The Oil Drum

An open thread to discuss JHK's latest, "The Big Chill." While you're at it, refresh yourself by reading Robert Rapier's many posts on ethanol, which he nailed long ago. ([1], [2], [3], and [4] are just some examples, find the rest by clicking on Robert's name and going through the story list...), as well as EP's "Sustainability, Energy Independence and Agricultural Policy".

In the State of the Union message this past week, the President gave, as part of his solution to the increasing problems of gasoline supply, an increasing emphasis on ethanol. There has been some considerable debate about whether this will work, but I thought I would follow a couple of different thoughts today. The first relates to what the farmers might be doing in order to benefit from this coming bonanza, and the second is to see how much research is actually being done.