So I wonder who's fueling this big Ethanol campaign? ADM? They certainly would profit from it, what with their being the biggest ethanol processors in the world. Where would society be concerning alternative fuel if it weren't for ADM to tell us what they want for us? Probably still chugging along, ever a slave to foreign oil.
There's a problem with using ethanol, though, that most people -- including ADM -- have probably not realized and won't realized until it's too late. Ethanol comes from corn. Corn depletes the soil -- fast. Pretty soon the Midwest is going to be a wasteland because of all this mad corn-growing -- corn-growing not for food human consumption but to fill our gas tanks and to become animal feed on factory farms.
There's still sun, wind, and hydrogen. Hydrogen's still in the research stages as far as I can tell, so invest in research for hydrogen fuel at BP's website. And don't believe what they say about ethanol.
Ethanol can be extracted from many different plants...
Yeah, and have you ever seen an ethanol refinery? They're huge and not exactly clean. Please refer to the following (though rather outdated) article:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2006/tc20060519_225336...
Okay, well I agree that ethanol isnt the future but you have the reasoning wrong. Ethanol comes from virgin plant oils, corn just happens to have a high percentage and a good byproduct (after the oil is taken out it turns into animal feed).
Ethanols downfall is this: Its inefficient. It has about the same energy-transfer as petroleum, namely that it takes around over 1 unit of energy to create 1 unit of ethanol.
Biodiesel, however, takes 1 unit of energy to create 3.2 units of biodiesel, and can be made from USED vegetable oil, something ethanol has yet to conquer. Although both ethanol and biodiesel reduce pollution and are renewable, biodiesel is the better choice.
http://www.biodiesel.com/2004%20Biodiesel%20Handling%20USDOE.pdf
Section 2.3 - energy efficiency
By the way, ethanol is for gasoline powered cars while biodiesel is for diesel powered cars. No conversion is needed for biodiesel for cars made after 1997, I'm not sure about ethanol cars though.
www.biodiesel.com
yep. I have a blog on the same subject.
Insert Shameless Self-Promotion Here -- http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ada-castellon
The others are right
Ethanol can come from many sources.
Read my blog. i reviewed a book on this subject
So I wonder who's fueling this big Ethanol campaign?
Ethanol was pushed on us by an unholy alliance between big agriculture and the environmental lobby who were convinced that it was a "green" fuel.
Belatedly the environmentalists have realized that they have made a mistake. They can share the blame for whatever starvation is caused by turning food into energy because once a government subsidized program is in place it is almost impossible to kill.