


Our tax dollars hard @ work... :angry-004:

Sorry for the rambling rant.

[Cornbread Red]

As a owner of lots of carbureted old stuff, It's a bitch to keep things running without having the brass float seats and needles nickel plated. Alky is nasty on brass.

And in my job, I'm driving daily out in the hinterlands of the Valley where cotton and onion fields used to dominate.. Not any more, all the farmers are plantin' corn.

Chip

[ÜberDoober]

Sorry for the rambling rant.

A day late and a dollar short on my reply but your rant is appreciated. Thanks for speaking up. There's so much of this crap foisted upon us by the media and so many people lack the vision to know the beliveable from the bullshit. There's no doubt we need to do something about five buck a gallon gas, but this ain't the answer, for sure. (neither is going to war, but we won't go there right now) :)

[ÜberDoober]

I've seen several variations on the use as specially grown algae for making biofuels. The numbers this guy mentions at the end of the video, if correct or even close, this could completely eliminate using corn.

_ToojK_MJd0

[Cornbread Red]

Yeah, but it won't eliminate politicians from the corn-growing states from blocking anything and everything that tries to replace corn.

Such a waste of good foodstuffs.
Chip

[LittleAlguy]

Fascinating video.