I cant understand why USA is adopting corn ethanol. It produces less energy than needed to produce it.?

Question

Sugar Cane ethanol in the other hand is much more efficient! It is much cheaper than corn´s and doesn´t turn food expensive, because it´s an extra culture that uses different land not suitable for food. In Brazil this extra culture as a bonus, keeps many people employed. In USA they use less people. They use machinnery and that machinnery uses oil! It's sheer madness!

Answer 1

good point.  But sugar is not easy to grow in our lower 48 states... we'd actually be better off using  popple (poplar) wood as biomass to make ethanol; the popple-produced ethanol burns cleaner than that made with corn, & doesn't take away a food source. Popple is a renewable resource that grows in most of our country. Unfortunately, Rod Grams' ideas haven't caught on yet -- he ran for re-election in MN in '06 but lost.  I wonder if it may be due to a combination of reluctance (of politicians) to promote a change,  the romance of the pretty trees (there are plenty of tree-huggers but fewer corn-huggers ), & the skepticism of the public; plus, the Canadians have been using popple-based ethanol for a while now with great success, BUT they don't promote & advertise it.  So, the media are partly to blame, IMHO.

Answer 2

yeah actually it makes no sense. sugar cane has way higher yield.

Answer 3

Pandering to Iowa. The 1st caucus state.

Answer 4

Yes, but once we start using switchgrass and other biomass, the same plants can be used.  So your waste lawn clippings and non-food farm products will be used to fuel our cars.  Just think if ALL the ethanol plants had a windmill or solar energy to produce its power, making it a totally green form of ethanol.

Answer 5

Farmers live in Iowa.  Iowa has the first primary.  Politicians use tax dollars to buy votes.

This is what is global warming.  Causing fear in people to raise taxes to keep politicians in office.

Answer 6

A documentary I saw said the use of machinery to propogate, grow, harvest, and process uses too much gasoline, about 1 gallon of gasoline is used in the production of 1.3 gallons of ethanol.  Not too efficient I would say, sure doesnt help "global warming".  We need solar and wind power to become more innovative.

Answer 7

sugar cane is a tropical plant and will not grow good in the areas in the US that freeze.

in brazil the farmers clear rainforest to grow sugar cane.

this does more to raise the CO2 levels. then cars.

Answer 8

You're right!  The other negative impact of using corn ethanol is the increased food costs.  The supply of corn has been reduced due to the production of ethanol.  Corn is used to feed livestock, so increased prices of corn, increases meat prices.  

Also, ethanol reduces a car's gas mileage, compared to gas.  The only benefit to ethanol is the reduced use of mideast oil, and the subsidies to American farmers.  

Overall, it's a bad idea.  We need to discontinue it's use.