Is it time to pull the plug on ethanol??

Question

"Subsidies for corn ethanol:

Corn ethanol subsidies totaled $7.0 billion in 2006 for 4.9 billion gallons of ethanol. That's $1.45 per gallon of ethanol (and $2.21 per gal of gas replaced).

Even with high gas prices in 2006, producing a gallon of ethanol cost 38¢ more than making gasoline with the same energy, so ethanol did need part of that subsidy. But what about the other $1.12. Not needed! So all of that became, $5.4 billion windfall of profits paid to real farmers, corporate farmers, and ethanol makers like multinational ADM.

Where did those subsidies come from:

1. 51¢ per gallon federal blenders credit for $2.5 billion = your tax dollars.

2. $0.9 billion in corn subsidies for ethanol corn = your tax dollars.

3. $3.6 billion extra paid at the pump.

That's quite a bit when you figure it only made us 1.1% more energy independent and only reduced US greenhouse gases by 1/19 of 1%." {IF you don't include the fossil fuel used to grow, process and transport}.

Answer 1

I'll expand for a bit: I think the reasons behind ethanol are no longer as important as we thought they were when all the ethanol effort was being made.

The first benefit is the energy independence - we get to grow a little more of our own energy and import a little less. Unfortunately, it is dubious whether usable energy is a net gain or a net loss during the ethanol production process. Moreover, while we grow a lot of corn, we don't grow enough to make it feasible on a large enough scale to make a difference, not without jacking up the price of corn. If we were able to do it solely with agricultural waste products that would be disposed of anyway, that might make more sense.

A second reason for ethanol is that it is cleaner-burning than gasoline. Again, unfortunately, it is often quite dirty to make. The idea is that ethanol will be produced in areas with very little pollution, where the ecosystem can absorb the ethanol pollution fairly well, and then used in cities where pollution is a real problem. We're shifting the location of the problem, in other words. While poor urban air quality is a huge concern, we cannot yet demonstrate how much of an impact E85 vehicles have had on cleaning up smog.

A third hope is that by subsidizing ethanol, production would become more efficient and therefore cheaper, and perhaps expand the feasibility of biomass and biofuels into other areas. I think this is a longer-term hope: indeed, companies will not research unless there is a high expected payoff from that research. Surely, alternative biofuels will look more attractive at $8 and $10 gas, but I think that the hope with the subsidy is to get those alternative fuels going at $2 and $3 gas. Ultimately, we'll need a renewable power source - fuel cells, for instance. Right now, hybrids are nice, ethanol has some advantages (and drawbacks), but neither on their own or combined will solve the problems of energy dependence, pollution and non-renewable fuel usage.

Should we pull the plug on ethanol subsidies? Probably, or at least re-frame the approach. Instead of subsidizing an inefficient system, taper off the subsidies and offer larger rewards and funding for research that leads to conclusive results.

Answer 2

i didn't read all of that. i have to go make zucchini bread like 10 minutes ago, but the answer is yes. ethanol is a huge waste of money and the government just keeps pouring more and more money into it. it ain't working!!! i saw a truck the other day on the road that said on the back "my truck runs off of chicken shiiiittt" and that would be methane i think.....it works for him, let's try that.

Answer 3

Ethanol program was seen as a way to utilize the excess US corn production and  reduce the need for agriculture subsidies even more than to solve the energy problems. However  the timing turned it into a world wide food disaster because of the increasing demand for food  in China and other  newly rich people in developing nations and crop failures in other parts of the world. The biggest cost for American consumers in not what  we pay for gas but what we pay for food. It is a text book case of unintended consequences and the subsidies should be ended.

Answer 4

It is time to pull the plug on ethanol. It should have never started, it weakens the supply of grain and other commodities because farmers are going crop for oil companies, and it is weakening the demand for regular oil, which is causing this large influx in price increase besides the obvious of fear and greed involved in oil. ETHANOL IS ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS. BIG MISTAKE