Biofuel Subsidized Corporate Farms Sober News About Ethanol Fuel

Biofuel Subsidized Corporate Farms Sober News About Ethanol Fuel
2007

For those interested in preserving the environment, this week brings sobering news about ethanol. This fuel, distilled from plants like corn and switchgrass, has been widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning alternative to gasoline.

But a study published this week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology suggests that replacing our current gas-guzzlers with vehicles that burn ethanol would actually increase pollution and damage human health.

Stanford scientist Mark Jacobson used a computer model to predict air quality in the year 2020, when ethanol-powered cars are expected to be widely available in the US. His simulation showed, among other things, that cars that burn a blend of 85 percent ethanol will significantly increase ozone, a prime ingredient in smog.

So in a world where the cars run on switchgrass juice, more people will get asthma, more people will be hospitalized with respiratory distress, and more people will die from breathing in ozone than if we’d kept on driving our gas-powered clunkers. At least according to Jacobons. So if you want to celebrate Earth Day this weekend, raise a glass of bubbly to our beautiful planet. Just don’t share any with your gas tank.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=06022F79-E7F2-99DF-3CFE3EB8DBBAA57D

Exploiting clean energy for profit


Policy analyst James Bovard observes in Archer Daniels Midland: A Case Study in Corporate Welfare (1995, Cato Institute) that ADM “has been the most prominent recipient of corporate welfare in recent U.S. history.” The world’s largest producer of corn and soybeans also produces more than 40 percent of U.S. ethanol. Soybeans and corn are two of the five subsidized staple crops in the United States, and ethanol production has been instigated by subsidies for three decades.

The following October 2003 Los Angeles Times opinion piece entitled “A Complete Waste of Energy”, submitted by Sierra Club Director Dan Becker and the libertarian Cato Institute’s Jerry Taylor characterizes the subsidy program this way: “The Midwest is a region that throws its presidential and congressional vote to those who promise farmers the biggest sack of federal loot, so ethanol we shall have regardless of its merits as a fuel.”

http://newfarm.rodaleinstitute.org/features/0604/biofuels/index.shtml

They would rather not let people know that this fuel is horrible for humans and the air we breath. Obama seems to be going along with the scam, people should be outraged and get this shut down, A total waste in every aspect.

and crops for ethanol promote additional chemical use, erosion, abuse of cropland, etc... not a pretty picture for the environment.

from "Friends of the Earth" today
The environmental impacts of biofuels are devastating. Rapid expansion of fuel-related crop
cultivation has accelerated deforestation, biodiversity loss, and global warming pollution.
Increased water pollution from agricultural chemicals, and depletion of soil and water
resources are additional problems. Policy measures to differentiate biofuels by environmental
impact are weak or non-existent. Heavy subsidization of the U.S. biofuels industry accelerates
and expands these environmental damages domestically and abroad.

The Biofuel Backlash

The report is one of a number of efforts designed to deflate support for biofuels in the United States and Europe. Increasing numbers of groups, especially in Europe, are beginning to question the wisdom of the current move toward biofuels as a replacement, at least in part, for gasoline and diesel in vehicles. They argue that these fuels offer little benefit and have serious drawbacks. Specifically, they question the wisdom of burning food crops for fuel. They point to a “tortilla crisis” in Mexico caused by rising corn prices and a “bread crisis” in France caused by rising wheat prices. Inflation in China is now running above 6 percent, largely due to increases in the price of foodstuffs.

http://www.stratfor.com/biofuel_backlash

The US economy is at stake, not subsidized farming on a product that is anything but good for anything except wasting money.

can be almost eliminated by coating car radiators with a catylist. Funny there is no green movement to retrofit cars.

http://www.automotive.basf.com/p02/Automotive/en_GB/portal/show-content_environment/content/Our_solutions/Environment/Ozone_decompsition_catalysts/Ozone_decomposition_catalysts_008

Meanwhile, * said we invaded Iraq to keep oil from terrorists.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/31/bush_gives_new_reason_for_iraq_war/

That's one problem with petroleum that corn doesn't have.

And kids die just from living near a gas station. It seems that breathing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) isn't good for you.

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26700/story.htm

That's another petroleum issue you overlook in your rush to stop biofuel.

Let me know when you have a perfect method of transportation that gets me the 10 miles to work every day in a timely manner with no pollution. In the mean time please stop diverting attention away from the petroleum problems, which are worse than ADM anytime.

BTW, my diesel runs on biofuel that is made from 100% waste oil, saving landfill space as well as PAHs. How come you don't mention that?

Bill

Originally, ethanol was added to gasoline to reduce smog by its use as an oxygenator.

I proved to my satisfaction years ago that ethanol reduced gas mileage in cars significantly. When one could still buy non-ethanol gas, I calculated gas mileage on trips and consistently noted a 10 to 15 percent reduction in mileage with ethanol gas in the tank. This proved the same in three different cars that I used for comparison.

Since a car burns more fuel per tank with ethanol, you don't reduce pollution nor save oil. It is a total fraud.

There is only one solution to the smog problem and dwindling oil supplies. That solution is conservation.

Conservation is achieved through electric and hybrid-electric vehicle technology, and the development of lower-energy usage mass transit.