No one mentions the efforts of the US congressmen and Senators who have personally invested heavily in the early stages of ethanol manufacturing plants, then passed the requirements for us to use ethanol in fuel, then passed massive subsidies to the producing companies so an otherwise unprofitable market venture makes them assured money (your taxes), then invested in commodity futures as they knew food prices would rise. And they also invested in European money as they knew the dollar would drop.

As recently noted in the press, John Kerry helped avoid near investment disaster for his fellow ethanol investors when he sent the letter to the State Department stating that if Iraq sold the oil in the negotiated – ready for signature – US agreement without Iraq having a “Hydrocarbons Policy”, America was just invading Iraq for it’s oil. His office sent copies to all the middle eastern press who made it politically impossible for Iraq’s government to sell to America. The oil now goes to China.

Why the letter to the State Department? As reported by the press, Obama went directly to Iraq and asked the leaders to not let American soldiers leave until he was elected – negotiating foreign policy with foreign governments leaves one open to charges of treason. A “leaked” letter to the State Department leaves no such stigma.

Also, it takes 1.3 gallons of fuel to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Therefore, anyone using 1 gallon of ethanol actually consumes 2.3 gallons of fuel. Ethanol has significantly lower energy per gallon as does gasoline. In areas of the country where drivers still have access to unpolluted gasoline, it is commonly reported that 85% Gasoline polluted with ethanol has around 18% loss in energy per gallon (loss of mileage). Doing the math, a driver still requires about a gallon of gasoline to go the same distance as 1 gallon of pure gasoline – at the cost of 1.18 gallons. No savings at all in emissions.

Another billionaire, T. Boone Pickens now is in wind farm commercials. Although a blight on the landscape – no “environmentally concerned citizen” wants to be anywhere near them – wind farms also get their profits from government subsidies, and this oil man wants a share.

As Californians are generally environmentally conscious, I propose a mandate that all California public municipal and county parks be required to have at least one wind generator. Is this way, transmission losses between source and users can be minimized, and all Californians can personally experience the grace and beauty of today’s wind generation technology.

etc.

Ralph

What do those corn stalks get used for now? Compost? Fertilizer? Waste?

It may be that they’re discarded now, and thus this is an economically efficient use of them. But if they’re currently used for something productive, it still means you’re removing it from whatever use it’s going towards. Hence, prices for that productive use will rise.

You are on the side of taking more money from consumers and taxpayers to give it to corngrowers and agribusiness. Which provides more money to corngrowers and agribusiness at the cost of increasing world hunger, increased environmental damage, and increased dependence on imported oil.

Not a good side to be on.

Your T-Bone went up $0.15, and

http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/08wp467.pdf

My Gas went Down $0.40/gal.

Guess which side I’m on.

I think you mean the “Mr. Fusion” home fusion generator. It extracted and used the hydrogen in food waste to create clean, efficient electricity.

I wonder if its only waste product was iron(that’d be really efficient fusion power).

“Another Canadian company, SunOpta Inc. markets a patented technology known as “Steam Explosion” to pre-treat cellulosic biomass, overcoming its “recalcitance” to make cellulose and hemicellulose accessible to enzymes for conversion into fermenatable sugars. SunOpta designs and engineers cellulosic ethanol biorefineries and its process technologies and equipment are in use in the first 3 commercial demonstration scale plants in the world:[21] Verenium (formerly Celunol Corporation)’s facility in Jennings, Louisiana, Abengoa’s facility in Salamanca, Spain, and a facility in China owned by China Resources Alcohol Corporation (CRAC). The CRAC facility is currently producing cellulosic ethanol from local corn stover on a 24-hour a day basis utilizing SunOpta’s process and technology.”

also (sounds like it’s still in the theoretical / lab stage):

Other enzyme companies, such as Dyadic International, Inc. (AMEX: DIL), are developing genetically engineered fungi which would produce large volumes of cellulase, xylanase and hemicellulase enzymes which can be utilized to convert agricultural residues such as corn stover, distiller grains, wheat straw and sugar cane bagasse and energy crops such as switch grass into fermentable sugars which may be used to produce cellulosic ethanol.

(blah, blah, blah)… sounds expensive, but we’ll get efficient later (or so they promise):

Construction of pilot scale lignocellulosic ethanol plants requires considerable financial support through grants and subsidies. On 28 February 2007, the U.S. Dept. of Energy announced $385 million in grant funding to six cellulosic ethanol plants.[31] This grant funding accounts for 40% of the investment costs. The remaining 60% comes from the promoters of those facilities. Hence, a total of $1 billion will be invested for approximately 140 million gallon capacity. This translates into $7/annual gallon in capital investment costs for pilot plants; future capital costs are expected to be lower. Corn to ethanol plants cost roughly $1–3/annual gallon capacity.[32][33]

I’d still file it under “unlikely to save the world,” but I’m interested in knowing what happens with that experimental facility in China.

“…to whether ethanol mandates raise fuel prices…”

Didn’t you mean to say food prices here?

Regards, Don