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Well, let's see; we can export a bushel of corn for $5.95, and import 2.8 gallons of gasoline at $7.56, and miss out on the opportunity to export 17 lbs of distillers grains ($1.70)
Net Loss: $1.61 + $1.70 = $3.31/bushel; Or, we can get our heads' out of our rearends, provide for our OWN people, and cut our exports of cattle feed to Communist Asian Countries by 60%.
$3.31 Lost for every bushel of cattle feed (corn) exported. This should be a "No-Brainer."
Your math may be spot on, so please don't tear me a new one, but are you saying that 1 bushel of corn produces the energy equivalent of 2.8 gallons of gasoline, or did I miss the point entirely?
Yes, and apparently he has found a way to stuff that bushel of corn in a gas tank with no processing. Beautiful!!
tstreet,
I think you've got me on that one. I suppose I would have to subtract a bit for the processing.
Let's whack off $0.25/gal ($0.75 total,) and call it even; okay?
$3.31 - $0.75 = $2.56 shot all to hell with every bushel exported. Still Silly.
Ethanol is not sustainable in any way, shape, or form. Robert Rapier has debunked you so often that I think he's given up. Yet you continue to spout "the big lie" over and over again, always looking for some new angle to push your agenda.
What is sustainable these days ? Agriculture ? Oil Drilling ?
According to some, the only thing that is sustainable is a world without humankind on it. Since I tend to like humans, being one of them, I consider this way of thinking to be terrifying.
I tend to think that local ethanol production beats foreign oil imports any day of the week. It doesn't drown us in debt and we don't have to spend $150 billion+ per year occupying the farm belt and securing the tanker lanes ;).
In the end, though, I think V2G is the way to go. Liquid fuels are too dangerous -- politically, environmentally, and ecologically. So a nod to RR on that count.
Solar+Wind+Nuclear with storage. To me, it's a no brainer. But some people seem to think the world can't run on anything other than dead microbes fermented in the ground millions of years.
It's 19th century thinking at best. At worst, it's a recipe for disaster.
Sorry, but this is entirely false. Not every civilization that has existed has raped and pillaged the world around them.
It is a choice we make.
Cheers
Then be careful who you indict -- a civilization or all of humankind.
You don't have to say, "how far can I drive my car on corn?" which is as nonsensical as it sounds. Just look for an easy substitute based on established off-the shelf technology. To figure out whether exporting corn is a bad deal, say: I can easily heat my house with the corn, and how much natural gas would that save that I could then easily use to run a car? Corn furnaces and natural gas cars are easy to get and don't require additional processing of either energy input.
BadgerB,
Actually, Jeff Broin, CEO of Poet (refiners of 1.1 Billion gallons of ethanol/yr,) states that his company can turn out 435 gallons of ethanol from 150 bushels of corn.
http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2007/10/cellulosic-ethanol-running-cars-o...
That would be about 2.9 gallons per bushel.
Add this to DOE's estimate that, on average, you only lose one half of one percent efficiency when running E10 vs. Gasoline, and I felt I was on pretty safe ground.
55% of the energy and only a one half of one % hit on mileage? The ballsiness of these administration guys to lie never ceases to amaze me. My personal experience as an obsessive Prius driver is that 10% ethanol is a 5% hit on my mileage, which, funny enough, is exactly what the law of conservation of energy would indicate.