Ethanol: The Big Energy Hoax
Walter Williams has a great article at Townhall.com on the energy fraud that's being sold as the solution to imported Middle-Eastern oil.
Ethanol sounds good at first - a renewable source of energy that we grow plenty of here in the US. However, what you don't hear in the media is that it's heavily subsidized by Congress - about $1.05 to $1.38/gallon. The increased demand for corn to transform into ethanol is one reason why food prices have gone up (not to mention the Fed's juicing of the money supply).
Here's some key information from Williams' column:
"Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must be shipped by truck, rail car or barge. These shipping methods are far more expensive than pipelines.
"Ethanol is 20 to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline, making it more expensive per highway mile. It takes 450 pounds of corn to produce the ethanol to fill one SUV tank. That's enough corn to feed one person for a year. Plus, it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel -- oil and natural gas -- to produce one gallon of ethanol. After all, corn must be grown, fertilized, harvested and trucked to ethanol producers -- all of which are fuel-using activities. And, it takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. On top of all this, if our total annual corn output were put to ethanol production, it would reduce gasoline consumption by 10 or 12 percent."
If this is the case, then why has ethanol been touted as America's energy solution? With anything that happens in Washington DC, always follow the money. The answer? Big Agra companies such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who's the largest producer of ethanol in the US. Coincidentally, they're a big campaign contributor.
I grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas, and it's nice to see corn farmers get more money for their crop. But the way it's being done won't help our dependence on foreign oil, and could set America up for food shortages in the next several years.
This seemed almost impossible over the past few decades, but because of a Biblical-type drought in the Great Plains states and increased foreign demand, this could be a likely scenario. Congress should quit subsidizing ethanol, and let free-market alternatives fill in this energy gap. But in an election year, where corporations and households want guns and butter, I doubt it'll happen.
And it won't until we hit a crisis stage stage, where this action becomes politically and economically feasible.
Ethanol sounds good at first - a renewable source of energy that we grow plenty of here in the US. However, what you don't hear in the media is that it's heavily subsidized by Congress - about $1.05 to $1.38/gallon. The increased demand for corn to transform into ethanol is one reason why food prices have gone up (not to mention the Fed's juicing of the money supply).
Here's some key information from Williams' column:
"Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must be shipped by truck, rail car or barge. These shipping methods are far more expensive than pipelines.
"Ethanol is 20 to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline, making it more expensive per highway mile. It takes 450 pounds of corn to produce the ethanol to fill one SUV tank. That's enough corn to feed one person for a year. Plus, it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel -- oil and natural gas -- to produce one gallon of ethanol. After all, corn must be grown, fertilized, harvested and trucked to ethanol producers -- all of which are fuel-using activities. And, it takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. On top of all this, if our total annual corn output were put to ethanol production, it would reduce gasoline consumption by 10 or 12 percent."
If this is the case, then why has ethanol been touted as America's energy solution? With anything that happens in Washington DC, always follow the money. The answer? Big Agra companies such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who's the largest producer of ethanol in the US. Coincidentally, they're a big campaign contributor.
I grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas, and it's nice to see corn farmers get more money for their crop. But the way it's being done won't help our dependence on foreign oil, and could set America up for food shortages in the next several years.
This seemed almost impossible over the past few decades, but because of a Biblical-type drought in the Great Plains states and increased foreign demand, this could be a likely scenario. Congress should quit subsidizing ethanol, and let free-market alternatives fill in this energy gap. But in an election year, where corporations and households want guns and butter, I doubt it'll happen.
And it won't until we hit a crisis stage stage, where this action becomes politically and economically feasible.
posted by Brian Ochsner | 5:29 PM
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