Assuming the current political environment that gives us relatively cheap oil will continue ad infinitum is naive. Failure to prepare alternatives would be irresponsible.
On Sunday, December 9, 2012, Rich Thomas wrote: > The US is poised to become a net energy exporter and reserves now exceed > the ME. With Canada, N America is awash in oil. Using corn for fuel is > somewhat nonsensical. > > --R > On 12/9/12 10:33 AM, Dave Walton wrote: > > The infrastructure is already in place to produce, store, distribute and > process corn. Given the millions of gallons of fuel we use per day it is > currently the only alternative to oil we could possibly fall back on in > short notice if we had to. > > On Dec 9, 2012, at 9:19 AM, Mitch Haley <m...@voyager.net> wrote: > > Read this in another forum. > Any comments? Loren? > > Mitch. > > http://www.fatwallet.com/**forums/finance/1239047/**m17370463/#m17370463<http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1239047/m17370463/#m17370463> > > Corn ethanol wasn't really a scam, at least not originally. You have to > understand how it began. > > During the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression, the U.S. suffered crop > failures. So on top of the economic woes, food prices skyrocketed. The > country vowed never again, and began subsidizing food production. This > insured that every year there was an oversupply of food, and (by paying > farmers not to plant crops) there was excess food production capacity which > we could "turn on" to make up for shortfalls if it looked like a natural > disaster might cause a shortage. This meant that every year, the U.S. had > more corn than it needed (the #1 crop in the U.S.). When supply exceeds > demand, prices fall. To prevent corn farmers from going bankrupt and > jeopardizing production, the government began buying corn at a floor price > which was above market price. Corn farmers could thus be guaranteed they'd > receive $x/bushel and plan around that price to stay in business, even if > left to its own devices the market would've set a lower price. > > That's the rationale between the two biggest crop subsidies. How does this > relate to ethanol? Well, since the government was buying all that corn, > that meant after all Americans had eaten their fill of corn, there was > still a lot left over. They had to figure out ways to use that extra corn. > The first obvious use was feed for cattle. Then someone figured out you > could convert it into fructose as a cane sugar substitute (and thus high > fructose corn syrup was born). A lot of it is also given away as foreign > aid. > > But there was still a bunch left over. During the Arab oil embargo in the > 1970s, someone in the government looked at all that extra corn and asked > themselves, "I wonder if there's some way to convert it into fuel for > cars?" And thus was born corn ethanol. Corn wasn't anywhere near as > efficient a crop for ethanol production as sugar cane (which can only > really grow in Florida and Hawaii) and sugar beets (which will grow pretty > much anywhere). But that was beside the point becuase we had a bunch of > extra corn sitting around which was otherwise going to grow moldy or feed > rats. > > So converting it into ethanol made sense even if the overall energy input > exceeded the energy you got out from it. The energy put into growing the > excess corn is a sunk cost - we were going to write it off anyway. So as > long as the energy to convert it into ethanol is less than you get from > burning the ethanol, it makes sense to do it. Only the energy needed to > convert excess corn to ethanol matters; the energy which went into growing > the corn in the first place isn't a factor. > > But then the corn industry lobby got involved. And now a program which was > originally intended for and made sense with excess corn, has been expanded > to cover corn grown specifically for the purpose of converting it to > ethanol. When you do that, the economics of it fall apart, and sugar beets > make a lot more sense. But the government is paid for and bought by > lobbyists, so we have a mutant corn ethanol program which no longer makes > financial sense. > > ______________________________**_________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives > http://www.okiebenz.com/**archive/<http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/**mailman/listinfo/mercedes_**okiebenz.com<http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> > > ______________________________**_________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives > http://www.okiebenz.com/**archive/<http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > <http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
