Shenandoah

The Mixed Blessings of $100 Oil

Good, thoughtul article. It is amazing how the energy gods manage to keep us just short of serious action.

VeraSun Energy Corporation Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

The biofuels industry is one area where we are currently addressing the problem of excessive importation of petroleum. That explains the massive disinformation campaign again it. One quote from this transcript is informative but completely suppressed by the by the MSM and bought out politicians..

“You can see that at the end of last year, our ethanol industry was producing more fuel than five of the eight OPEC countries including Iraq. The industry is currently producing at an annual rate of about 9.4 billion gallons, which makes it larger than Nigeria and Venezuela.”

Thank God there is still some competitive fight left in America.

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?

Majority of Americans Support Ethanol

Tim

Don't you wonder where all these people with wild ignorant statements with nothing to back them up come from? Are they being generated by some hacker?

Biofuels Policies: Costly, Ineffective, Inflationary

So OECD thinks we would be better off buying more Saudi oil?

Anyone with any depth of knowledge knows this report is non-thinking think tank output.

We are the leaders in biotech and agriculture-lets not be talked out of that position.

Yes, U.S. Gas Use Dropped; But So Did Production

What would the total domestic fuel production look like if you overlayed ethanol on the crude oil curve?

Governments Shouldn't Meddle in Oil

Yes, the oil companies have done such a good job on managing the situation we should leave it to them. NOT!!

Food and Fuel: Brazil Breaks New Records

Ever notice that any article that has real numbers points strongly toward biofuels as a viable contributor as a solution to the petroleum problem? By comparison, the anti-biofuels articles and posters are always rants against fantasy issues with no numerical backup.

I see McCain has come out against the ethanol mandate. That says a lot about his analytical capabilites and ability to dig for facts.

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William B: I would just like to point out that the references you gave are outdated and incorrect.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.

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...

VeraSun Energy and the Ethanol Debate

At last a lead contribution on ethanol and biofuels by someone who had done the research and understands the problem.

The critical national requirement is to replace imported petroleum with a domestic product. It takes only about 1/8 gallon of petroleum product to produce one gallon of ethanol from corn. This is all in transportation and running farm equipment. As more biofuels are used this can be improved even further. The statement that it takes 1.5 gallons of oil to make a gallon of ethanol is completely erroneous.

The total fossil fuel use includes natural gas and the coal equivalent in electricity as well as the petroleum used. That is the source for the still favorable .74 Btu/unit for ethanol and 1.23 Btu/unit for gasoline. As the author points out, however this is not nearly as important as the large amount of petroleum product replaced.

All this is very straightforward from the technical perspective but apparently very confusing to the main steam media.

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.

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.

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

Some Thoughts on Ethanol's Success

The massive disinformation campaign by the global oil industry can not overcome one fact: Ethanol will displace 7.9 billion barrels of middle east oil in 2007 with the accompanying reduction in our import bill