Hugh Grant (MON) and corn stalks
i can only offer anecdotal commentary since my family owns a farm: prior to about 5 yrs ago i never saw stalks harvested; they were always plowed into the soil. Now stalks are routinely bailed and shipped off for processing into ethanol (and by-products?). The processing plants are hours away. I have no hard facts but i would be amazed if the process of bailing, trucking, and processing into alcohol produces a positive net energy equivalence over simply using the diesel fuel and natural gas for other purposes. In addition, i think the soil is being robbed of replenishment. I suspect that the only reason this part of the ethanol 'market' exists is because of federal subsidies.
However, there was a reason for ethanol subsidies to come into existence and that is because MTBE was out-lawed by congress and ethanol is the next best and cheapest thing to use to boost octane ratings although it is much more expensive than MTBE. People were either going to pay higher prices for gasoline or pay higher taxes to 'encourage' and enable ethanol production to use as a gasoline additive. This is similar to the approach that T-Bone is arguing for with regard to using natural gas for automobile and trucking fuel.
So I think Grant's comment about using something that would otherwise be waste is myopic. Of course, as stated above my conclusion is based on own unsubstantiated conjecture.
regards,
Charlie
