Ethanol and alternative fuels....?

Question

I just would like to get everyone's take on this and let you know how production of Ethanol has affected my life directly. I am a beef producer and the cost to feed my cattle this winter will more than double. Food prices are through the roof. While it would be great to invest in alternative fuels I have come to the conclusion that they are too expensive to produce and the result will be higher fuel prices over the next 50 years that it takes to produce them. I feel like our entire economic structure will have to be torn down and we will move next to poverty through the implementation of these. I do not neccassarily believe in man made global warming but I still believe in protecting the environment (not radically I still have to eat and work and survive) but I feel like these are the wrong direction for man kind. Your thoughts. Don't hate just give me your thoughts.

Answer 1

I think Ethanol is a giant scam. It has not been carefully thought through. There are a lot of people and politicians who are making lots of $$$ on ethanol and global warming. Corn ethanol requires as much energy to produce it  as it produces in energy. It is a tradeoff but ethanol production and use create far more greenhouse gases than oil refining and use.

I too have serious doubts, as do the 33,000 scientists who recently signed the anti-global warming letter, that mankind is the primary cause of global warming. That is arrogance at its worst. Geologists have proven the earth works in cycles which go from cooling to heating. Right now they say we are approaching the end of a 10,000 year hot cycle and will soon start into another cooling period or even an ice age.

However, there are tens of thousands of people who get government grants and grants from environmental groups to prove that man is ruining the earth. Give me a large enough grant and I'll prove anything you'd like.

Add to the above, we know that ethanol production is causing the prices of all grain based foods and feeds to go through the roof. It is, literally, causing people to starve to death.

Yet the envtomental lobbies still want ethanol, etc. while they prevent us from building nuclear power plants and drilling for the oil which we know could solve our problems.

They want a bright, carbon  free future and they are willing to destroy our economy here and now to get that future.

What good are cars which do not use carbon products or create CO2 if there is no one who can afford to buy them?

Answer 2

Think that Ethanol business is not only a terrible idea but a huge scam as well.  Ethanol when you add it to gas lowers your gas milage and power, charge you more for it and since cuts into the food production business turning it into fuel instead of feed causing the price of food to go up - fits right in with the same kind of Govt. thinking that's gone into that whole Iraq war, to include the surge.

Answer 3

It's all supply & demand.  

Unfortunately the cost of fuel makes everything go up just because of shipping, but you got a triple-whammy because feedstock (corn) has a new suiter competing for it, and the midwest floods wiped out a large swath of the supply.  

Corn farmers that survived the flood are smiling all the way to the bank, but their customers are grumbling a bit.  

If the government would get out of the way and stop paying people to NOT produce anything on their land, more land would swing toward producing whatever happens to garner the best income.  Right now, that looks like corn.

If the free market were left to fend for itself, the current situation would resolve itself.  Government intervention is always short-sighted, and seldom responds as well as free-market forces.

As cellulose ethanol production begins to compete with corn ethanol, you'll see a glut of corn looking for a home, but that may take a year or two.  

Solar looks like it's going to take off by leaps and bounds as well (see link below)

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Answer 4

there will need 2 be a combo of sources

ethanol

solar

wind     etc..............

good question and anaylsis though

Answer 5

I read somewhere that for every gallon of ethanol produced, it saves us something like .08 gallons of gas.  That doesn't seem to be terribly efficient, especially when coupled with the fact that virtually everything we eat relies on corn and/or soy.

I feel for you, man.  Good luck.  I hope things change soon.

Answer 6

i feel for you, i have farmer friends who are suffering too.

what i can't understand is that plants break down water into hydrogen and oxygen (super efficient fuel) by using sunlight and a natural catalyst.

why can't we, with our phenomenal knowledge, do the same ?

or are the governments & multi-nationals hampering our efforts just to squeeze oil money out of us while they still can ?

Answer 7

Ethanol from corn is a scam organized by politicians and big farmers to s***w the American public. We don't know that we can do anything to stop global warming, and the Dimocrats and environuts want to ruin are economy by getting us off oil immediately. Vote GOP in November!

PDFhttp://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/ethanol_p... ♦

Facts about Corn Ethanol Production and why we must make ethanol from cellulose.

A Gallon Of Gas And The Ethanol Hoax By Thomas D. Segel April 25, 2008

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/tsegel/...

Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax By Walter E. Williams

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

http://townhall.com/Columnists/WalterEWi...

Answer 8

Ok, I'll take a step back and explain my views.  Alternative fuel sources aren't possible immediately.  The cost of production is too high, and they require an almost completely new branch of industry.  While this is true, to not pursue these alternative energies would be a grave mistake.  While you may not believe in global warming, it's still a very likely possibility.  And even if not, our gas supply will, sooner or later, run low and then out.  We have to have something to back that up.  Whether it's solar power, which requires a high initial cost but has great long term usage due to low upkeep costs, or ethanol, which admittedly does cause some issues with unknown polution it emits but would be taking from a surplus supply of corn rather than the current used supply (so taht doesn't increase your food costs, but higher gas prices do, transport issues), or even underwater turbines using the ocean currents, though that also requires a high initial cost.  We cannot just sit and wait.  I'm not saying implement alternative fuels now, I'm saying begin the process now, so that in 5 years we'll actually be able to say it's feasible.