Corn Ethanol Remains Industry Building Block
As the ethanol industry seeks a waiver to allow the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in gasoline, corn-based ethanol remains the basic building block for increased use of the product nationwide.
“We have to build the cellulosic industry on the foundation of corn-based ethanol,” Growth Energy co-chairman Wesley Clark told reporters during an appearance at the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Series last week. “Corn-based ethanol has been the pioneer. It’s set up the marketing, it’s set up the distribution, it’s encouraged vehicles to be flexible-fuel, and all of this sets the basis for cellulosic.”
However, Clark pointed out that ethanol production has essentially capped out under the current regulatory standard, so moving to a higher approved blend level is essential for the industry to move forward. “The E15 is perfectly acceptable in American cars because vehicle fuel systems have been upgraded to meet US regulations and tested against even more aggressive fuels,” Clark said.
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Chip Daigle
Wesley Clark is Flawed
I think Corn based Ethanol was a good idea gone bad. It was a great idea and a noble one, but it has led to some drastic, unforeseen consequences, particularly the price of corn and other foods rising drastically. We need to be careful that we do not overextend our corn farmers and move more towards Sugar Cane in the South and Sweet Sorghum in the South and Southwest. I disagree with the Turncoat Democrap Wesley Clark that Corn
Ethanol is the building blocks of Cellulosic Ethanol; I think that Sugarcane, Sweet Sorghum, and Jatropha are just as valuable.
Jatropha is actually something that could actually solve a lot of the World’s poverty. It’s the greatest idea in 10 years and the young, stupid naïve, and irresponsible President Obama has not ever heard of it; if he had he would be pushing it to the UN like crazy. He would have Hildabeast knocking on the UN doors everyday. By planting jatropha, you can eliminate poverty and knock out the Drug dealers in one clean swoop. You want a solution to Mexico, plant Jatropha. Afghanistan, plant Jatropha; Iraq, plant Jatropha; Africa, plant Jatropha. It grows great from 30 degrees South to 30 degrees North of the Equator.
But Wide-eyed Wesley has been paid by the corn industry to push corn. Did anyone in the Cowardly media ever ask Wesley Clark how much he is being paid to do those speeches? I will never forgive him for trashing our troops in Iraq and he is the worse spokesman for any idea since Jane Fonda. He divides our country. I suggest he crawl under a rock. He and Jane Fonda are sores on the American body being picked and starting to bleed. I can’t believe the good Corn Patriots would hire that clown.
Also I believe that Wesley Clark plan to just impose 15% Ethanol mandate is irresponsible. It fails to take into account the fact that older cars cannot use 15% Ethanol blend. I don’t thing some cars can use 10%. A more responsible thing to do would be to use the TARP Money to offer the American people coupons to have their cars upgraded to E15, or maybe even E85 Specs. It could work like the coupons to convert to Digital TV; but Wesley is into “mandates” forced control of the market, like Communist countries. Another great idea along these lines is to mix the ethanol at the pump to what ever your car can take. It gives the American people choice, not mandates like Red China and Russia. Watch out for NeoCom Wesley Clark, he talks a good game but he is being paid just like NeoCom Bill Clinton.
Aureon Kwolek
The main cause of higher food prices last year was crude oil prices going over $100 a barrel. That sent transportation fuels and shipping costs sky high. The next biggest cause was commodities speculation. One Swiss company cornered 11 % of the entire world supply of crude oil, held it off the market to drive-up the price, and then sold it for a huge profit. They made over a billion dollars a year just flipping oil futures, and they kept doing this over and over, along with thousands of other speculators doing the same thing. Except speculation wasn’t just being done with crude oil. Speculators were flipping corn futures, soybean futures, wheat futures, rice futures – whatever they could profit from. The result of commodities speculation is that corn doubled, Rice tripled, wheat doubled, and soy doubled. Now corn is back down to about $3.50 a bushel, half of what it was. And by the way, food prices did not come back down. That proves that corn ethanol is Not the main cause of food price increases. This was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Furthermore, there’s about 6 cents worth of corn in a box of corn flakes that retails for $3.50, and even when corn doubled in price, it was still almost insignificant. 90% of the shelf price of a grain based food is processing, shipping and handling, overhead, advertising, and mark-up. Right now, the entire cost of the corn itself in a box of corn flakes is 1.7%. So corn ethanol, which only strips the starch from of 1 out of 3 bushels of cow corn, could never have caused retail food prices to jump 10 to 15%.
