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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Tom Stangl writes:
Snip
> Or probably ADM.
>
> Boy, ADM's political contributions sure have paid off bigtime now!
ADM, just about my least favorite corporation. I don't know what I hate
worse, their welfareism, or their smarmy ads on the sunday talking head
shows about their goshdarn good for the world ethanol.
I would LOVE to have someone who has more time than I do and did better in
Thermodynamics than I did do a total energy balance on ethanol production. I
have a sneaking suspicion that it's a net energy loss! That is, that you put
more energy into fertilizer, trucking in the seed corn, tilling, spraying
for weeds and corn borers, harvesting, taking it to the distillery, heating
it up, fermenting it, processing the silage left over, distilling the
alcohol out, transporting it, etc etc (I probably missed about 15 steps),
than is actually IN the alcohol. (all the energy in the alcohol came from
the sun, of course)
Put it another way. My suspicion is that the cash subsidy ADM gets is
actually there to cover up the negative energy balance, not because it's
someday going to be a good idea to do this and we just haven't gotten to
economies of scale.
I could be wrong but I wouldn't be too surprised to be right.
I bet you'd be farther ahead to convert the acreage currently used to grow
ethanol corn into solar cell fields and use the electricity to synthesize
ethanol that way!
So ya, I hate ethanol. It is a prime example of the worst excesses that you
get when government meddles in the market and corps, playing the game by the
rules they lobbied for, work the program for all it is worth.
So don't hate ADM because they are good at being leeches. Hate the system
that enabled them to set up the rules the way they did.
(and I never mentioned Jack Booted Thugs(tm) either!)
++Lar
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Gasohol?
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| Ignoring the total net energy balance, here's another load of crap you can vent on if you wish: The EPA says 15% ethanol gasohol gets no worse mpg than 0% ethanol gasoline. Anyone with a brain can look up the BTU/lb output of ethanol and quickly (...) (23 years ago, 19-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Gasohol?
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| Time for a new topic. Is anyone else as sick of Bush as I am? That man's head is stuck so far up the ass of industrial interests it scares me. I can't imagine what asinine BS that jerk is going to pull next. All I know is that it is SURE to hit my (...) (23 years ago, 18-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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