Midwest Watchdog - Ethanol A Good Idea Or Scam?

There has been a lot of talk about ethanol over the past few years as an alternative fuel. Here we cover some of the good things and some of the dark secrets of ethanol. Certainly ethanol can be useful in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. For this reason we should be using ethanol, however, we need to be mindful of the many shortcomings of US produced ethanol as well as ethanol in general as a fuel.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ethanol
• E85
• Corn
• fuel
• renewable
• energy
• Iowa

[monsterrain1000]

In America we waste 2/3rds of the food produced. Figure that into your fake food vs. fuel debate

[MidwestWatchdog]

@monsterrain1000

If we waste all that food in America and we are still this fat then I guess it is a good thing otherwise we would be even fatter if we ate it all.

[xexorz]

READ THIS:

When dent corn is used to make ethanol the "spent grains" which now contain mostly protein are STILL USED AS A FOOD STOCK FOR ANIMALS! In other words - when you make ethanol from corn you do NOT "use up" the corn! You still use the grain as a food stock!!! Why do nobody mention this???

BTW cracking of oil into gasoline etc takes energy too!!

[MidwestWatchdog]

@xexorz This is a very good point and I am aware of it. I will make sure to add this to the video. Here is a question for you. Why are we sending the spent corn to China for feed instead of just using it here for feed?

[jimbobubbadj]

Brazil has the better system, relatively speaking. Ethanol from corn is a complete sham. From sugar, it actually does provide more energy than was used to produce it. The problem with both types of ethanol is soil depletion for fuel.

[MidwestWatchdog]

As it exists today corn ethanol is a sham. Technology can make it viable if we apply it.

[sgtrock68]

@xexorz Thats right Xexorz. The corn used to make ethanol cannot be eaten by people. Well we wouldn't like it anyway. The animal feed that is leftover from making ethanol has all the protein of the corn. Whats the point of NOT getting the BTUs out of it. Also a plant produces about 100 gal/hr of corn syrup that can be used for people food and biodegradable plastics.

As for China, why do we sell them corn and then buy the same corn back from then with a mark-up?

[chapiselenano]

brasil use sugar cane to produce ethanol not corn

[sicballer10]

Ya great idea Melkez4sho, let's scrap all our corn production in the fertile midwest and replace it with switchgrass...(sarcasm) DDGs, just like xexorz was talking about, allow corn (not switchgrass or anything else) to be split into two parts; the nutritional part of the corn kernel is separated and is used as feed, while the other part--with no nutritional value whatsoever--can be used in the production of ethanol....corn ethanol may not be a permanent solution, but it is a good start.

[Melkez4sho]

@justin76bmw Man that sucks. Ethanol has a higher compression ratio..

[Melkez4sho]

Ethanol from corn is no where near as good as Ethanol from switch grass. The only reason corn is used is because it is subsidized by the U.S. Government. If your not careful ethanol will disappear all together. The Oil Machine is a powerful force to be reckoned with.. and Switch Grass is the Balance tipper. It only needs to be planted once every 15 years its native to N America. and it produces about 8 to ten tons per archer. look it up the further of ethanol is Switch Grass....

[StressFreeWorldWide]

in california we have cars that can run on cooking oil "through modification" that have little to no emission output. all gasoline is a scam. its like everything else in the world if it can be exploited for profits, it will. we have the ability to go really green, but if it produces less profits thats bad for business