Yes, very bad. You only get a net gain of something like 5% of energy compared to what it costs to produce. And without the subsidies, it wouldn’t come close to being economically feasible. Not to mention diverting resources form food production. There are better alternatives like switch grass for instance, but in the long run, trying to provide energy through agriculture makes no sense at all.
We have proof of that right here in the village. When a major fertilizer plant went belly up the powers that be created an ethanol plant in the late 70’s. At first it produced several million gallons of PGA, then mixed it with gasoline. Then profits fell off when the price of corn rose and (it may have been a rumor) when it was found to gum up the injectors in some engines. Whatever, they shut the plant down and threw everyone out of work again. WalMart is now our #1 employer.
I agree. Corn contributes very little energy to the gasoline. It’s main function is to make the mixture burn leaner and produce less smog. If we were really trying to shift to renewable fuels, we’d do better by allowing the growing of hemp (the non-smoking variety) to get hemp-seed oil for clean burning diesel engines.
Yes, very bad. You only get a net gain of something like 5% of energy compared to what it costs to produce. And without the subsidies, it wouldn’t come close to being economically feasible. Not to mention diverting resources form food production. There are better alternatives like switch grass for instance, but in the long run, trying to provide energy through agriculture makes no sense at all.
What’s really stupid is being so reliant on a single type of energy to provide most of our power. One of the reasons we’ve got so many issues of late is because we allowed fossil fuels to be the dominant energy source. Had we been sensible and had a broad mix, with no single source having over 50% of the market, we’d be much better off.
Just to finish my input on corn ethanol, the amount of water used by the process is obscene. Water is an increasingly scarce resource!
And if I’m not mistaken the amount of water needed to produce oil from tar-sands is even worse.
Anyone out there know about that one… would make for an interesting new science thread.
Just to finish my input on corn ethanol, the amount of water used by the process is obscene. Water is an increasingly scarce resource!
And if I’m not mistaken the amount of water needed to produce oil from tar-sands is even worse.
Anyone out there know about that one… would make for an interesting new science thread.
I addressed that HERE. It takes several barrels of H2O per gallon of fuel.
Leo Hickman ~ Guardian.UK, February 15, 2012
Climate sceptics – who gets paid what?
Leaked documents show US thinktank the Heartland Institute has been making payments to experts and scientists to cast doubt on climate science. Here, we profile some of the figures
Anyone out there know about that one… would make for an interesting new science thread.
I addressed that HERE. It takes several barrels of H2O per gallon of fuel.
Oh yea, I remember reading that, now that I looked at it again.
How about doing a nifty ‘expose’
Oh well, how about that DenialGate?
Tomorrow I’m flying back home, yea, my carbon foot print has gone to hell this year… but I haven’t been driving the PU truck for a few months, and it’s job related… what can I say .
I’m curious to check out the headlines in all the papers.
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