Edwards launches plan to boost ethanol use (Reuters)

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Edwards launches plan to boost ethanol use
Thu May 31, 2007 5:12PM EDT

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate John
Edwards on Thursday unveiled an energy proposal that rivals plans
by fellow candidates in the race toward boosting the use of ethanol
in the United States.

At a campaign appearance in California, Edwards said he would
force oil companies to install ethanol pumps at a quarter of their
service stations and require automakers to build cars that can run
on biofuels.

Edwards' plan to boost the use of ethanol, currently made mostly
in the United States from corn, should appeal to voting farmers in
Iowa, which next January holds the first state caucus of the 2008
presidential election.

He wants cars built after 2010 to be "flex fuel" vehicles that use
either gasoline or biofuels, like ethanol.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPAR17632820070531

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The article continues with details about the plan.

[youngdem]

1. Food based Ethanol is a scam and a political bribe for the Midwest and South

Mr. Edwards is bright enough to know better.

[madrchsod]

2. yes it is on both counts

i live in the midwest and know that shit`is going to hit the fan when the grain belt goes into a drought cycle.

[renie408]

3. Really? A scam?

I buy ethanol and save about twenty cents a gallon because of it. There is only one gas station around here that sells it, but it is right across from where my daughter play soccer. If its a scam, its a scam that is saving me money every week.

[Solon]

4. Give it five years, and you'll wish they used that land to grow food instead of fuel...

To actually try to replace food crops with fuel crops is stupidity of the highest order. What good does ethanol does when you start starving?

[youngdem]

5. It's not supposed to save you money.

Right now, they are getting you hooked.

Ethanol is a SCAM because of several things.

First, any serious evaluation of ethanol (at present) shows that it is DELTA NEGATIVE, meaning it takes more energy to make the fuel than it produces, when you consider the energy to farm the corn, fertilize it, ship it, process it, ship it again and store it for retail. So, it is a bait issue for people with a poor grasp of the basics of chemistry.

Second, it isn't a truly clean fuel, so it won't help global warming.

Third, it is going to have a negative net effect on the economy because it is going to continue to drive food prices skyward. That is BAD for social stability. BAD, BAD, BAD. At some point, the food from one part of the world is going to be taken as fuel for a richer part of the world, and all hell is gonna break loose when people start starving so someone can drive. And that day will come QUICKLY if it hasn't already. In Mexico, there were small RIOTS recently over the price of tortillas because corn flour has already gone crazy in response to demand for corn for ethanol.

Fourth, it is a political scam. It only has legs because it is a political bribe for farmers in the Midwest and South. Farmers see oil growing in their fields, their eyes go fuzzy with dollar signs, and they pull the lever for the politician telling them the most fanciful things about the promise of ethanol. Think of all of the other alternatives out there - solar, wind, wave energy - and THIS gets the big push from EVERY SINGLE politician (who are almost all owned by Big Oil) out there? That should tell you something.

Fifth, it does little to reduce our foreign dependence on oil, since you can't run a car (at least most cars, right now) on pure ethanol, and it takes oil based energy to make ethanol (transport, processing energy and fertilizer).

Until a non-food crop like switchgrass catches on and allows marginal fields to become productive while not decimating food supplies in a growing world, I will oppose it. It is BAD policy.



So, yeah, a full blown, out and out SCAM.

[John Q. Citizen]

7. So would government subsidized gas, which is why gas isn't 6 bucks a gallon

at the pump. We pay through our taxes instead.

Ethonal isn't what it's cracked up to be. It costs more energy to produce than it provides.

[3waygeek]

6. My ethanol use has already increased...

thanks to *'s misrule :beer: :hangover:

[Canuckistanian]

9. No, that's Ethyl alcohol

If you drink Ethanol all your worries are OVER.

[Canuckistanian]

8. I thought he'd be more intelligent than that

Massive Ethanol production is a losing game. It LOOKS like a good deal until you consider the MILLIONS of acres needed to even make a dent in foreign energy dependence.

And unless there's local usage of ethanol, the transportation and storage costs negate the benefits.

Then there's that little matter of not being able to keep up food production.

Wind, solar, tidal, hydro, wave, fine. Even nuclear. That's where time, effort and money should be going.

[motocicleta]

10. That's at least two strikes against him.

Both of which are fatal: IWR and now ethanol. Only an idiot could think either of those were a good idea. It's too bad, because I appreciate his anti-poverty focus.

Still: dude wins the nomination, and I line my skinny ass behind him in a hurry. Just sayin'.