I was disappointed that the article did not make any distinction between different kinds of ethanol. Boo. Today's corn-based ethanol is indeed a joke. Politicians like to hand out the corn subsidies because of Iowa primaries. Today's corn-based ethanol only uses the food part of the corn, which wastes most of the plant, is inefficient, and competes with the food supply.
But there is a lot of research into cellulosic ethanol. If we can figure out how to convert that to energy cheaply -- I suspect technology will eventually get us there -- we can then use the ENTIRE corn plant, or many other sources - to produce fuel. The wikipedia article "Cellulosic ethanol" has a lot of good info.
Cane sugar works well for Brazil because they have lots of it immediately available. That's why Brazil can use ethanol as its main source of fuel. We can't grow sugar as well as they can so it isn't practical to use it.
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I was disappointed that the article did not make any distinction between different kinds of ethanol. Boo. Today's corn-based ethanol is indeed a joke. Politicians like to hand out the corn subsidies because of Iowa primaries. Today's corn-based ethanol only uses the food part of the corn, which wastes most of the plant, is inefficient, and competes with the food supply.
But there is a lot of research into cellulosic ethanol. If we can figure out how to convert that to energy cheaply -- I suspect technology will eventually get us there -- we can then use the ENTIRE corn plant, or many other sources - to produce fuel. The wikipedia article "Cellulosic ethanol" has a lot of good info.
also, how about ethanol from cane sugar?
Cane sugar works well for Brazil because they have lots of it immediately available. That's why Brazil can use ethanol as its main source of fuel. We can't grow sugar as well as they can so it isn't practical to use it.
Then why don't we lower our tariffs on sugar so that we could import sugar from Brazil and also enjoy their cheap, plentiful sugar?
Oh wait, it's because both the sugar industry and the corn industry benefit from the tariff. So it's never going away.
i can't believe i'm typing this, but i agree with matt.
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