[geeks] ethanol...

[Andrew Sydelko]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:11:01 -0600 (MDT)
Dan Duncan <dand at pcisys.net> wrote:

> > What is wrong with ethanol besides lower mileage?
> 
> Ethanol is a scam.  It consumes more energy in fossil fuels
> than it produces.  Once you've plowed the fields, pumped the water,
> and distilled the alkyhol (all done with fossil fuels) you might
> as well have just saved the expense and used gasoline.  The only
> reason ethanol is produced as a fuel is because it's subsidized
> by tax money.  Ethanol will always be produced as a tasty beverage
> because you can't drink gasoline.  (more than once)

There's a flip side to that argument. Even though ethanol consumes 
more energy than it produces, at least the energy it consumes doesn't
have to come from outside of the U.S. Ethanol requires heat to be
produced. That heat does not have to come from fossil fuels. If tomorrow
we stopped receiving oil from overseas, we could still produce ethanol
by using a different heat source, such as nuclear.

--andy.