The Oil Drum

81 comments on CNN: Bush's SotU to Focus on Energy

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odograph on January 30, 2006 - 2:01pm

Brazilians are subject to a sugar-cane climate.

FWIW, I'm only a mild ethanol skeptic. I think that's a rational position to be in, given that this is not a free market activity by any means. Not only is ethanol production subsidized in the metaphorical sense by fossil fuel infrastructure, it is also subsidized in the literal sense.

Thinking about it now, if ethanol is not cheap and easy to do, relying sole on inexpensive diesel and natural gas ... how big a subsidy are you going to need when those things become dear?

Maybe it will work, but IMO we should drop the subsidies and let it walk on its own.

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Don Sailorman on January 30, 2006 - 2:39pm

Brazil does have a competitive advantage in sunshine, but that is not a big deal, if you do the numbers. Sugar cane may be better than corn--but maybe not, if you take account of the fact that you can get a lot of good oil out of corn and none out of cane.

Why feed our corn to pigs so that we eat more pork to clog up our arteries? If we are going to grow corn--and for political reasons it seems almost certain that we will continue to do so on a large scale--then why not use much of it for ethanol and biodiesel?

BTW, I am no great fan of corn. On my land I grow jerusalem artichokes and get the benefits of inulin as opposed to starch or sugar. O.K., I agree it is easier to make ethanol out of cane than out of anything else, but you can make ethanol out of most things that grow and that have both carbon and hydrogen in them. I'm a big fan of stich grass and may try a plot of that this spring.