Oh Great, More Corn Ethanol

Nextgen ethanol might very well become a viable component of an energy cocktail that helps solve tomorrow's energy problems. Today it is not, and its forced consumption by Americans under the guise of beneficial environmentalism and oil independence are great leaps in logic that border on fraud. There simply isn't enough corn adaptable acreage in America to significantly impact our oil importation, and purported substantive environmental benefits are becoming less rosy by the day.

Wow, who could have possibly guessed that when government busybodies shoved their emotional noses into an economic equation in which they had no expertise or business, that the unfortunate results of their intrusion might be counter to their own arguments for implementation?

The corn ethanol industry in the United States today has primarily degenerated into a massive welfare program for large corn and ethanol producers. While there are still advancements being made in the ethanol industry, most of these advancements are being made with biomasses other than corn.

Corn ethanol is not efficient. On a per acre basis, corn produces a marginal energy benefit and some scientists point out that when the processes of planting, harvesting, and transporting ethanol are added to the equation, the usage of corn ethanol results in a net energy deficit.

Corn ethanol is also a huge user of water with an estimate of the expending of 1,700 gallons of water per one gallon of fuel produced.

Corn ethanol has also served to change the food delivery chain. Acreage that was once used to produce corn for food is now being diverted for usage in our gas tanks. This has not only made corn based foods more costly for consumers, it has also impacted the costs of wheat, barley, oats, etc., as fewer acres are being dedicated to these crops in favor of higher priced corn. Iowa, our largest corn producing state, has gone from being a huge exporter of corn into a net importer of corn because of all of the ethanol production taking place there. Corn from Illinois, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and elsewhere now travels to Iowa to be turned into fuel instead of traveling on trains and ships to food processors elsewhere. This has contributed greatly to a world food shortage by weakening supplies and making foodstuffs more expensive to countries that can not afford higher prices.

In addition, studies are now beginning to show that the expanded production and usage of corn ethanol might have a net negative impact on CO2 levels.

From the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) via Watts Up With That:

In the March 2010 issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of maize-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for maize, farmers convert additional land to crops, and this conversion can boost carbon dioxide emissions.

The analysis combines ecological data with a global economic commodity and trade model to project the effects of US maize ethanol production on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from land-use changes in 18 regions across the globe. The researchers' main conclusion is stark: These indirect, market-mediated effects on greenhouse gas emissions "are enough to cancel out the benefits the corn ethanol has on global warming."

If ethanol was a viable alternative to gasoline, ADM and their inbred cousins would pursue its production on the basis of its viability alone. Economics would dictate a substantial private investment in anticipation of lucrative returns on that investment. That has not occurred. Indeed, the only thing keeping the ethanol industry alive today is the taxpayer subsidies lavished on corn growers and nearly bankrupt ethanol producers.

Bureaucrats of both major political parties have shown a willingness to subsidize constituencies across many industrial and social spectra for the sake of being reelected. They have mandated that ethanol be poured down the throats of an abused public in the form of higher energy and food costs, higher taxes, reduced fuel efficiency, and ultimately in the starving of many across the globe.

It is interesting to me that on the same day that I saw the AIBS report I read this at Mlive:

A push by industry to increase the amount of ethanol blended with regular gasoline got a boost today from Underwriters Laboratory.

UL, as it's called, has approved the use of a dispenser to pump up to 25 percent ethanol blends into cars and trucks. Currently, gasoline sold in the United States is 10 percent ethanol. Industry groups want that number increased to 15 percent or higher, citing the possibility of new jobs at places like the POET plant in Caro.

The Renewable Fuels Association calls the certification "an important step forward" that will "help expand the use of ethanol."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to approve a 15 percent ethanol blend standard sometime this year, according to Robert White, an RFA director.

What it comes down to is: How much ethanol is safe for use in gas-powered engines, how does the continued use of corn-based ethanol affect food prices and what does the driving public think?

The ethanol industry wants more of your tax dollars to support it. And why not, we keep electing people who make it possible.