There are two types of corn, and they are two different commodities. A natural one for human consumption (13% of the corn crop). And genetically enhanced feed corn (87% of the corn crop) produced specifically for livestock, such as beef cattle, dairy cows, poultry and hogs and, fish farms. We have a surplus of both of these corn crops. If we had a shortage, that would put stress on corn prices, but we don’t. We have a surplus. So about 20% of our feed corn is exported. That is also a contributing factor in the demand and price of feed corn. Last year feed corn exports increased by 20%. This year, they’re back down. Last year exports of distillers grains doubled. The numbers are constantly in flux.
There are a lot factors influencing the price of corn and foods. The floods in the upper Midwest damaged only 5% of last years corn crop, but the price of corn shot-up 30%. When other types of crops fail in foreign countries, such as last year’s drought in Australia that reduced grain production, that can create temporary shortages and increase the demand for and the price of corn.
The first blogger is not knowledgeable on corn economics. Like many other biofuel critics, his agenda to slash and burn corn ethanol, is based on inaccurate information and false assumptions.
Aureon Kwolek
I do think the first blogger has a couple of good suggestions. A great idea: (1) A Gov. coupon or tax rebate to convert vehicles to be ethanol compatible… The next one is already spreading: (2) The installation of ethanol blender pumps, so you could have a choice at the pump.
I advocate 0 to 100% ethanol blends. Because small engines, outboards, and old vehicles would best consume 0% ethanol. And on the other end of the spectrum, high compression, turbocharged, ethanol-optimized engines are coming from Ricardo, Lotus, Suzuki, and others, that will get better mileage and more torque on 100% ethanol than they get on gasoline or lower ethanol blends. A Chinese automaker, DongFeng is coming out with a standard engine that runs on a solution of 65% ethanol and 35% water, reformed onboard into hydrogen on demand. And later, we will have fuel cell powered vehicles that can run on hydrogen-rich onboard ethanol. You would need to pump 100% ethanol for these too. So why not cover all the bases now. Why not have pumps that let you dial ANY PERCENTAGE of ethanol you want?…
Also, I have a third suggestion: (3) That would be to require car makers to RATE all of their vehicles, retroactively, so owners would know exactly what percentage of ethanol their vehicle would tolerate. This would take the guesswork and the apprehension out using ethanol blends.
gerald kupeerus
WE RUN IT IN HOT RODS WITH FUEL INJECTION ALL THE TIME AND USE CHEVY SMALL AND BIG BLOCKS FROM 300 HP AND AS HIGH FOR US AT 2000. HP IN A DRAG CAR LOOOOOVE IT WE HAVE STARTED TO MARKET THE ECM AND WIRE HARNESSES + ALL COMPONENTS TO DO IT AND EVEN MARINE TECHNOLOGY WE USE ALLLLL AMERICAN MADE PARTS ! AND CAN CONVERT ALMOST ANYTHING .THE PROBLEM LIES WITH EVEN HAVEING PUMP REG. LOW OCTANE WHICH IN THE PERFORMANCE WORLD HURTS ENGINES ,GET RID OF IT, BOOST THE OCTANE WITH ETH. AND BUILD SMALLER ENGINE’S WITH MORE COMPRESION AND MORE IGNITION TIMING WITH THE ECM LIKE WE HAVE MAKE TWICE THE POWER AND SAVE GAS /POLLUT LESS AND KEEP THE ELECTRIC DEATHTRAPS THE HELL AWAY FROM ME ASK ANYONE WHO HAS TO RESCUE A PERSON FROM A ELECTRIC CAR no one talks about it
Vic
A huge project of plant Jatropha in Portuguese-speaking African countries.
Stanley Ho the Macau gambling industry tycoon hopes to become one of the world’s top investors in biofuels, pledging nearly US$40 billion over the next ten years in biofuel production throughout Portugese-speaking countries. According to his firm’s estimates, Geocapital’s production is expected to reach 14 million tons per year within 10 to 15 years, roughly one-tenth worldwide production.
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