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  • Growth in Corn Harvest Means Good News for Ethanol Producers
    Hey-Where are all those ignorant negative posts which usually follow any article on ethanol?
    Aug 13 11:03 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Ethanol Will Become a Fad Without Government Intervention
    William B: I would just like to point out that the references you gave are outdated and incorrect. (at least you had sources!) The DOE had the Argonne National Laboratory do a comprehensive review of the energy balance issue related to corn ethanol. An abstract with the critical data can be found at:

    www.ncga.com/public_po...

    The conclusion was that it takes 740,000 Btu of all fossil energy to create one million Btu of ethanol. It takes 1,400,000 Btu to obtain one million Btu’s of gasoline from petroleum. Total fossil energy includes the natural gas and coal equivalent of electricity as well as petroleum. It takes only about 1/8 a unit of actual petroleum fuel to create a unit of ethanol. That is primarily in operating the farm machinery and transportation.

    In view of the fact that our primary problem is the import of petroleum this is very favorable. When biodiesel is more readily available, this will get even better.
    May 06 17:30 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Ethanol Will Become a Fad Without Government Intervention
    Seeing all of the ignorant posts-blindly swallowing the disinformation campaign on biofuels is very discouraging. It is inconceivable that anyone would suggest that we pull out 5 billion gallons of ethanol from the market and replace it with additional gasoline from imported petroleum at the same time that oil is passing $120 per barrel with no end in sight. Ethanol is the only game in town for short to intermediate relief.

    Business Week has recently published an article with a few facts that everyone who feels strongly enough to post on the subject should read.

    www.businessweek.com/m...
    May 06 11:03 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • It's Now 'Official': Ethanol Is a Scam
    This article is so sad, yet so typical. The only numbers it offers to make its point is that ADM stock has beat the S&P and a listing of unqualified references. As if a group of journalists, and anti-government ideologues are qualified to call bio-fuels a “scam”. This is in direct contradiction to the amazing progress being made worldwide by the combination of biotechnology and agriculture. Missing are the hundreds of other studies by more technical organization that point out biofuels is the only game in town for short and medium tern results..

    To make it worse there is not even a mention of the favorable results already reached in 2007; i.e. the reduction in oil imports because of the over five billion gallons of ethanol fuel created and the savings in grain subsidies due to a rejuvenated agricultural sector. All the author and his reference offer are imaginary anecdotes in which a fivefold increase in petroleum fuels cost are not mentioned yet the current small amount of biofuels are blamed for everything imaginable. There is no mention of the cost of doing nothing- like the complete destruction of our economy due to a half trillion-import cost of petroleum.

    It is also amazing how many people feel that reading misleading headlines qualifies them to repeat the misinformation. You really have to dig a little behind the journalistic opinions to contribute to an intelligent discussion. I suggest your read “Energy Victory “by Bob Zubrin as a starting point.
    Apr 10 12:58 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Corn Ethanol Can Never Replace Meaningful Quantities of Motor Fuel
    This article is essentially useless because it assumes that the corn market and technology will not change from 2007. It also has other omissions.

    Like everyone who talks fuel versus food he completely ignores the fact that corn conversion to ethanol only affects the carbohydrate portion of the grain and has as 17 lbs of high protein byproduct for each bushel of corn it uses. Large extra amounts of croplands dedicated to biofuels could actually create a protein glut.

    He seems to think that there is not more land to grow crops in the US. The Government has over 39 million acres in set aside where it is paying farmers not to grow crops.

    Ignores the skyrocketing advances in technology that the biotechnology and agricultural sectors are bringing to biofuels

    2007 average bush corn/acre was 155, but those using modern techniques were getting 200. Monsanto is promising over 300 bushels in the future.

    Conversion to alcohol was 2.4 gallons per bushel in the 1980’s but is now averaging 2.9 on it’s way to 3+

    Saab has already built a car that takes advantage of the superior combustion properties of ethanol to get equivalent gas mileage to gasoline.

    Considers the $16.8 billion knocked off our import bill in 2007 as insignificant

    What is behind this seemingly purposeful effort to put down the only game in town that can move us forward? No one has ever said that ethanol from corn will replace all petroleum product-why even discuss the subject? It is a very powerful first step to work out infrastructure issues associated with our unacceptable status.
    Mar 27 13:39 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • The Case Against Ethanol
    This is a case? What about looking at the actual 2007 results instead of imaginary ills with no numerical back up

    In 2007, the ethanol industry alone provided the following benefits to the nation:
    • U.S. Production and use of 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2007 displaced the need for 228.2 million barrels of oil at an estimated value of $16.8 billion with the accompanying benefit to the United States trade balance.
    • The Federal government received 4.6 billion in sales taxes against an expenditure of $3.4 billion in incentives. States received an additional $3.6 billion in taxes
    • The rejuvenated agriculture community allowed the Government to reduce subsidy costs for farm programs by an estimated $8 billion
    • Helped support the creation of 238,541 new jobs, more than 46,000 of which are in the manufacturing sector;
    • Increased the Gross Domestic Product by $47.6 billion
    • increased household incomes by $12.3 billion

    This contrasts with the effects of continuing the existing status that is crippling the US economy through massive imports.

    And what about the tremendous advances occurring because we are using two of the countries basic tecnological strengths? biotechnoloy and agriculture.

    Please read Energy/Victory by Zubrin before you reach post again
    Mar 26 13:26 pm |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article

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