Move to Ethanol: Worth the Costs?

Question

Although ethanol is touted as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, its costs are quickly becoming obvious:

-Growing staples like corn for ethanol production is causing food prices of corn and grains to skyrocket; in some poor countries this is rapidly threatening to cause starvation.

-Growing corn and biofuel crops is resulting in the rapid clearing of forest lands; those forest lands are not only a source of biodiversity, but a major source of oxygen and a filter for carbon dioxide.

-By shifting resources away from more practical renewables like solar and wind technology, the move to ethanol is causing companies to become "stuck" in the ethanol paradigm.

All in all, the costs of moving to biofuels may overwhelm any of its supposed benefits. Are its costs worth it? And what might be the "real" motivations behind ethanol production?

Answer 1

I wouldnt say yes otherwise they would be making big moves to do it like people try to with solar power, its obviously doesnt cotain enough good values maybe containment is harder to get to produce energy or who knows really, but like i said if it was a smart move then country's would already be on the ethanol mind of things, becuase yes its said 100 years time we will run out of coal, i say use nuclear power, then ship waste into space, hahahaha but pritty much they say the world is screwed in 200 years. Oil is running out so electricity will become evan more stupidly important, coal is running out so ahhhh were screwed.

Answer 2

Motivations?

EPA is the answer and Al Gores stuff.  Reduce emissions.

We're going to burn our food in cars?  What next, after corn?

Ethanol is not any cheaper than oil, considering the production cost, transportation,  AND lower MPG.

India just banned all exports of corn from that country.

As far as wind, "Wlnd Mills", have you not heard all the h**l raising about placing those off shore?  Visual pollution?

As for electric cars, how much electricity will be needed to maintain batteries?  And from what fuel?  And where will all the millions of dead batteries go?  Weight?

The answer is less demand.  Nothimg will change for the better until that is accomplished.

We need the same effort from scientists that was expended to develope the atomic bomb and nuclear power.

And, consider what effect this will have on the economy.

Every employee in the oil business will no longer be needed.

Refineries closed.

Stocks worthless.

Oil industry retirees, broke.

Multi millions of gas powered automobiles, values, down to nothing.

I'm sure there are more.

For every plus, a minus.

Answer 3

The biofuel food crisis is a phoney invention of its enemies.  Food costs will go up as fuel costs go up, period.  If we don't make biofuels the price of petroleum will skyrocket even more because it's not renewable in the short term.  That means the cost of food would probably go up even higher if we don't make biofuels.  

While using food crops to produce fuel increases the demand for food crops, guess what the result of that will be?  More entreprenuers will start planting biofuel crops in response to the increased prices to reduce the pressure on food prices.  We are not near 100% capacity on farm land in the world.

Don't panic when these doomsayers say that something like biofuels won't work.  The free market will solve those "problems".

Answer 4

Ethanol made from corn and soy is not good because it will increase food prices and take up too much land.  

We should instead use ethanol and biofuel from Algae.

Algae Biofuel

-With our current biodiesel feedstocks, like soy and palm, there’s no way we could grow enough to supply all of our transportation needs.  In fact, it would actually require twice the land area of the US devoted to soybean production to meet current heating and transportation needs.

-Algae, on the other hand, could supply all U.S. diesel power using a mere 0.2% of the nation’s land.

-Enough algae can be grown to replace all transportation fuels in the U.S. on only 15,000 square miles or 4.5 million acres of land.

- Algae is the highest yielding feedstock for biodiesel, producing 24 times more oil per acre, on average, than the next leading feedstock--palm oil at 635 gallons/acre/year.

-One company can produce 180,000 gallons of biodiesel every year from just one acre of algae. That comes to about 4,000 barrels, at a cost of $25 per barrel or $.59 per gallon.

-To put that in perspective, it takes 3,750 acres of soy to make the same amount of biodiesel at a cost of about $2.50 per barrel for 4,000 barrels.

-It is possible to use human sewage and wastewater from agricultural endeavors to enhance the growth of algae.  In fact, when done right, algae can double and even triple overnight with the addition of these fertilizers.

-Plus, as algae grows it absorbs C02 from the air.

