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quote:
* U.S. ethanol consumes about 40 pct corn crop

* Impact on food prices "real"

By Gerard Wynn

ATHENS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.

U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits are up for renewal on Dec. 31.

Total U.S. ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year according to the International Energy Industry, which said biofuels worldwide received more subsidies than any other form of renewable energy.

"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.

"First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.

"It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going."

He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential ambitions.

"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."

U.S. ethanol is made by extracting sugar from corn, an energy-intensive process. The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.

A food-versus-fuel debate erupted in 2008, in the wake of record food prices, where the biofuel industry was criticised for helping stoke food prices.
http://af.reuters.com/article/...L0YT20101122?sp=true

I think Congress can find a few billions in savings by not reauthorizing the subsidies on corn based ethanol. A billion here, a billion there, and soon we're talking big bucks!

quote:
Credits for corn ethanol subsidies expire at the end of the year unless Congress moves to renew the $7.7 billion annual program. Opponents of the corn subsidies say that it removes valuable food products from the table because the U.S. ethanol industry drives up the price of corn.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politic...pport/#ixzz162jlUyXl
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"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."

Nice that one politician admits that they will sell their own soul and the economy of the US to get elected.

I have new found respect for Big Al.
quote:
Originally posted by b50m:
"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."

Nice that one politician admits that they will sell their own soul and the economy of the US to get elected.

I have new found respect for Big Al.


He is to be commended for acknowledging his mistake, but remember, Gore is truly an expert on energy and he had to have known the down side of ethanol when he was pushing for it, since there was plenty of information available on that at the time.
Gore admits he caused billions to be spent on subsidies to produce ethanol, that did nothing to help the energy program. In contrition, he should donate his billions to the government.

Note that 41 percent of the US corn crop is going to ethanol, while there is a worldwide food crisis. Not only billions of dollars spent to naught, but millions will go hungry. However, rotund Gore doesn't appear to be missing any meals.
quote:
Originally posted by elinterventor01:
Gore admits he caused billions to be spent on subsidies to produce ethanol, that did nothing to help the energy program. In contrition, he should donate his billions to the government.

Note that 41 percent of the US corn crop is going to ethanol, while there is a worldwide food crisis. Not only billions of dollars spent to naught, but millions will go hungry. However, rotund Gore doesn't appear to be missing any meals.


This is one of those rare times, elinterventor, when you and I see eye to eye. The corn-to-ethanol initiative will go down as one of the greatest of blunders in the quest for energy self-sufficiency. If ethanol is to be an ethically acceptable energy source in this nation's energy future, it should come from non-food sources, of which there are ample.

This ethanol-from-corn craze also hit another, smaller, sector pretty hard. Several entrepreneurs have developed corn-burning stoves for household heating. Yep--just burn the corn in a well-controlled environment and it efficiently produces lots of btus at a reasonable cost--but not as much so since used the corn-to-ethanol craze pushed the price of corn so high that it made the corn stove a lot less economical. Maybe we shouldn't even be burning a food crop to heat living space, but the demand for corn stoves was never so high as to drive up corn prices and starve third world chillen.
Last edited by beternU
quote:
The Brazilians used sugar cane stalks after the juice is squeezed out to produce their ethanol. I understand its a rather low tech, low energy process unlike that used to produce ethanol from kernel corn.

I would suggest that corn stalks and cobs be used in the same process.


As I understand it, the difference in process is that sugar cane based ethanol comes from the cellulose of the plant while corn based ethanol comes from the plants natural sugars. The cellulose model, from what I've read, seems to be the much more viable option for future use. Domestically, we would be limited in our ability to grow sugar cane and would have to import most of it were we to produce ethanol. The crop best suited to replace sugar cane domestically, hemp, doesn't look to be legal to grow anytime soon.
quote:
Originally posted by b50m:
"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."

Nice that one politician admits that they will sell their own soul and the economy of the US to get elected.

I have new found respect for Big Al.


I'll have some respect for "Big Al" when he admits that man-made global warming is a farce and gives back his Nobel Prize and the money. Until then, he's still a liar.

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