gnulnx, you obviously have NO idea how wrong you are.
>Yeah...but it's renewable.
true. but so is solar.
>And corn is not the best source of ethanol. Sugar cane is. New technologies are making it possible to extract ethanol from most plant matter.
true, and all the processes require tremendous amounts of energy from fossil fuels to transform the plant matter into useable energy.
>Anyone that says ethonal is a scam obviously does not understand the science behind it. Besides we WILL run out of oil.
No, you don't understand the science. Ethanol is a hidden farm subsidy to boost the price of corn (I AM from missouri). It is very costly to grow and process corn. The oil/gasoline required to turn plant, harvest and process corn into fuel is tremendous. And we won't run out of fossil fuels even in my great, great, great grandchildrens lifetime. That gives up pleanty of time to get better at solar and nuclear power.
>Yes you get worse gas milage...but you can regrow your gas. It's really a no brainer. The biggest problem will be finding enough land to use as fuel crops when half the world is starving.
The food production capacity of the United States is probably large enough to feed half the world. Under current production levels, the world has enough food to feed double the earth's population easy. The starvation problem is one of distribution, war and evil dictators. Every year, our governmet pays farmers BIG money to let fields lay fallow and to let millions of tons of agricultural products rot in enormous piles.
>ethanol can and will become a vital source of fuel in the US in the next 10-15 years. You can bet your life on it. Look to south american countries to see it in action today.
Ethanol WILL become a source of fuel in america, but for political resons and NOT economic ones. Can there be a better political stance than "use alternitive energies" while simultaneously "helping the american farmer" and lowering our dependency on "foreign oil"? Nope.
Look at the electric cars outthere. It is a FACT that they require so much additionoal fossil fuels in the manufacturing process, that you'd need to put like 300,000 miles on your prius just to BREAK EVEN as far as pollution is concerned. Try telling the environmentalists that.
not trying to be cynical or put you down, gnulnx. But the facts are that with current technologies, ethanol is extremely inefficient, uneconomical, and actually hurts the environment. But, that is NOT to say that with additional funding and research ethanol can't become a viable solution in the future. I just don't happen to think so since we are SO far from where we need to be and from where the populous thinks we curretly are.
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