Allow ethanol subsidies, to expire -$30 Billion

[Independem]

Allow ethanol subsidies, to expire -$30 Billion

Congress should let our current ethanol policies expire on Dec. 31, 2010, saving taxpayers $30 billion over the next five years when we need it most.

http://www.jdnews.com/articles/ethanol-84341-expire-subsidies.html

Cut Taxes for the Rich and Cut Social Security NOT Subsidies to Corporate Farms.

[Independem]

1. Ethanol Fuel from Corn Faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’

Ethanol Fuel from Corn Faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’

Ethanol
Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol.


An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel’s analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol.

http://healthandenergy.com/ethanol.htm


Corn prices are soaring, as we burn are food supply. Oil Companies are buying up farms to control the cost of Ethanol and are Subsidized $30 billion. Another great scam.

[littlewolf]

2. Indeed I have never supported burning food ....

just crazy .....

[progressoid]

3. As someone in corn country let me tell ya

It'll never happen.

At least not in the foreseeable future.

[farmbo]

4. BS! ... Ethanol is clean, home grown & renewable... let the industry grow

This post is based on a straw man argument from a letter writer in North Carolina who asserts, without authority, that "experts agree" that ethanol subsidies are bad. True enough-- if your "experts" are oil barons.

Big Oil has their ($500 billion?) oil depletion allowance; an oil & gas subsidy in the tax code. Yet this "concerned" letter writer doesn't look for savings there-- he wants to kill a modest ethanol blender credit which lowers the fuel's cost at the gas pump and allows farmers and rural residents to benefit from an energy economy, based on renewable, non- carbon fuels.

In addition to corn, ethanol is now being made from non-food biomass(cellulosic), algae, switch grass and sugar. This is no longer a "food vs fuel" conundrum.

The letter writer also suggests opening the floodgates for Brazilian sugar ethanol-- which would spell doom for millions of acres of rain forest. Talk about environmental degradation!

And the US EPA has just raised-- not lowered-- the percentage of ethanol that can be blended, putting the lie to the writer's smug assertion that the EPA opposes ethanol for environmental reasons.

I'm throwing up the BS flag on this one.

:grr:

[kristopher]

5. Ethanol for personal transportation is a scam

It is the worst of all ways to meet our personal transportation needs, and it diverts a VERY significant percentage of the public funds that could be used for far more productive technologies.

Abstract here: http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/EE/article.asp?doi=b809990c

Full article for download here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/revsolglobwarmairpol.htm


Energy Environ. Sci., 2009, 2, 148 - 173, DOI: 10.1039/b809990c

Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security

Mark Z. Jacobson

Abstract
This paper reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as on water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, water chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and undernutrition.

Nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel options are considered. The electricity sources include solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85. To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, we examine their comparative abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85.

Twelve combinations of energy source-vehicle type are considered. Upon ranking and weighting each combination with respect to each of 11 impact categories, four clear divisions of ranking, or tiers, emerge.

Tier 1 (highest-ranked) includes wind-BEVs and wind-HFCVs.
Tier 2 includes CSP-BEVs, geothermal-BEVs, PV-BEVs, tidal-BEVs, and wave-BEVs.
Tier 3 includes hydro-BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs.
Tier 4 includes corn- and cellulosic-E85.

Wind-BEVs ranked first in seven out of 11 categories, including the two most important, mortality and climate damage reduction. Although HFCVs are much less efficient than BEVs, wind-HFCVs are still very clean and were ranked second among all combinations.

Tier 2 options provide significant benefits and are recommended.

Tier 3 options are less desirable. However, hydroelectricity, which was ranked ahead of coal-CCS and nuclear with respect to climate and health, is an excellent load balancer, thus recommended.

The Tier 4 combinations (cellulosic- and corn-E85) were ranked lowest overall and with respect to climate, air pollution, land use, wildlife damage, and chemical waste. Cellulosic-E85 ranked lower than corn-E85 overall, primarily due to its potentially larger land footprint based on new data and its higher upstream air pollution emissions than corn-E85.

Whereas cellulosic-E85 may cause the greatest average human mortality, nuclear-BEVs cause the greatest upper-limit mortality risk due to the expansion of plutonium separation and uranium enrichment in nuclear energy facilities worldwide. Wind-BEVs and CSP-BEVs cause the least mortality.

The footprint area of wind-BEVs is 2–6 orders of magnitude less than that of any other option. Because of their low footprint and pollution, wind-BEVs cause the least wildlife loss.

The largest consumer of water is corn-E85. The smallest are wind-, tidal-, and wave-BEVs.

The US could theoretically replace all 2007 onroad vehicles with BEVs powered by 73000–144000 5 MW wind turbines, less than the 300000 airplanes the US produced during World War II, reducing US CO2 by 32.5–32.7% and nearly eliminating 15000/yr vehicle-related air pollution deaths in 2020.

In sum, use of wind, CSP, geothermal, tidal, PV, wave, and hydro to provide electricity for BEVs and HFCVs and, by extension, electricity for the residential, industrial, and commercial sectors, will result in the most benefit among the options considered. The combination of these technologies should be advanced as a solution to global warming, air pollution, and energy security. Coal-CCS and nuclear offer less benefit thus represent an opportunity cost loss, and the biofuel options provide no certain benefit and the greatest negative impacts.

[Fledermaus]

6. 2009 Distillers Grains, feed coproduct of ethanol production, Exports Shatter Previous Record

The U.S. ethanol industry exported 5.64 million metric tons (mmt) of distillers grains worth nearly $1 billion in 2009, shattering the previous record set in 2008, according to data released last week by the Foreign Agriculture Service. Exports in 2009 were 24 percent above 2008 levels and more than five times higher than the amount of distillers grains exported just five years ago.

Distillers grains are the livestock feed coproduct of ethanol production from grain. In a typical dry mill ethanol biorefinery, one-third of every bushel of corn entering the facility is returned to the market in the form of high protein, nutrient rich livestock feed. Only the starch portion of the corn kernel is converted to fuel, while the remaining protein, fat and other nutrients remain intact in the coproduct.

“Distillers grains are a vitally important coproduct of U.S ethanol production from grain,” said Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Research and Analysis Geoff Cooper. “The increasing availability of distillers grains is providing livestock and poultry feeders around the world with a feed source that can partially displace the need for corn, soybean meal, and other ingredients in feed rations.”

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/RFA--2009-Distillers-Grains-Exports-Shatter-Previous-Record/2010-02-15/Article.aspx?oid=987741&fid=CN-FEED_BYPRODUCTS