Ethanol – Not THE Answer

In other than war news there is Energy news. Energy news of course is intimately connected to war news; they might even be conjoined (fraternal) twins. War goes up: energy prices go up. War goes up higher: people learn the virtues of living with no transported goods — which is to say, in America, nothing of almost everything. On the other hand, when energy availability goes down, war does not similarly go down. Oh no, war goes up. Diminishing amounts of energy, increasing amounts of war. Solution: More Energy! Energy Independence = No more foreign wars. (Well… yes and no, but that’s a different essay.) Thus: Ethanol –energy derived from vegetation; solar energy that is processed by plants.

So it is that ethanol has been hitting the big noise making fan for the past several months. Folks of many political persuasions — except those who think God makes gas and will make more — have pointed to ethanol, particularly as an additive to gasoline in a product called E85, as an energy-independence miracle. Subsidies are called for; cheery charts are power-pointed.

Not so fast says Robert Rapier at the OilDrum. It’s a piece of the puzzle but certain high-flying influentials should re-do their homework. Read on.

Ethanol is NOT the Answer