Drunk on Ethanol

The state ethanol whores (as Mark Belling calls them) are trying yet again to force us to use ethanol (pdf). This is bad public policy for several reasons.

• Ethanol is not a good replacement for petroleum based fuels.
• It is not as efficient of a fuel as petroleum.
• It takes almost as much energy to produce a gallon of ethanol as you get out if it. In some studies, which also take into account the cost of distribution, it actually takes more energy to produce and distribute a gallon of ethanol than you get out of it, making its production a net lose.
• Ethanol is produced primarily from corn, causing the price of corn to skyrocket. Since corn is also a stable food, this causes the price of almost all other foods to go up.
• As more land goes into production producing corn for ethanol, less land is used producing other crops, causing the prices of those crops to go up, also resulting in higher overall food costs.
• The key is to reduce fuel consumption. Ethanol does not result in reduced fuel consumption. Private enterprise is working on real solutions for this, however, such as improved hybrid engine technologies.
• Other, cleaner fuels, such as hydrogen, exist. Private enterprise is also working on making these types of fuels practical.
  

The legislation that is currently being put in front of the state legislature would allow for other renewable fuels. However, as it stands right now, it is nothing more than pork for farmers and the ethanol producers. Worse yet, it is pork that benefits few, and hurts many while needlessly tying us to a harmful fuel source for no good reason.

Stop the whoring out of our state to farmers and ethanol companies, and let the market place determine the most reasonable solution to this problem.