My gripe is that the pro-ethanol lobby plays upon peoples' fears of the Middle East. They presume (falsely) that most of our oil comes from the IslamoFascistTerrorist nations, and that we're helping to blow up little babies every time we fill up our tanks. Ethanol will change that, they say.
Ethanol won't change that, because it isn't true.
Switching to ethanol (even if we could produce enough of it - we can't) doesn't benefit the US geopolitically. Basically we'd reduce our demand for Canadian and Mexican oil, which has never been a risk or danger to the US.
And your gripe is baseless.
For the record (again):
1. Ethanol isn't intended to replace petroleum. It never was, and never will be. It's fear-mongering, ands gets trotted out again and again, usually in the form of, "There ain't enough corn/switchgrass/algae in the U.S. to fill all our vehicles." Well, no $hit, Sherlock, and I defy anybody to point out where such an untrue claim was ever made by the ETOH folks. They haven't. It's promulgated by the same folks (oil industry?) who say it takes more gasoline energy to make a gallon of E-85 than it delivers, and that their grocery prices are through the roof because ethanol is being produced in the cornbelt. The former is absolutely silly if you know anything about the ETOH process, and the latter totally ignores the fact that groceries are delivered in diesel trucks that pay $4.75/gallon or more for their petroleum based fuel, and aren't supposed to pass on the extra costs to the consumer. Go figure.
2. People are pissy that ETOH production is being subsidized with tax money. Again, no $hit, Sherlock, farms have been subsidized since I was knee-high to a grasshopper - those that didn't get foreclosed on, that is. Working as a kid on a dairy farm some 30 years ago, I knew the milk and cheese were getting help. If our tax dollars subsidize NASA research or help out my favorite unwed teenage syphilitic mother charity, that's ok. Researching upstart alternative energy sources? Must be the work of the devil. Again, who is gonna invest private cash into alternative fuels? Big Oil?
3. Corn ETOH isn't a means to an end. It's a start, and it was an easy start thanks to our alcoholic forefathers and their propensity to make booze from grains. Hell, it bought us NASCAR, for chrissakes. It also means as we get better at the process, we can use the experience to do the switchover to cellulosic ethanol. That's on the horizon as we speak, and most distilleries in my neck of the woods were built to make use of that technology as it becomes available. I know because I am being interviewed for a lab manager position at another new ETOH plant in Wisconsin, and they have great hopes for the newer technique.
4. I note with interest that GM announced today they're shutting down 4 assembly plants, including the Tahoe/Suburban facility just south of me, with a couple thousand employees at Janesville alone. The announcement came with a statement from GM management that they will make this a permanent shutdown, no changeover to econoboxes in those buildings, because they are of the opinion that petroleum prices will not recede below $3.00/gallon - ever. For Detroit to fess up that the days of cheap gas are over means they don't hold a lot of promise for whatever smoke is getting blown up posteriors regarding a price drop. It's 30+ years after the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, but maybe the Detroit juggernaut is finally responding to rudder inputs.
Yes, I am a member of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. Yes, my family sells corn grown on previously fallow PIK acreage. No, our black angus beef herd is not starving, and no, our farms are not in danger of foreclosure - for a short while, that is. Corn will drop as cellulosic ETOH takes over, and as people scream for somebody's head on a chopping block because it takes $160 or more to fill up their Suburbans, they might just have to modify their lifestyles accordingly. But they'll bitch, and they have no right to do so if they're not working on a solution to the problem, instead of contributing to it.
