Give ethanol a chance?

As a rule of thumb, if it began in the Bush Administration, it isn’t working. Stunted and moralistic thinking has left many failures and a horrid national decline. We’ve merely learned what’s plutocratic, ineffective and cruel.

Hoisting war: the wrong enemy.
Huge spending: crippled execution.
Hustling corn: Do we truly believe fields of corn contain the energy we use?!

To be fair, a lonely author has gathered the arguments in favor of ethanol here.


What’s being said offshore?
The ripple effect of America’s new infatuation with alternative fuels is being felt around the world.

Last year ethanol consumed about one fifth of the US corn crop. By next year it could consume up to half, sparking a debate about food versus fuel.

Driven by prices that have doubled in the past two years, farmers have planted a record 37 million hectares of corn in the past few months. If the US is addicted to oil, then it is starting its rehab in Iowa…

Despite its green image, several studies have shown that ethanol produced from corn has little if any benefit in reducing greenhouse gases. Sugar-based ethanol, produced by countries such as Australia and Brazil, is more environmentally friendly, but is stopped from being imported to the US by a tariff of 51 cents a gallon.

Can the good times continue to roll?

The ethanol boom:
It’s not driven by fundamentals.

“The fundamentals are pointing towards a lower price, because we have plenty of corn. It’s the perceived demand … We’ve got a heck of a big crop coming. Sometime we are going to realise that and the price is going to drop.”

“The industry could also be stopped dead should the price of oil drop. Twice in the past 100 years ethanol has looked like establishing itself as a competitor to petrol, only for low prices to wipe it out.

“Despite its lack of greenhouse benefits, ethanol is being swept along by a green image.

“Long term, there are probably better solutions than ethanol out there, but they may be 25 or 30 years down the road.” [Sydney Herald]

Policies based on image and crony politics,
market chaos and ineffective solutions.