The number of posts about ethanol has jumped from an average of about thirty/day to over four hundred/day according to technorati today. The interest is driven, of course by the State of the Union and
the president’s plan for millions more gallons of ethanol to fill the tanks of US cars is not meeting unmitigated praise…
In terms of the optimistically off beat. Chuck Ferris in Dribble is suggesting that the US use Soya beans instead.
The US livestock market is worried that there won’t be enough corn to feed pigs and chickens economically (never mind cattle or humans ) in the Domestic Fuel blog and Bush acknowledged those concerns at visit to a DuPont Facility in Delaware.
Bush is quoted as saying
“There is a constraint, and that is the ethanol use today comes from corn, and we’ve got hog growers and chicken growers that need corn to feed their animals,” Bush said.I bet Chad Holliday, DuPont’s ceo, was quietly whispering of the need for clear carbon emission limits across the US at the time.
American Patriots has Public Citizen suggesting that Mr Bush is not being wholly consistent.
Investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency can be fulfilled by taking the approach of recently passed HR 6, in which the House voted to revoke $14 billion in oil subsidies and dedicate that money to investing in clean energy and energy efficiency. But Bush has threatened a veto on HR 6, showing that he remains beholden to Big Oil and other polluters.Surely not? And him coming from Texas
Taxpayers already pay $2 billion a year to producers of ethanol, which is neither a clean nor renewable fuel. Manufacturers that make vehicles that can use either ethanol or gasoline, known as dual-fuel vehicles, are allowed to meet lower fuel economy standards, even if their vehicles are never filled with ethanol. Ethanol is not widely available throughout the country, and because it cannot be shipped in oil pipelines and there are infrastructure difficulties in transporting and selling ethanol at fuelling stations, its widespread use is impractical.
Oil change has a piece rounding up some more environmentalist views on Bush’s policy. They’re not in favour.
But its not all bad news Peak Oil tells us that South African maize production is likely to expand to make up some of the shortfall in grain.
And the governor of Nebraska (do they grow much corn in Nebraska) is for more ethanol, but then he heads the Govenor’s ethanol coalition, so perhaps that’s not very surprising. More, much more, for once, on Technorati