EPA's Ethanol Ruling To Keep Food Costs High

I hope the whole US reads this comment....
Corn kills the earth, literally. Massive amounts of farmed corn deteriorates the soil to the point where it needs many years to heal itself if possible.
We are suddenly cultivating higher amounts of corn to feed an energy source that has proven inefficient. If we don't stop this growth we might repeat the mistakes of the Aztecs and Mayans who made their land into wastelands because of the excessive need of corn.
Instead of investing into a technology that only seems to supply the present needs, lets invest more into energy sources that will carry us out into the future and that my friends is electricity.
Also, lets start forgetting about fossil fuel faster because either way it will soon run out and we will have to think of a rapid solution to power our technological lives.

I hate corn ethanol because cellulosic ethanol can be produced much more efficiently than corn ethanol in terms of energy out vs. energy in and net carbon footprint. Clearly corn ethanol is one big political boondoggle. To be fair to corn ethanol there is the benefit that animal feed is a huge byproduct of the process. Anyway, corn ethanol will soon be history as various new microbial processes for biofuels come on stream including at least one that actually removes CO2 from the atmosphere.

I KNOW! When I first heard of cellulosic(sp) ethanol, I thought the future has finally arrived. Recycling wastes such as used tires, wood scraps, and animal feces obviously saves our planet more than by the extra pollution ethanol creates.
GM did it right...they partnered with two cellulosic ethanol company before others did, and I'm very proud of them.

Does anyone think that these engineers considered the law of supply and demand when they were racking their brains for a new form of energy? I can see it now, "Hey guys, why don't we use corn and soy beans to make a fuel that gets poorer mileage than the current option?" Amazingly, they agreed. So they moseyed on out into the mid-west, told the farmers if you plant a lot, we'll pay you a lot. The farmers grinned a nice 5 toothed smile and said, "Boy howdy, I sure do like the sound of that!"

These engineers had a great thing going, up until they decided to use an in demand commodity! At the time, something around 68% of the supply was being used for consumption and the other was delegated to animal feed and other miscellaneous uses.

Those numbers don't leave a lot of room for other stuff, huh? NOPE! So they decided to go to soy beans...nice. Soy isn't used for alternative forms of food, chemical additives, house hold necessities(soap, linen, etc.)Oh wait, it is!

Imagine yourself, freshman year, sitting in the 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' economics class led by Ben Stein. Bored to tears and incapable of comprehending any words that float from the professor's mouth. One of those topics that these engineers, and apparently the EPA, missed was the lecture on supply and demand!

It's a rather simple idea, illustrated by a nice graph with two opposing lines. As demand goes up, supply goes down and the price goes up.

Well, what if you add more demand to a commodity already in demand? You might ask. That just accelerates this idea, raising food costs and inspiring inflation! Damn it! When I read about E85 years ago in car and driver, I know we were up a river without a paddle. Everyone was so psyched about "breaking the addiction to oil", they didn't consider the long term implications.

The only progress that the United States has achieved from developing E85 is that they know we can run cars on something other than petroleum. That's fantastic, I'm always a fan of running cars on something other than gas, but we also need to be realistic. I'm sure there are a litany of resources which can be refined into a combustible substance. Why this?!

If it were up to me, we would cut ethanol production entirely until we find a better raw source. Corn and soy beans are not the answer. Costs for farmers are tipple what they were a few years ago and there isn't a chance in hell that they're going to cover the costs themselves. This, among other things, is helping to fuel inflation and further cripple our economy.

*oil is about to go under $116, which is nice to see*

The problem is not the engineers. It's the fact that these incredibly massive corn companies like ADM and Cargill have politicians in their pockets.

In return for all the money, perks, etc. the companies get to write laws. And they OBVIOUSLY wrote this stupid corn ethanol law.

Don't forget the subsidies they get to offset the poor efficiency of the ethanol process. It takes more energy to make than you get out of it. Eliminate the subsidies, and the free market will price ethanol too high for general use.

Well there's subsidies all around man. Everyone has their hand in. Farmers, NON-farmers who are paid NOT to grow corn, and giant corn corporations have their hands out too.

Sarcastic1, it's just under $115 as I write this. I don't play with oil futures but I am amazed that Putin's moves in Georgia today did not have an adverse effect on the market. As for the supply and demand that you mention, I am convinced that, if we replace just 10% of the energy we currently get from oil with "alternative energy", the demand for oil will drop sufficiently to reduce oil price by 20 or 30%.

New offshore drilling cannot produce immediate results and I believe that Chevron is already ahead of the pack with Atlantic offshore projects in Canada after settling certain royalty issues there earlier this year.

We will eventually have to drill more offshore wells and tap the Arctic as well but that all takes many many years to get going by which time we will be using many alternative energies including the production of cellulosic alcohol and various biofuels using new microbial processes.

In the meantime people are opting for more fuel-efficient vehicles which are generally smaller and lighter but these smaller vehicles are starting to get very comfy with advanced suspension systems and well-packaged roomy interiors.

Saving the air...by destroying the land. Nice.


And this guy became the head of the EPA. Might as well have Paris Hilton take the job. I'm pretty sure she couldn't mess it up any worse than it is already.

Nothing like using a system that uses more energy than it makes, is less energy rich, and effects global food prices for everything. Rack up another success for government, you just cant make this stuff up.

Kudos to 009, great story.
T

Great (and accurate) comments, folks.

Geez...that's two good topics posted on autospies in a four day span (the Obama hybrid plan being the other)...could this be a new direction for the spies?!?!

This is a good example of letting crooked politicians control something that they know nothing about! Scientists should be making these decisions based on science not ignorance! Aren't we living in a democracy? Why do we all get screwed by all these crooked money people.

corn ethanol is a mistake. cellulose ftw.