Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
forbes.com
Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#2How did these laws pass (besides lobbying from people growing corn)? I wasn't following too closely at the time.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#3How did these laws pass (besides lobbying from people growing corn)? I wasn't following too closely at the time.
That's the only reason they passed.
The only other excuse is that once we have cars that consumer corn ethanol, its easier to move to other types of ethanol.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#4Most new cars will be electric in 10 years. Then instead of oil, coal or nuclear (power plants) will be the primary power source and ethanol for automobile fuel will be a minor issue.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#5Most new cars will be electric in 10 years. Then instead of oil, coal or nuclear (power plants) will be the primary power source and ethanol for automobile fuel will be a minor issue.
I agree with you, but battery technology has some pretty serious problems for cars that can't be ignored.
How do you deal with the replacement cost and lemon risk (battery leasing and warranties).
For me, cars are for road trips. How is that usage addressed (open question, aside from putting superchargers everywhere usable for all electric cars).
How do you deal with the power grid costs? Power mains aren't build to handle the kind of scale that rapidly charging electric cars needs (???).
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#6Most new cars will be electric in 10 years. Then instead of oil, coal or nuclear (power plants) will be the primary power source and ethanol for automobile fuel will be a minor issue.
In those ten years the US will spend ~100 billion on ethanol subsidies [1].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_the_United_Stat...
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#7Most new cars will be electric in 10 years. Then instead of oil, coal or nuclear (power plants) will be the primary power source and ethanol for automobile fuel will be a minor issue.
Given the size of Big Oil, Big Agriculture, and Big Auto, I don't think you'll see a major shift to electric in 10 years.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#8There are reasons besides environmental ones to encourage use of biofuels (hopefully made from more than corn). One is that ~10% less oil has to be imported during production shortages.
It's not a complete solution, but a minor part of one.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#9There are reasons besides environmental ones to encourage use of biofuels (hopefully made from more than corn). One is that ~10% less oil has to be imported during production shortages. It's not a complete solution, but a minor part of one.
My wife started using E85 fuel her gas mileage went from 22mpg to 17mpg. Even though there was a subsidy on the fuel she ended up having to purchase more. She has since switched back to regular fuel.
Re: Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use
#10The whole corn ethanol thing amazes me. How they can throw $30bn a year into a program than makes the environment worse is surprising. I realise the recipients of the cash they pay a proportion back to the politicians to keep the thing going. But really - a $300bn or so cost over the life plus producing hunger in poor countries by burning the food? I'm surprised the political system is actually quite that bad. On the plus side I'm optimistic about algae produced ethanol that companies like Algenol are trying to produce.