White_Male_Canada
05-05-2007, 05:59 PM
As Jerry Taylor reminded us in his interview on "20/20," when ethanol is produced "it takes a lot of fossil fuels to make the fertilizer, to run the tractor, to build the silo, to get that corn to a processing plant, to run the processing plant." Then there's the energy it takes to move the ethanol around. Because ethanol degrades, it's not possible to transport it in pipelines like we do oil, so using ethanol means putting many more polluting trucks on the road to deliver it.
Because of that, a number of recent studies show that it takes just about as much energy to produce ethanol as you get when you burn ethanol. "Its net energy balance is zero, more or less," said Taylor.
On top of this, emissions from ethanol-fueled cars are no cleaner for the environment. According to atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University, a switch to ethanol won't do anything to address climate change and ethanol fumes may actually be worse for public health than the fumes from gas-powered vehicles.
But ethanol won't cure our dependence on foreign oil. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says even turning all of America's corn into ethanol would only meet 12 percent of our gasoline demand.
And the idea that Middle Eastern countries could just withhold petroleum from us and "hold us hostage" is "nonsense," said Taylor. "Heck, they're held hostage to us -- 80 to 90 percent of their federal revenues come from oil sales [so] they have to sell oil, [because] they have no other business to be engaged in!"
He's right. Even if OPEC refuses to sell petroleum to us, all of the world's oil ends up in the same bathtub -- our enemies will sell to SOMEONE who will sell to someone who will sell to us.
When a fuel source is expensive and bad for the environment and won't help our foreign policy, then there's no reason to force taxpayers to foot the bill for producing it.
"This is a naked transfer program designed to take money from people who buy corn and to give it to people who grow corn and people who make ethanol for a living. That's all it is,"
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3130684&page=1
Because of that, a number of recent studies show that it takes just about as much energy to produce ethanol as you get when you burn ethanol. "Its net energy balance is zero, more or less," said Taylor.
On top of this, emissions from ethanol-fueled cars are no cleaner for the environment. According to atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University, a switch to ethanol won't do anything to address climate change and ethanol fumes may actually be worse for public health than the fumes from gas-powered vehicles.
But ethanol won't cure our dependence on foreign oil. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says even turning all of America's corn into ethanol would only meet 12 percent of our gasoline demand.
And the idea that Middle Eastern countries could just withhold petroleum from us and "hold us hostage" is "nonsense," said Taylor. "Heck, they're held hostage to us -- 80 to 90 percent of their federal revenues come from oil sales [so] they have to sell oil, [because] they have no other business to be engaged in!"
He's right. Even if OPEC refuses to sell petroleum to us, all of the world's oil ends up in the same bathtub -- our enemies will sell to SOMEONE who will sell to someone who will sell to us.
When a fuel source is expensive and bad for the environment and won't help our foreign policy, then there's no reason to force taxpayers to foot the bill for producing it.
"This is a naked transfer program designed to take money from people who buy corn and to give it to people who grow corn and people who make ethanol for a living. That's all it is,"
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3130684&page=1