Comments on: How (corn) ethanol kills: a lesson in basic economics pertaining to fuel supply, fuel demand and price.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:19:10 +0000

There is a lie in here somewhere–it’s not just statistical variance:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75 percent — far more than previously estimated — according to a confidential World Bank report published in a British newspaper on Friday. . .

The figure contradicts U.S. government estimates that plant-derived fuels have contributed less than 3 percent to food-price increases, the newspaper said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25530583/

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:57:46 +0000

Bill Maher: Scientists have been on the biofuel bandwagon - how did they get it so wrong? As Time puts it, “It was as if the science world assumed biofuels would be grown in parking lots. The deforestation in Indonesia shows that’s not the case. It turns out the carbon lost when wilderness is razed overwhelms the gains from cleaner-burning fuels.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/the-biofuel-boom_b_95108.html

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:43:58 +0000

At the Annual Meat Conference this week, a gathering of retail meat industry, economist Tom Elam reported his estimate that the ethanol mandate would result this year in each chicken raised by an American farmer costing 53 cents more to raise than it would have cost without the mandate. As for turkeys, well, it’ll cost the farmer $3.40 more to raise each one.

As Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke explained to the Senate Banking Committee last month, “a significant portion of the corn crop is being diverted to ethanol, which raises corn prices.”

And he added, there are “knock-on effects. For example, some soybean acreage has been moved to corn production, which probably has some effect on soybean prices. So there is some price effect on foodstuffs coming through the conversion to energy use.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23632933/

By: uncle dave

uncle dave — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:13:30 +0000

Well, I think there may be a common misconception here! I don’t think any consumer said “hey, lets subsidize corn/ethanol production!” to his US Rep. I do think maybe there was a lobbyist or two who might have said words to that effect, though. In the same way that Food Stamps are more effectively championed by the grocery industry than by advocates for the hungry…and in the same sense that the military is provided with weapon systems it doesn’t want, but someone really wants to build for them. You might be beating up a straw man here Erich! Are people saying “I want internal combustion!”, or are they saying “I want a popular vehicle that is fun to drive”. Oh, by the way, Niklaus, our Prius cost about the same as a Corolla after the tax credit. Less than a small SUV. (say, didn’t I tell you about your hat?)

By: Niklaus Pfirsig

Niklaus Pfirsig — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:42:56 +0000

Something that most people dont know is that ethanol is not a very good fuel. I drive a crossover, mainly because of my 14 year-old son, who is severely autistic. He has to be helped into and out of the car, and often while riding, he will often rock back and forth. A few years ago, I was driving a Honda civic and then, when he was smaller, his rocking motion would make it very difficult to keep the Honda in one lane on the highway. The crossover is heavier, and has stiffer suspension, and my son’s rocking has not been able to rocj the entire vehicle as it did with the Civic.

Any way, when I first got the crossover, which looks like an SUV but is closer in design to a minivan, my average fuel efficiency was around 25 mpg with mostly city driving. On a couple of road trip of over 60 miles, the highway mileage was 37 mpg. The Honda averaged 32 mpg city and 40 on the highway. A few months ago most of the stations in Nashville satrted carrying an e10 mix (10 percent ethanol) Since then I noticed a sharp decrease in my fuel efficiency. The average is now 18 mpg around town and 22 highway. And it is worse in cold weather.

So the 10 percent alcohol mix requires me to use about 25% more fuel than pure low octane gasoline. the net result is the the amount of gasoline(after subtracting out the ethanol) used is increased by using the ethanol blend.

There is a much better alternative to ethanol. Vegetable oil requires much less energy to produce, and when mixed with gasoline doesn’t reduce fuel economy, and the by products can often be processed into foods. ethanol on the other hand requires a lot of energy to distill, and the by products cannot be used for food.

Hydrogen, is also not a very good fuel. It is expensive to produce, dificult ot safely store and release little usable energy when burned (this is because the complete burning of hyrdocarbons produces a lot more water vapor in the form of steam that pushes the pistons in an internal combustion engine) than the burning of pure hydrogen.

Most of the population of the US, really don’t have a choice. They can’t afford to run out and buy a trendy $30,000-$40,000 hybrid, and since most cities in the US have little or no mass transit, and the zoning in many urban areas do not allow for very much flexibility in the commercial/residential zones, most of Americans have to own a car simply because the infrastructure (or lack thereof) forces it on them.