EPA rejects bid to relax ethanol mandate

[jorton]

Originally Posted By: Samilcar

Ethanol production spurred massive investments in crop genetics that has doubled corn production per acre in the past 35 years. Never doubt the ability of the American farmer to overproduce. There is plenty of corn to go around for both food AND fuel.


Congressmen are eating Fillet MinCorn?

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Y\uu get what you vote for.


___ Big

___ Bigger

 

[Trav]

Quote:
Why should Americans care about food for the world's poor countries? It is not American's responsibility to care for the welfare of others.

As long as we are giving corn to poor countries anyway it would be great to trade the corn to poor countries for food in exchange for exclusive oil drilling rights.
I think that would a fair deal.

I'm not saying take it from them, we would certainly pay them for it. Just the exclusive rights to plant our well and not other countries like China.
I have no problem with the US helping other countries in need its just this all give and no take deal that gets me.

You want The US military to help you? Ok we want oil rights.
You want food? Ditto
No oil? Give us mineral deposit claims, gold, diamonds.
By now we could have half the oil in the Middle East. what do we do? Ask them for a freaking loan instead.

 

[volk06]

 

[lexus114]

Ya know, this ethanol stuff in the fuel is really starting to [censored] me off!

 

[default]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
This is what happens when the government interferes and subsidizes any facet of the marketplace. That industry then accumulates funds and connections and lobbying power.

I suggest we use science and mathematics to make rational decisions on energy sources.

Let's determine the total birth-to-death cost to produce each energy source, its availability, its energy density, its transportability, etc. An Excel spreadsheet matrix could be used to generate calculations and graphs.

This would include bio energy sources, wind, solar, nuclear, oil, gas, etc.


[sarcasm]SCIENCE IS SCARY AND HARD TO UNDERSTAND, AND EXPENSIVE WITH NO SHORT TERM GAIN.[/sarcasm] If the gov ran on science, some of us wouldn't even be on this planet anymore.

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted By: default
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
This is what happens when the government interferes and subsidizes any facet of the marketplace. That industry then accumulates funds and connections and lobbying power.

I suggest we use science and mathematics to make rational decisions on energy sources.

Let's determine the total birth-to-death cost to produce each energy source, its availability, its energy density, its transportability, etc. An Excel spreadsheet matrix could be used to generate calculations and graphs.

This would include bio energy sources, wind, solar, nuclear, oil, gas, etc.


[sarcasm]SCIENCE IS SCARY AND HARD TO UNDERSTAND, AND EXPENSIVE WITH NO SHORT TERM GAIN.[/sarcasm] If the gov ran on science, some of us wouldn't even be on this planet anymore.

[sarcasm] I KNOW!!!, Like with Solar, The Sun GOES AWAY,EVERY NIGHT!! what do we do then?? ACK!! [/sarcasm]

 

[Samilcar]

Originally Posted By: Trav

As long as we are giving corn to poor countries


We are not giving away field corn (the corn that is used for ethanol production) to poor countries. It cannot be directly eaten. It cannot be used to make corn chips or corn tortillas or corn meal (different kind of corn - white corn). The corn that is grown for ethanol production (field corn) can be turned into food in a couple of different ways. The most common is to turn it into meat by feeding it to cows, chickens and pigs. It can also can be industrially processed into corn oil or corn sugar (HFCS) or food grade ethanol and consumed that way.

There are many legitimate reasons to be against government enforced ethanol use. The "ethanol kills African babies" argument isn't one of them.

 

[cchase]

Originally Posted By: Samilcar
We are not giving away field corn (the corn that is used for ethanol production) to poor countries. It cannot be directly eaten. It cannot be used to make corn chips or corn tortillas or corn meal (different kind of corn - white corn). The corn that is grown for ethanol production (field corn) can be turned into food in a couple of different ways. The most common is to turn it into meat by feeding it to cows, chickens and pigs. It can also can be industrially processed into corn oil or corn sugar (HFCS) or food grade ethanol and consumed that way.

There are many legitimate reasons to be against government enforced ethanol use. The "ethanol kills African babies" argument isn't one of them.

I think the full argument against it is not that the same corn that could be used to feed people is going into cars, but that any land and infrastructure being used to produce ethanol is taking away infrastructure and land from corn for consumption.

Sort of like, if I have 10 acres, I can grow 10 acres of consumable corn, 10 acres of field corn, or some mix. With a finite supply of water and land, something has to give somewhere. With every acre of field corn being grown, there's an acre less for anything else.