Ethanol Is a Scam

[Guest guest]

Here's another reason that any form of ethanol, including the dreamed-

of high-efficiency cellulosic ethanol, is nothing more than a con and

a waste of vital time and resources: it won't actually do a damned

thing to reduce the demand for oil.

<http://www.slate.com/id/2202314/>

> The ethanol producers and the flex-fuel-car advocates are wrong

> because their solution replaces only part of the crude-oil barrel

> and won't reduce demand for that entire barrel in any meaningful

> way. Here's why.

>

> When it is refined, a barrel of crude yields several different

> " cuts " that range from light products, such as butane, to heavy

> products, such as asphalt. Even the best-quality barrel of crude (42

> gallons) yields only about 20 gallons of gasoline. Furthermore,

> certain types of crude oil (such as light sweet) are better suited

> to gasoline or diesel production than others. The overall point is

> that even the most technologically advanced oil refineries cannot

> produce just one product from a barrel of crude—they must produce

> several, and the market value of those various cuts is constantly

> changing.

>

> The problem for the ethanol advocates is that there's very little

> growth in gasoline demand, while the demand for other cuts of the

> barrel is booming. In short, the corn ethanol producers are making

> the wrong type of fuel at the wrong time. They are producing fuel

> that displaces gasoline at a time when gasoline demand—both in the

> United States and globally—is essentially flat. Meanwhile, demand

> for the segment of the crude barrel known as middle distillates—

> primarily diesel fuel and jet fuel—is growing rapidly. And corn

> ethanol cannot replace diesel or jet fuel, the liquids that propel

> the vast majority of our commercial transportation machinery.

I highly recommend reading the full article -- it's not long.

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