[Rhodes22-list] Corn - More Politics - real reply

[Brad Haslett]

Robert,

You nailed it!  The inefficiencies of ethanol production are only a part of
the problem.  Corn is a "greedy" crop and terribly hard on soil and the
environment.  The Oak Ridge Lab has been working on ethanol from switchgrass
for some time.  We could take current land subsidized through conservation
set-aside programs and place it in permaculture - perennial crops. However,
at current fuel prices it is not economically viable. The biggest drawback
to any alternative fuel is that crude oil based energy is  just too damned
easy and efficient. The 'easy' part is relative.  The stuff is distributed
mostly in geographic and cultural areas hostile to us.  Factor in the cost
of protection for the sources and distribution channels, and of course the
petty tyrants the oil profits produce, and maybe the stuff isn't so cheap
and efficient  after all.

The single biggest weapon we have in the Energy Wars is the "C" weapon -
CONSERVATION.  Personally, I think Big Al is an idiot but perhaps a very
useful one.

Brad

On 10/24/07, Robert Skinner <robert at squirrelhaven.com> wrote:
>
> Please excuse the prior nul content message.  Fat finger.
>
> I see a lot of downsides to using corn as the basis for fuel.
>
> The article, if I got all the content, does not address the
> problem of water pollution from fertilizer run-off, nor does
> it deal with the economic consequences on the cost of food
> that result from the shift to corn production instead of
> other foodstuffs.  These side effects alone are enough to
> give me pause.
>
> To them, we can add the increased tendency toward corrosion
> an chemical breakdown in storage tanks, the damage to other
> fuel containers and transport systems, and the generally
> questionable government interference in a free market via
> subsidies to large agribusiness.
>
> If we really have to go with ethanol as a fuel, we can make
> it from sawgrass, wood pulp leftovers from papermaking,
> and Maine's own potatoes, all of which have a lesser
> economic and ecologic footprint.
>
> I'm not up on biodiesel, but I have a suspicion that it
> also has large unintended consequences.
>
> /Robert
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
> >
> > Imagine that, intelligent people have differing opinions on political
> > issues!  Here is an issue that all the candidates for President agree on
> (or
> > at least mouth support) - King Corn.  I'm writing a letter to Fred08
> today
> > asking him to come clean on the issue before the Iowa caucus. He won't,
> > neither will anyone else. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.
> > Every pol from every party romances this mistress.  This article is one
> of
> > the better ones on the subject.  Brad
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