i’ve heard a lot of good things about ethanol and I think it is a good step, but I think there are a lot of drawbacks that need to be addressed first, like our energy usage patterns.

Well, now, there, then. If making ethanol actually returns 20% more energy than it returns, that of course means that corn growers and ethanol plants can stop using fossil fuels, and instead use the fuel they produce to power themselves.

Any production system that makes more energy than it uses would, by definition, be self-sustaining.

Now I could be wrong of course, but the last time I checked, I didn’t see any corn farmers or ethanol plants using ethanol for fuel.

Any guesses as to why that is if ethanol really, truly returns more energy than its production consumes?

The hard truth is that corn ethanol is neither a truly renewable or sustainable fuel — at least not until the ethanol industry proves they don’t need fossil fuels to make ethanol.

Best regards,

Gary Dikkers

LOL, Gary. I have said exactly the same thing. What I would love to see is a closed loop ethanol plant, in which they generate their own energy. That house of cards would come crashing down in a hurry. I address this in my inaugural blog entry, and show why it is a horrible deal even if the energy balance is positive. In fact, my analysis assumes that it is, and shows how much the subsidies are costing.