-In addition, fertilizer for other food crops can be produced by using the leftover nutrients that aren’t used to make the biofuel.

Answer 5

H*** NO isn't not worth it. I miss it when families could actually get by on one paycheck, our nations children need their moms at home with them but who can afford it?

Corn is not even good for your body you get nothing from it but empty calories and little fiber. You can get fiber from eating oatmeal.

Why did I get a thumbs down?

Anyway no its not worth all the extra money it is costing Americans. from food to gas, we no longer have the money for everyday necessities. and not to mention that yearly vacation we all used to take on a regular basis. We haven't vacationed in about 4 years, we cant afford to. No freaking wonder our economy is SOOO BAD.

Answer 6

No - the destruction of other species habitat, rainforests,  cropland, (our, ond other species NEEDS) etc. for SHORT TERM production of our WANTS is not a viable solution.

The only long term, forward thinking solutions are Conservation, and Reduction.

Answer 7

HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT??? Corn is the WORST POSSIBLE MEANS for making ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol can be made from ordinary agricultural WASTE. NOBODY NEEDS TO STARVE!!!!!!!!!

Solar and wind will always have a place, but you can't drive a car with a windmill on the roof, and you can't put enough solar panels on your car to make it run at night!

Oh, and jpat? Ethanol IS a biofuel. What do you suppose they DO with all that algae?

Answer 8

lol, 4 years ago ethinol, was going to save mother earth, and today its killing people. This is what happens when you let so called intellectual college professors and other elites establish public policy.  Although well intentioned they are often full of c**p.

Answer 9

In my opinion ethanol is just a short-term half-assed solution which will do more bad then good. What ever happened to hydrogen powered vehicles? Hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on this planet. Oh what.......that's right because it's so abundant it wouldn't be very profitable compared to oil. Why would oil companies "want" or "permit" another industry to make them obsolete as a fuel source? Duh!

Answer 10

the real motivations power/profits and control

There is no food crisis

The world produces more than enough food

It is what happens to it that causes the crisis.

More than Half is diverted for the production of Ethanol.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/...

And this is the main reason for social unrest and the rising food prices,This is only the beginning

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/1599...

This is a political issue and the reasons are profits.

so the profits will win the day.

Not the poor Poor.

Famines are allowed to happen ,as part of a depopulation strategy.

my answer the 13th one down check the links

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

The problems originate from the control so there is no solution

the production  of ethanol produces more carbon emissions than all of the motor cars and industry in the world

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

And still it continues and grows.

Global solutions are NOT the agenda Global control IS

we should be looking at Starwars modes of transport

and kill the internal combustion engine ,but those who lead us also own this industry (both the petrol and the cars)and as yet there is plenty of money to made with it

there are other ways to make fuel

keep deep eating deep fries and use the old oil

or check some of the electric cars in HUDDLER

http://byderule.multiply.com/journal/ite...

Answer 11

The way I see it is, the government just want an alternative route so we don't end up too much being held hostage by oil producing countries where they could dictate how much the price of oil would be.

     Politics might also be one of the reasons, like they have to return the favor to those people who supported them.

    They should consider wind farms, solar farms, and hydrogen on demand instead.

Answer 12

you also forgot about all the taxes it takes.  the government is subsidizing the companies making ethanol.  if ethanol was the best than it would take over because of capitolism.

Answer 13

I am dead set against this ethanol move. I feel that it wasn't worth it moving to the bio fuels. And it would further appear that every elitist gets in line to s***w us over.

We need to send messages to all our politicians explaining our displeasure with the whole situation. We need to put on hold this movement towards bio fuels. Food prices are going through the roof.

I have already sent my mail to my politicians expressing my displeasure. Please do likewise if you agree with the majority of these answers given.

Answer 14

It is definitely not worth it...I've known this for a long time, as my Environmental Sciences professor was preaching about how terrible of an idea it was because you either lose energy or only gain 20% max.  And with all of the land you'd need to cover just to grow enough plants to get the ethanol...just bad.  Any environmentalists who support corn ethanol are just misinformed.  

Even worse, is Palm Oil.  They started this up in Europe and now it's in decline after they finally realized that rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia were being completely leveled, slashed and burned to clear thousands of acres for the oil palm plant.