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Economic Failure Endorses Stimulus

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Hengineer2/19/2009 3:18:55 pm PST
If Iowa were no longer allowed to hold the earliest caucus, politicians wouldn’t feel the need to pander to the ethanol lobby. Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to burn food for fuel is an idiot (or a corn farmer).

The thing is, even if the type of corn used for fuel is different than food corn (which it is), it is still not a good way to produce ethanol! Extreme water and land consuming process, then the energy put INTO the corn to turn it into ethanol (not to mention the Carbon Dioxide released into the atmosphere), then the fact that ethanol doesn’t have as much energy per kilogram as does gasoline, counts for a losing proposition.

All it does is drive up costs of fuel and food at the same time.

There are much better methods of producing ethanol, such as beets or sugar cane. I read about prairie grass, even has a much more efficient output of ethanol than corn.