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DEL.ICIO.USWhat is the future of biofuels?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The AJC editorial board has criticized corn-based ethanol subsidies and blames the diversion of foodstuff to fuel for the rising cost of food at the grocery store and in restaurants.
Murray Campbell of Camilla, chief executive officer of First United Ethanol Ltd., of Camilla, defended the program Monday at Atlanta’s Commerce Club in a talk titled “Biofuels in Georgia: Fact, Fiction and Future.”
Corn-based ethanol has been in the news … and I wanted to address some of the issues that always come up:
“It costs more energy to make a gallon of ethanol than you get back out of it.” … In 16 major studies on energy balances with different kinds of energy, 14 of them show that corn-based ethanol has a positive energy balance. Two of them did not. One of those used some old numbers, which said that we got 2.2 gallons of ethanol out of a bushel of corn, when it’s 2.8 or 2.9 now. And the other one assumed that farmers would not plant anything on the land if they didn’t have corn. That’s not the way agriculture works. …
“Talk about water usage. … It takes 44 gallons to refine a gallon of gasoline. It takes three to four gallons of water to refine a gallon of ethanol, and 87 percent of the corn in this country is grown on dry land. Grant you, we grow a lot of irrigated crops down in our area, and one of the assets for our plant is the ability to grow irrigated corn. But our yield is significantly higher than the national average of corn grown dry. …
“We’ve had an awful lot of talk about how biofuels, and corn-based ethanol in particular, are driving up the cost of food. … [One expert estimated] that corn-based ethanol runs up the price of food about 3.3 percent. … But at the same time, we’re keeping the price of gasoline down with biofuels because we’re making nearly 9 billion gallons of ethanol that’s going into transportation.”
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By marko
August 19, 2008 9:27 AM | Link to this
Existing bio fuels use almost as much energy to produce as they provide. Add to this increased food cost, and they appear even less promising. Still we should all remember that Edison needed a lantern to show off his new light bulb. We are all witnesses to a new age. When, not if, we learn to produce cheap fuels from cellulose waste there will be no bigger winner than Georgia. Four dollar gasoline is without doubt the best thing that’s happened to this country in ages.
By Helen Crane
August 19, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this
Mr. Campbell: I appreciate those facts but you missed the biggest argument: It is going to take a great deal of effort- and a lot of trial and error- to address a HUGE problem we have in this country DEPENDENCE OF FOREIGN FUEL. As an environmentalist, I have listened to the arguments and I am concerned. I am also concerned about the use of subsidies. But, no great progress has ever been made in this country without a few mistakes along the way. We are climbing out of a huge hole called DEPENDENCY. There is no perfect solution - but we have to start somewhere. People matter too. Every day a soldjer dies due to this dependency. We spend more money on wars than solutions and we are further endangering ourselves. So, go out and buy some ethanol from a Georgia company that has the fortitude and resolve to do it and stop discouraging. We can wait for perfection until the next time we are attacked!!!
By ButtHead
August 19, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this
Why not use sugar beets or sugar cane, both produce more ethanol than corn. Oh wait the sugar lobby will not let that happen. Come on time to tell the special interest groups to go away. We need alternatives not the sugar lobby dictating rules…
By But Nooooo!!!
August 19, 2008 9:41 AM | Link to this
Why subsidize corn when there are better alternatives?
Why not impotent marijuana aka hemp or communist corn aka as sugar cane. Can’t do that, can we? Just wouldn’t be proper.
By Politics Aside
August 19, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this
Children of the Corn.
Our children are the first generation not expected to live longer than their parents. I don’t think they’ll complain. What have they got to live for? Food stinks. Movies stink. Foreign nationalists have replaced our governing triumvirate with the military industrial complex, (but that was just a movie). Congress stinks too, because thanks to them, we stuff our children with pesticide-laced, corn-based processed foods. Thus, our internal PH is more acidic than it should be. Statistically, more acidic blood means shorter life. Sorry if I’m being rude. Etiquette has long suggested that we should never discuss politics at the dinner table, (but that was before “My Dinner With Andre”).
It’s always been okay to talk movies at dinner. The fact that moviegoers gave “The Hulk” a second chance to burn them means that the GOP could win in November. (There I go again, mixing up movies and politics). Seriously, our congress has historically subsidized Archer Daniels Midland’s corn syrup enterprise with Darth Vader tax legislation designed to keep sugar prices high, and corn syrup prices low, and collaterally destroy whole sugar based S. American economies.
American food suppliers all switched to the cheaper corn syrup. We are a capitalistic republic first, then a democratic republic, and finally a republic of easily Swift-Premiumed chow hounds who choose food by the texture and color of the movie characters depicted on the box or can. Thus, We get what we deserve in politics, movies and food. Behold the tax-subsidized TV dinner! Is that the Hulk or the Jolly Green Giant.
