Grain shortage due to ethanol

[Guest guest]

From another list:

Guzzling Alcohol in Autos Can Be Deadly

2/22/08

As a 30-year career chemical/environmental engineer, I want to

comment on the ethanol fuel racket. Ethanol is chemically the same as

moonshine—corn liquor.

Ethanol may only cost $2.85 at the pump when gasoline is $3. But

ethanol fuel (85 parts ethanol/15 parts gasoline) has only 72% of the

energy content of gasoline, so its cost at the pump is actually $4

per gallon of gasoline equivalent; and you get a reduction in driving

range of 28%.

According to a study by the Cato Institute, for every dollar in

profit a producer makes off ethanol, the costs to taxpayers is $30

after summing the government subsidies on corn. At 15% profit margin,

a sixth grader can calculate the actual cost is about $9 per gallon.

Other hidden costs are the almost doubling (and climbing) of corn

prices resulting in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs. More acres

planted in corn reduce supplies of wheat and soybeans causing these

prices to rise.

It requires more energy to make ethanol than you can get out of corn.

Otherwise the ethanol plants would be using it to fuel their plants

rather than our natural gas and coal. Converting all the U.S. corn

crop to ethanol would only reduce gasoline consumption by 1%,

according to Panier, a former ethanol-industry chemical

engineer.

The negative environmental impacts by the use of crop chemicals are

significant. It takes 7 gallons of water (groundwater?) to produce

one gallon of ethanol. The emission reductions from ethanol-fueled

cars are so small that air quality is not improved at all.

Even China is smart enough to know that ethanol fuel is a loser. That

is why they shut down their ethanol plants this year.

But there is more. One-third of the corn feedstock becomes a massive

quantity of waste. This is sold to factory farms to force feed cows,

cattle and pigs along with the chicken manure. We are told that this

is a bonus because they count the calorie content (BTUs) of the slop

toward the energy gain, so it makes it look they are creating more

energy. Milking cows were fed these " grains " , as they call them, pre-

1940s. These cows got sick, the milk became contaminated with harmful

bacteria, people got sick and died, ushering in pasteurization. Last

week, it was announced by two university research departments that

ethanol wastes fed to livestock is related to the surge in recent

meat recalls and e-coli breakouts.

But, there's more. Since the triangle of government (EPA, USDA, DOE),

industry (ADM) and environmental whackos, in all of their infinite

wisdom, believe so much in ethanol saving us from the planet's

certain and rapid doom. In fact, they crafted legislation which has

been made into regulations requiring a rapid increase to meet the

crisis head on. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, rules

call for increasing ethanol fuels from the current 5% of

transportation fuels to 36% over the next few years and install tanks

and pumps everywhere—along with a huge fleet of trucks to haul it.

One has to wonder how many will die and suffer because of this money-

making scheme, in part allowed by recycling the profits into election

contributions.

Corn would be better used as food to help feed the hungry and not the

ethanol producers and their lobbyists. After all, ADM is the

supermarket to the world. Auto and oil companies fought for decades

that ethanol is an inferior fuel, but now are embracing it for

profits as the dumb-downed, green-washed public demands it. It is a

major loser energy wise, environmentally, and economically and

another threat to food supplies and safety. The true costs are

immeasurable. Ethanol is ungreen and unsustainable.

M. Augenstein, M.S., P.E.

Automotive Environmental & Safety Engineering

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