SHartwell

It's Now 'Official': Ethanol Is a Scam

OK, forget the hype on the deforestation of the world. While it may or may not be true, you don't have to go there to demonstrate corn ethanol is dumb, and hurting America.

A simple energy balance shows that it takes almost as much energy to produce corn ethanol as is in the product. When you produce a gallon of corn ethanol, you use around 0.85 gallons of "ethanol equivalent" energy. So the "gain" from all that work is virtually zero.

Some of the energy use comes from the fuel for the tractors (etc.), and the energy to run the ethanol plant. In theory you could use the ethanol produced to run the tractor and the plant. But the rest comes from the energy to produce fertilizer. And this you can't get (easily or efficiently) from ethanol.

What's the main raw material for fertilizer? Natural gas. And what region is the biggest fertiliaer producer because of their huge natural gas reserves? The Middle East. Yes, there is natural gas in America, but if we divert this to fertilizer production all our home heating bills will jump just like our food prices already have.

So promoting ethanol production is merely promoting America's dependence on Middle Eastern natural gas instead of our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

All with virtually no 'gain' here at home.