If you love irony, then watch “Killer Bees”, a movie with Richard Widmark. You’ll die laughing at Widmark’s fantastic efforts to kill the bees when all he had to do was to bait the corn pollen with the same pesticides that ADM is using. France and Germany have banned these systemic pesticides. In the movie “To Have and To Have Not”, Walter Brennen kept pestering Lauren Bacall with, “Was you ever bit by a dead bee”? (Turns out that it is possible, but only if the bee dies angry). What are farmer’s chances without bees? Just put your lips together and blow…..
Movies are fun, but real life has irony too. Freedom fries proves that. We actually were duped into renaming fast food as a battle cry, and then conned into loathing the French while poisoning our bodies with the same systemic pesticides that the French have banned. You can win elections by mocking the French, who are guilty of the twin towers of anti-Americanism: dining without carrying concealed weapons, and not switching hands after they cut their steak. (oh yeah, and they protested our invasion of Iraq).
Food suppliers constantly assure us that the pesticides and the corn syrup are totally safe. Our bees and our children have nothing to fear. Eat! Dance! Sting! Did you know that they stuff American cows with cornmeal to the point where their internal organs start to fail? Cornmeal creates a fatal PH consequence inside cows and corn syrup creates the same problems inside humans. The cows are dying when we slaughter them. We don’t eat food, we graze on feed. Our children are acidic. We’re acidic. We should rename our diseases. “It’s okay, Johnny, you’ve got Freedom Diabetes.”
The corn that’s killing our bees and our children exists because there’s reckless congressional oversight, and lobbied corporate tenure. We simply bombard ourselves with super-sized poison, and accept the collateral damage to our bodies in the form of the same PH-imbalances that harm our cattle.
High fructose corn syrup shouldn’t exist, yet it’s in everything packaged in the grocery store. Don’t eat anything from a can or a box if you don’t want high fructose corn syrup, which works like a poison to defeat the internal chemistry keeping you healthy. Apparently, you can’t produce that much corn product without using the systemic pesticides that may be killing our bees. America, was you ever bit by a dead bee?
By zeke
August 19, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this
Ethanol and biofuels may, may, have a place in our energy future. However, you cannot go into that future without obtaining all the available oil, natural gas and coal reserves of the country! Drill in the Okefenokee if there is oil! Drill in the Everglades if there is oil! Drill in Mobile Bay if there is oil! We cannot get away from the fact that oil is the base of so much in our economy; plastics, medicines, asphalt, paints, etc.! And, just the fact that food prices will increase, probably at a level much higher than you list, makes it not a currently viable option!
By CommunistAJC
August 19, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL DRILL.
By Copyleft
August 19, 2008 10:47 AM | Link to this
Shouldn’t that be, “What IS the future of biofuels”?
By PM
August 19, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
Switchgrass can produce up to 4 times the yield of ethanol that corn does without requiring the heavy use of water or fertilizer. Sugar beets are excellent for production of biofuels. There are plenty of alternative out there, but they’re badly underused.
Let’s not forget that reduction of dependence of foreign oil was the reason for drilling on the North Slope of Alaska and for the building of the Alaska pipeline. And almost every bit of that oil is sold abroad, NOT in the United States. Fool us once shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
By gafarmer
August 19, 2008 11:21 AM | Link to this
Politics Aside @ 9:42 sure uses a lot of half truths in that rant. Only thing I got that’s absolutely correct is ADM ain’t your friend.
By gttim
August 19, 2008 12:09 PM | Link to this
If you factor the costs of wars into oil costs, the price skyrockets. If you factor environmental cleanup costs in to the price of oil, the price climbs even higher. If you factor the health care costs from the air pollution caused by using oil as energy the price moves even higher.
Bio fuels can become a major source of power if it is developed. There are better crops than corn. There are more efficient ways to harvest it. Transportation is easier since it is not coming from the middle east. It is cleaner and causes less pollution and health issues than oil. Bio fuels are renewable!
Energy independence is not going to be achieved by drilling. It will be achieved by developing alternative fuels.
By T
August 19, 2008 12:58 PM | Link to this
Don’t forget switch grass can also be used for bio fuels.
If we drilled our own oil, could we use that to build up our reserves instead of buying it?
Riddle me this: If farms were worked by leagal citizens, instead of illeagal immigrants, wouldn’t the price of food gone up years ago?
By Willie
August 19, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
B T: “Riddle me this: If farms were worked by leagal citizens, instead of illeagal immigrants, wouldn’t the price of food gone up years ago?” I grew up on a farm and saw my neighbors farm..large and small…no illegals….just black and white sweating their butts off…You must have grown up in California or florida.
By T
August 19, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this
No, sir. Proudly from the south. (which does not include Florida) However, do you say that all farms are worked by leagal citizens? If I am wrong, then I appreciate your correction.
