August 04, 2007
QotD: Ethanol is not the answer
Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption — yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.
So why bother? Because the whole point of corn ethanol is not to solve America's energy crisis, but to generate one of the great political boondoggles of our time. Corn is already the most subsidized crop in America, raking in a total of $51 billion in federal handouts between 1995 and 2005 — twice as much as wheat subsidies and four times as much as soybeans. Ethanol itself is propped up by hefty subsidies, including a fifty-one-cent-per-gallon tax allowance for refiners. And a study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development found that ethanol subsidies amount to as much as $1.38 per gallon — about half of ethanol's wholesale market price.
Jeff Goodell, "Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles", Rolling Stone, 2007-07-24
Posted by Nicholas at August 4, 2007 12:04 AM
What's the point about talking about the corn-ethanol hoax. The job on hand is to do something about.
May I be candid and particular about the U.S. ethanol policy? Most average Americans that are directly effected by corn-based ethanol have little or no understanding of the $ .51 cents per gallon paid from their tax dollars to produce corn ethanol. Most voters are unaware that corn ethanol raises food prices, yields very little energy in return for much expense and effort, and that cane ethanol comes with a remarkable 8 to 1 energy dividend and attending environmental benefits.
Add to the above the outrageous $ .54 cents a gallon ethanol import duty on more efficient cane-based ethanol and you have the makings of MILLIONS of inflamed and angry public if voters only knew the idiocy of U.S. energ policy where domestic and foreign ethanol is involved.
YOU SIMPLY HAVE TOI GET TO THE PUBLIC WITH KNOWLEDGE OF OTHER ALTERNATIVE ETHANOLS. We know how to get to the public. WWW.JOINFOIL.ORG
What's the point about talking about the corn-ethanol hoax. The job on hand is to do something about.
May I be candid and particular about the U.S. ethanol policy? Most average Americans that are directly effected by corn-based ethanol have little or no understanding of the $ .51 cents per gallon paid from their tax dollars to produce corn ethanol. Most voters are unaware that corn ethanol raises food prices, yields very little energy in return for much expense and effort, and that cane ethanol comes with a remarkable 8 to 1 energy dividend and attending environmental benefits.
Add to the above the outrageous $ .54 cents a gallon ethanol import duty on more efficient cane-based ethanol and you have the makings of MILLIONS of inflamed and angry public if voters only knew the idiocy of U.S. energ policy where domestic and foreign ethanol is involved.
YOU SIMPLY HAVE TOI GET TO THE PUBLIC WITH KNOWLEDGE OF OTHER ALTERNATIVE ETHANOLS. We know how to get to the public. WWW.JOINFOIL.ORG
