Energy with-out Oil Weblog

Recently, www.farms.com - the chair of Iowa Corn Industrial Useage committee stated: $100 spent on crude oil would yield just 19.5 gallons of gasoline, but $100 worth of field corn delivers 70 gallons of ethanol. That makes ethanol an obvious choice for consumers and corn growers alike. I think you also must understand the cost of producing those gallons as well, and their negative impact on the environment as well.

It would seem that the fact that ethanol is starting to take root is getting lots of bad press. Warnings of skyrocketing food prices, dire consequences to the water supply and so many other terrible things that ethanol can cause. It seems to me that the press is [conveniently] forgetting the real demon in this, probably because they are willing to listen to all the spin the Oil companies want to offer and print it as gospel fact. After all, MegaOilRon is paying so much more for advertising than the upstart, but scary competitor for energy dollars, ethanol.

In my [not so] humble opinion, the oil companies are more to blame for the sudden rise in prices than the growers of renewable energy feedstock. The farmers need to run their vehicles to sow and harvest, that is a much greater contributing factor than the sudden popularity of ethanol producing plants. A barrel of oil is rising in price much more dramatically in price than any farm commodity, and that is causing the most pressure ans well as sudden demand as people begin to realize the importance of weaning from the Saudi prices and their straglehold on the American throat.

Most corn is used, not for human food, but fodder to grow cattle, and even lots of the exported corn is used to fatten cattle for rich princes, not to feed their starving surfs, as far as they are concerned it is more important to have fat princes than minimally fed children. The world does not have aenough food for the people init, but not because of ethanol, it is because of greed and the rich controlling the supply. So even should corn rise, it is not taking much out of the mouths of babes.

The fact that ethanol only really removes the solar power in the form of sugar from the corn (As noted by author David Blume in his book - Alcohol can be a Gas) is also often forgotten. There is little waste to contend with since the dried distilled grains are much better food for cattle than raw corn…and they can often be used in other foods as well. Ethanol does not shrink the food supply, it improves it while at the same time adding to the available transport energy of North America.

Water is the next great problem for the Oil company pundits who want to belittle ethanol as a fuel in any way they can. The water used for production of ethanol is not ruined or made toxic with strange chemicals, rather the water is used to create the mash for the yeast to feed upon and then be the carrying medium to bring it to temperature to distill the alcohol from it. Then the remaining wort needs to be dried and the water can pressed out and in most cases be pretty much retrieved, or allowed to evaporate to the air….water vapor is not toxic at all. Oil on the other hand often pumps huge quantities of irretrievable water and steam into the earth to create pressure to pump the dwindling oil in a well to the surface, the water is left in the ground, contaminated and toxic, and often would be unusable if pulled out anyway. I don’t even want to think of the destroyed gallonage of pure water for processing the tar sands and the possible damage to the water table from that. So yes, ethanol production uses water, but it is not rendered toxic like it is with oil production.

Let’s always keep it in mind, where are these foolish comments originating - Oil company dupes and their long practiced spin tactics. m Give meEnergy with-out Oil, and pay a little more in food prices,but pay so much less for the recovery we will have to pay for the damage from oil and its use in the long run. Belive me, renewable food, used without waste is so much more economically feasible and desirable.

One last thing,

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