This is true - ethanol is barely energy neutral; fuel efficiency is lower,
and so you have to BU MORE. Since corn is a subsidized crop in this country
guess what? Corn growers can SELL MORE CORN - and get better prices for
it! BTW, the government ALSO likes ethanol because it likes to subsidize (read,
control and manipulate) the corn production. We are not talking mom and pop
farmers here - we are talking about megacorps that own the fields, the rights
and the government officials that make this happen.
The effect of the idiotic system of becoming "energy self sufficient" is
that we pay a lot more for a lot less, and in the end are no more self
sufficient than we were before. People out here are paying $3.29 to $3.89 for
gas - but about 2 hours south east it is $3.01!! So....since the market is
manipulated to serve the greed of the oil companies, I wonder how we will be
able to undo this mess. It makes it really hard to go to many rides when you
feel that you have to combine trips before you just drive into town. You know,
the cost of going to a ride has about tripled in the past 78-8 years, yet the
ride itself is still one of the best bargains in horse-dom. But the necessary
extraneous costs such as feed and gas (rather intertwined at some level) makes
it so much more expensive to go to very many. You almost have to add a budget
line item in your household budget for just the GAS to go to a ride. Anyone have
any idea about how the hybrid (iffy) market might EVER turn into a hybrid truck
with the muscle to pull a 4 horse rig?
. The government likes ethanol because the
delivery system is in place, via the existing oil companies, so it can be
taxed and monitored without difficulty. If I were power hungry
enough to want to be president, I'd build a nuke plant every 100 miles, and
reprocess the rods just like the rest of the world does, instead of throwing
them away and having tons of radioactivity to deal with instead of
pounds. Maybe I'd better go pet my horse (who's value is now
about $200, until they close the last of the slaughter
plants).
