Ethanol: Silly Senator, Corn is for Food!

Ethanol advocates claim that ethanol is a cheap, renewable energy source that reduces pollution and our dependence on foreign oil. It sounds too good to be true--and it is.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• alternative
• carey
• corn
• drew
• ethanol
• farm
• fuels
• gasoline
• libertarian
• mandates
• reasoncom
• reasontv
• subsidies

[ZiggyStardust2329]

Its funny that people like me, who advocate nuclear energy, don't really have to. Nuclear energy is growing rapidly thanks to the market, and so I don't really need to argue for it because its already happening, which is natural because the market dictates which energy source is best, which nuclear energy has proved to be.

[stick1to2the3issue]

Ethanol: no renewable. Hydrogen fuel cells (water): non renewable. Gasoline: non renewable. So what IS the answer? Renewable resources like nuclear, solar and wind. The problem is these don't mesh with the internal combustion engine. So the transistion to battery needs to be made. The problem with battery is they still need more development to bring the price down and the efficiency up. The worst thing we can do is prevent or slow the development by getting sidetracked by things like ethanol

[WestSkier11]

I only buy premium and mid grade because Regular is riddled with ethanol that destroys engines.

Gasoline combustion engines are becoming more and more efficient. 60mpgs are coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

[felpaluche]

Better be careful

[9971explorer]

Keep putting crappy ethanol in your gas tank and you will end up having to get the engine in your car repaired. I found out the hard way. And now i only buy gas at the only station in town that does not have ethanol in their gas.

[WelshWebb]

If one really want s a renewable energy source, let's create one based upon a politician's hot air. Imagine the possibilities! We'd have full sized vehicles capable of getting at least 1000 miles per gallon!

[nrkgalt]

This whole ethanol thing reminds me of something I saw on an old TV show. A loony scientist came up with a formula to manufacture gold. Some bad guys kidnapped him and made him show them how to do it. When they saw that one of the component parts was a bar of platinum, they lost interest.

[patrick42h]

@sarahreaume That's a fair question. It's actually a really important question to ask as plug-in vehicles get closer to hitting showrooms again.

The great thing about electricity is that it can be generated in a number of ways, many of which are renewable and non-polluting. For example: wind, solar, and geothermal.

If we drove electric cars, our transportation fleet would get cleaner as the grid gets cleaner.

[xexorz]

#1 - Dent corn (used to make ethanol) is not a food stuff... it is a feed stock for beef etc...

#2 - "Spent Grains" (whats left over after making ethanol from corn) is a BETTER FOOD STOCK for cattle than the corn was to begin with (it has much lower carbs which is what makes corn such a POOR food stock!!!)

GO FIGURE

CORN can become ETHANOL - !AND! - Food at the SAME TIME.

The liberals don't tell you that....

Subsidies are stupid though :-)