Adventure-Dude

Join Date 07/2004

+40

Is Ethanol a good alternative fuel?

I'm not so sure.

Colorado now has 3 ethanol plants, the first in Boulder, the second in Sterling, and the most recent in Yuma county. Thanks to Governor Bill Ritter Colorado is planned for 40 new stations to pump E85 (85% ethanol and 15% unleaded) for 2007. Many support this idea of 'renewable' fuel source as a prized alternative but I'm not so easily convinced.

For those who think corn comes from a can this would sound like a great solution to our foreign oil dependence but let's briefly examine this 'solution:'

Corn crops are one of the top crops that deplete soil nutrients extracting large amounts of Nitrogen from the soil. If crop rotation isn't utilitized the land can be devastated in just a few years. From my understanding it is the second harshest crop on the soil (first being cotton).
Since the push for Ethanol corn has increased in price to over $4 a bushel that's up 73% (-Link). With this significant surge in price many farmers are opting to raise corn instead of other grains. A recipe for shortage of other grains and greater damage of soil depletion. WIth a shortage of other grains such as wheat simple laws of supply and demand will cause the price of wheat to go up.
There will be several areas in the grocery industry that will be directly affected by this.
-Your box of corn flakes will go up as it will be competing for each bushel of corn by this new competitor.
-Since corn is greatly used in feed for cattle we can anticipate meat and dairy prices to rise.

These are just a few of the heavily impacted areas for this 'solution.' I know that some have claimed the environmental benefits of ethanol being a cleaner burning fuel but it comes at a high cost of soil depletion. From an environmental perspective I cannot see any legitimate reasoning. From an economical perspecitve I'm not convinced it will be 'better.'

What do you think JoeUser? Is this a good alternative or is it just going to make things worse?

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I think we should start grinding up all the aborted fetuses and using them as a viable alternative fuel.

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Almost every snack product contains Corn Syrup or High Fructose Corn Syrup because it was a inexpensive sweetner. Food manufacturers will either increase their prices or they will have to find a less expensive sweetner.

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I think we should start grinding up all the aborted fetuses and using them as a viable alternative fuel.

would that cost an arm and a leg?

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I think we should use snow for fuel in the north. There's plenty of that.

Honestly, though, I think someone else posted something about this, and one of the major concerns was that Ethanol takes more energy to make than is in the final product. That just doesn't make sense to me. We need a new alternate fuel, one that doesn't take more energy to create it.

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I think someone else posted something about this

If they did I didn't see it (which wouldn't surprise me).

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It sounds great in theory but milk is already an ourageous $3.85 a gallon here because of corn prices. I have heard that it may end up being $5 a gallon. I think they need to keep working on other ways to increase fuel efficiency or other alternative fuels than ethanol.

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Brad wrote an article on this a couple of months back. Link

We should use hemp not corn. You don't even have to prepare the farmland just spread the seed wherever and it grows like a weed.

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It is in one respect. NIMBY's and Greens are preventing any new oil refineries from being built. But are strangely (?) silent on ethanol refineries. In that there are over 30 in construction right now (versus 0 Petroleum ones).

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I think we need to use something that is already in abundance, something that replenishes itself on a daily basis, I think solar power and water are the best alternatives we have. Water evaporates and turns back into water again, solar power is infinate till the sun dies. I find it strange that these sources are ignored so much. I guess if someone can't make a 100% profit on these types of alternative (since no one can charge you for how much solar power you use or they can't change you extra for water, or can they) it's not worth making engines for them.

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In that there are over 30 in construction right now (versus 0 Petroleum ones).

And the ecological damage from these are going to FAR EXCEED. So while we reduce our dependence on foreign oil we will slowly cut our juguler.

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And the ecological damage from these are going to FAR EXCEED. So while we reduce our dependence on foreign oil we will slowly cut our juguler.

Isn't that what the greens are all about? Look what they did to Nuclear power, and it has the safest track record of any source so far.

It all goes back to Jim Wright and his immortal statement: It is not the evidence that counts, but the seriousness of the charges.

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Yea, I wrote about this recently:

http://draginol.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=151250

Ethanol is not a green fuel by any means and is a boondoggle on top of that. We can't produce enough of it to remotely satisfy our needs.

If dumb people weren't involved in decision making, we would have an energy system something like this:

Nuclear power plants providing electricity. Plug-in Hybrids that go 20 miles on an electric charge before needing to use gas.

Both technologies exist, are relatively cheap in mass production, and would drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

But we won't get them any time soon because the same people who cry about global warming are the same idiots who cry about Nuclear power. It's one of the reason the global warming crowd has so little credibility with a lot of people because we already know that the enviro-left's grasp on science is tenuous at best.

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We should use hemp not corn.

hemp is illegal in the united states becouse of one of its other use

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Nuclear power plants

can be built with no chance of a melt down ever.

and be operated with no nuclear waste

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My dad worked for Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant when I was growing up and I'm perfectly normal except for when I glow in the dark. ha ha. Lame, I know. I can't help it. My lameness comes naturally. Maybe I can blame it on nuclear contamination and sue. I'm calling Erin Brockovich.

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hemp is illegal in the united states becouse of one of its other use

danielost, you are easily the dumbest person who posts on JU.

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My dad worked for Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant when I was growing up and I'm perfectly normal except for when I glow in the dark. ha ha. Lame, I know. I can't help it. My lameness comes naturally

LOL

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hemp is illegal in the united states becouse of one of its other use

danielost, you are easily the dumbest person who posts on JU.

why becouse you don't know that hemp and marjiwani are in the same family and produce the same results

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Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, nonprofit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and free market for low-THC industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow this agricultural crop. We educate people on the issues surrounding hemp, register voters, and build coalitions to fulfill our mission.

Vote Hemp is working to shift federal regulation of industrial hemp back to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and out of the hands of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Vote Hemp also works to defend against any new laws, regulations or policies that would prohibit or restrict hemp commerce or imports.

Vote Hemp was founded in May 2000 by members of the hemp industry and was incorporated in the District of Columbia as a non-profit 501(c)4 organization. Since then Vote Hemp has emerged as the unquestionable lead political activist organization of the hemp industry. We have demonstrated that Vote Hemp is a strategic organization working for meaningful change in Washington, DC, a necessary precursor to expanding the hemp industry in the U.S. and worldwide.

WWW Link

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why becouse you don't know that hemp and marjiwani are in the same family and produce the same results

sorry i should have said may produce the same results

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why becouse you don't know that hemp and marjiwani are in the same family and produce the same results

sorry i should have said may produce the same results

WWW Link

You prove my point, however I commend you for doing cursory research on the subject. Read everything at the link you provided and your ignorance on this particular subject will be considerably lessened (hint: you can't get high from hemp).

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hint they are trying to make it legal to grow which is what i said about it being illegal to grow

non of the other stuff in that web page has anything to do with what i said

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I'm perfectly normal except for when I glow in the dark. ha ha.

Glowing in the dark. That reduces energy because you don't need electricity to see in the dark. Sounds like a glowing green idea!

Yea, I wrote about this recently:

I see that we had similar points although your's I will say is more researched.

I agree There is much more we could be doing but invading our food supply is like poking a stick at the top of a cave. With that said I don't see HEMP as being a successful alternative either.

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