By ExHoosier
August 19, 2008 2:29 PM | Link to this
Wow, I actually agree with something these idiots at the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation write - ethanol subsidies are ridiculous. But take it a step further. All agricultural subsidies should be eliminated. Talk about your powerful and unjust lobbyist groups.
It is comical that the AJC blames biofuels for the increase in food prices. For anyone who has not taken - or has forgotten- Econ 101, transportation costs, i.e. increase in gasoline and diesel prices, have caused the increase in the prices we pay at the grocery store. This is not a supply issue. Anyone who has ever been in the Midwest in the fall has seen the mountains of corn piled outside elevators. Ample supply is not and will never be a problem.
By D
August 19, 2008 3:07 PM | Link to this
After filling my car with gas this week and paying $50, I remembered, Congress is on vacatiion!!!
By Politics Aside
August 19, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
Did not. Our food supply used to be wheat based. Now it’s corn based. Thanks to Bob Dole’s lobbying efforts on behalf of Archer Daniels Midland. Corn is something you should consume once in a while, like popcorn or corn on the cob in summer, or the occasional cornbread.
But to put corn syrup as a sweetner, or “natural flavoring” in every single packaged foot item is genocide.
Our internal chemistry is very sensitive. Corn syrup doesn’t get digested the same way sugar does. It bypasses certain steps on the way and goes directly to the liver, or spleen or bile duct, I forget which, you see I’m not a doctor,, but I get checked up by one semi-annually. He confessed. Corn syrup is killing us all.
I bought a can of peas. I opened it. There was corn syrup inside. I bought a package of rice. I opened it and saw some corn syrup there too. I bought some toothpaste. You guessed it. Corn syrup. I bought a whole five pound bag of potatoes. It didn’t have eyes on the potatoes, but ears, just like corn.
I tell you the corporations are out to get us. I just decoded the language used by Archer Daniels Midland when they narrate their corporate mission to serve mankind: it’s a cookbook! a recipe! Run for your lives.
By stine
August 19, 2008 6:19 PM | Link to this
Thank you Murray, you avoided entirely the fact that BURNING ethanol produces less energy than an equal ammount of gasoline. Go back to spin school.
By steve
August 19, 2008 8:25 PM | Link to this
well quite frankly biofuels are a good alternative but the main problem is that we are too dependent on oil. biofuels can be a great alternative but are not enough. i heard somewhere that it takes up to three soccer fields of corn to fuel 1 trans-atlantic flight.
By Ms.Tucker If ur nasty!
August 19, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
For the edification of any newly arrived Yankees, the correct pronounciation is Jim-muh Caw-tuh, and he tried to warn us about this.
By Dan
August 20, 2008 6:50 AM | Link to this
This country has the best oil men in the world. They are the best at drilling and they are the best at exploring and after many decades of drilling and exploring they are providing us with 30% of our oil needs. We can not expect them to find the other 70% offshore or in Alaska. If that is your solution then you are giving up and if we give up the Unites States of America will be owned by Russia and China within 20 years. Every single day we import 11 million barrels of oil. At todays prices of around $115 / barrel thats well over one billion dollars leaving this country every day. On the other hand Russia exports about 6.5 million barrels a day. Can you see how Russia is getting wealthier and we’re being robbed? This country needs to stop those dollars from leaving our borders and the easiest way to do that is buy American made flex fuel cars and fill them up with HOMEGROWN American made fuel, biofuel that is, green gold, Georgia mash.
By Dan
August 20, 2008 7:10 AM | Link to this
For you young whippersnappers the last line from the above post is a play on words from a verse in the Theme from “The Beverly Hillbillies”.
By bit
August 20, 2008 3:16 PM | Link to this
I have estimates that algae based biofuels can be produced at $20 barrel using genetic engineering of the algae to improve efficiency. Algae also consumes carbon dioxide Devices are now being engineered to capture co2 emissions from our cars and use the captured gas to produce fuel; I have read that these devices can produce as much as 640 gallons of fuel per year.
Drilling is a stupid solution when there are much smarter solutions that take waste products and converts it to fuel at a much cheaper cost than what we are now paying.
If you want to do your own research, just google algae and biofuels. You will find plenty of research
By Charles
August 21, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this
Biofuels is just a gimmick to appease the environMENTALists.
Drill here, drill now, pay less!
Stop sending money to countries that want to see us and Israel wiped off the map. Use our own resources while vigorously perfecting alternative sources of energy (hydrogen cells, solar, wind, nuclear, etc.).
Write your Congressmen and Senators to get Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and all the other Democratic dimwits to stop playing games and bring these measures to a vote!
As for all you Bush haters who STILL think everything is about oil - get off the MoveOn.org Kool Aid!