Corn Growers Defend Ethanol Against Attacks
The nation’s corn growers called comments made Wednesday by a coalition of radical environmental groups “just another attempt to prevent the ethanol industry from decreasing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.”
“These environmental groups are stirring up fear for the American public at a time when Americans are already struggling due to the faltering world economy, job losses and high costs of food brought on by some food companies’ record profits and greed,” said National Corn Growers Association President Bob Dickey, a producer from Nebraska.
Several environmental organizations held a press conference urging the federal government to stop promoting renewable fuels like ethanol and saying they would rather increase the use of imported oil. During the conference, Clean Air Task Force spokesman Jonathan Lewis told a reporter that “burning gasoline is better than increasing the production of corn ethanol.”
Listen to that soundbite here
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The group representatives made claims that they were unable to back up with any specific facts when questioned and they offered no ideas for moving toward a renewable energy future, although they claim that is their ultimate goal. They simply want the production of corn ethanol halted because they question whether biofuels are capable of making a major contribution to reducing fossil fuel use.
“The fact remains that ‘made in the U.S.’ corn ethanol is here — and available today — to strengthen the U.S. economy, create new, U.S.-based jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Wind and solar power are good options for energy; however, these will take years to have the same impact that ethanol is having now,” Dickey said.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (245.8KB)
1 Comment »
Aureon Kwolek
What most people don’t realize is that imported oil has a HIDDEN COST. As long as the U.S. has a Foreign Oil Trade Deficit, imported oil will be paid for with American stocks and bonds, American real estate, and American debt instruments, totaling $500 billion a year, leaving the country. We don’t just send U.S. dollars to pay for foreign oil, because our dollars are backed by nothing. We ended the gold and silver standards years ago.
Primarily, we use debt instruments to buy foreign oil, and they are created out of nothing by the Federal Reserve and added to the National Debt. This is debt consumption. As long as the National Debt remains unpaid, it’s like a revolving credit card. Year after year Americans slave to pay interest on the fuel they bought years ago, derived from foreign oil. And after about 12 years, if the debt continues to be unpaid and continues to accrue interest, you will have paid twice for that fuel. The cost of that $42 barrel of oil you just bought will actually cost you $84 or more. The cost of that $150 barrel of oil you bought last year will cost you $300 or more. By the way, you pay little or no floating interest on domestically made biofuel.
Carbon dioxide from corn ethanol gets recycled. It’s almost carbon neutral. Where as fossil fuels such as gasoline continue to bring up massive amounts of new carbon from deep underground, which is accumulating in the atmosphere and damaging the environment and public health. The impact of burning fossil fuels such as gasoline, diesel fuel, and coal are far more dangerous to the environment than biofuels.
Furthermore, the ethanol industry is evolving. Some ethanol plants are becoming self-powered, replacing natural gas with renewables. Corn ethanol plants are beginning to add Algae production, grown on refinery waste products CO2, waste heat, and nutrient rich waste water effluent. Some corn farmers are growing their own oil crops and making their own biodiesel. Some corn farmers will soon have 100% ethanol powered Ricardo type engines in their tractors that get diesel quality efficiency and torque, from cheap local fuel they helped to produce. Compare that with fuels refined from imported oil shipped by burning dirty fossil fuels long distance from foreign countries. With the direction that domestic ethanol is moving, in the near future, it will be totally carbon neutral and half the price of diesel fuel.
Next comes 100% Ethanol Fuel Cells: With the development of non-precious metal catalysts, fuel cells are getting closer to being mass-produced. Future farmers will have direct 100% ethanol fuel cells in their tractors. Or, they will have fuel cells with onboard reformers that process “undistilled” ethanol, a solution of 2/3 ethanol and 1/3 water, into hydrogen on demand, powering their tractors and long haul trucks. Fuel Cells are over 2 times more efficient than internal combustion engines. This is the development path of ethanol and well worth the investment.
Jonathan Lewis, Clean Air Task Force said “burning gasoline is better than increasing the production of corn ethanol.” I think someone has their head in the sand.
Comments RSS feed — TrackBack URI
Leave a Comment