Thanks for that insight into the Ethanol industry, Chris, and I hope your Toxicology exam goes well, best of luck with it.
You are obviously studying the Environment Studies with a degree of passion, and you present your thesis in a passionate format that is not the norm with clinically detached scientists. BTW, I studied Science myself, and so consider myself a "scientist", at least in general approach. When a scientist puts forward a paper on some subject, it is actually the case that this paper is published in order that it can be challenged or tested by any peer group of professionals in the field. Nothing is considered a "fact" or proven until a number of professionals have replicated and agreed the research.
It would appear that your proposition that alcohol production is bad for the economy based on the production, storage and distribution that is applied. This is not the same thing as saying alcohol production for vehicle use is a bad thing per se. It is more that the application of it is being mis-handled.
The reason I say the above is because I have an agenda also. In my book, continued heavy use of finite and diminishing oil stocks is unsustainable, either from a moral standpoint, an economic stance or from a pollution perspective. Methods of propulsion that derive from renewable resources and have less negative impact on the ecological balance of the planet are more desirable, even if the unit of energy delivered is less than the specific output from oil, or even if the unit production cost is higher than that derived from oil stocks.
I think you can see also from my earlier post that I too agree with what Nemesis is saying. The US will never be free to set up a programme of efficient energy production from renewable resources while the Big Oil producers have their hands up the back of government puppets, and that runs all the way to the top in your present set-up. What you have just described about alcohol production sounds like a system that was put in place so that it would actually
fail. Why would anybody set up a production system that is geared to fail? Well, ask yourself who gains most if it fails.
As for the effect of alcohol production on the economy, well, like any commodity production it will be subject to the principles of supply and demand, as you point out. This doesn't mean it can't work, because of course it can. If you do the maths concerning acres of crop required vs gallons of fuel delivered, it becomes obvious that ethanol could never replace the current fuel usage for the USA. Your present fuel usage is too high and too inefficient, and in extremis the fuel crops would displace too much food production and distort the food market.
It can only ever be regarded as a green [sustainable] method of supplying
domestically a proportion of your energy requirements.
Thanks for your analysis Chris. Maybe with a new generation of passionate environmental scientists like you coming through the system, the US can settle down to seriously reducing usage, provide sustainable and enviro friendly energy sources, and in the process make your economy more efficient and stronger.
Joe
