Ethanol Ruling a Test for Obama Administration

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The technology for making ethanol has been developed by companies making alcohol for human consumption. Corn is only a starting point because that is how its been made in the past.
Ethanol can be made from other, non-food items. Ethanol can be made from cellulose, but it requires an extra step. Bacteria or enzymes are needed to break down the cellulose first. When/if this technology is mature, the whole food vs fuel debate goes away.
Even if ethanol is not cost competitive with petroleum, in the big picture it would still be cheaper. Think of all the money that has gone to the middle east. Money to buy the oil, money to fight terrorists, etc.

Pino of MD 1:52PM May 15, 2009

Ethanol creates jobs in america and doesn't require our troops to protect it. When is the last time you seen a marine die from guarding a tractor. Give that bail out money to our car makers to retool and make ethanol worthy cars.

HF of SD 12:13PM May 15, 2009

We need to become energy independent. We can not continue to rely on foreign oil. Corn based ethanol is part of the answer not the entire answer. Currently of all corn produced in the US, 55% goes to feed livestock, 17% goes toward ethanol production, 19% is exported, 5% goes to food additives and only 3% goes directly toward human consumption in flour, grits etc.
Ethanol production becomes more effecient every year, farmers become more effecient every year, there is NO food vs fuel issue we CAN DO BOTH. Don't believe all the negative false press that the Grocer Marketers and the Oil Industry are putting out there.

KJM of Iowa of IA 10:33AM May 15, 2009

whether we believe CO2 emissions are warming the earth, it was always a bad idea to make fuel from corn. Sugar cane, maybe.
Algae oil, maybe. But not a core food grown in core food farming land.
But rich people will pay more for corn burned in cars than corn eaten by poor people. Possibly true---or possibly NOT, depending on the world price of oil that went to $145, then $33, now $57 or so.
Say no to any government help for this nonsense.

Muser of NM 10:03AM May 15, 2009

As I recall from my school science classes, they way our sun is going to die, is a period of slow expansion, which will eventually engulf the Earth as well as all the inner planets, and incinerate everything anyway.
We have also started measuring temperatures at the end of the last "little ice age" which skews the "normal" temperature to the cold side. Add to that a substantial portion of our climate monitoring equipment is incorrectly located ( next to parking lots, roof tops, A/C exhausts, etc. ). I am totally against pollution emissions, but this whole CO2 B-S is just an excuse to tax the air we breath (or exhale)

Mike W. of PA 9:41AM May 15, 2009

Wake up everybody and smell the cash! There's so much money to be made in Global Warming! Al Gore made a ton of cash promoting a DVD full of pictures of glaciers that are receding. Did you know you can take these same pictures every winter and summer? Thanks for buying him a new fishing boat and mega mansion. If you look at the DATA over the many many years that the earth has existed, then you will see that the Earth, way before man and industry ever existed, has gone through the EXACT same climate fluctuations that it is going through today. If our factories and cars and hairspray weren't around to cause it, then what was the cause? The most recent data reported from the most trusted scientists point to the earth being in a COOLING trend! That's right, we're moving towards another ICE AGE. Global Warming is 100% WRONG. Anytime a scientist gives an interview that says so, they don't show it. You know why? It's not good news! If it doesn't make you quake in fear, you won't pay attention and the media outlets lose their viewers/readers and they lose their advertising revenue. There's the cash....can you smell it?

Rick Hudsecker of MI 9:39AM May 15, 2009

Open up our oil, it will last us 500 years. If we can't find a new source of fuel within that time, than we deserve to run out of Oil. Also, this whole Green thing is getting on my last nerve. The Earth is going to do, what it wants, regardless of what we do. Haven’t the millions of years the Earth is suppose to have been around proved that? We were once a tropical planet before; we might just be going back to that for a few thousand years, before we go back to another Ice Age, than back to what we have now. Why do we listen to stupid people like Al Gore? Last time I checked he was not a scientist. Next thing you know they will be saying the planet is in bad shape, because it’s reforming Pangea. Wake up everyone, Global Warming is just the new scam to force us to pay more taxes to the government. I know that smart people out there is in the majority of this way of thinking, why do we allow the minority of Hppies to control what we pay to the government? I am not saying we shouldn’t take care of the Earth, because we should, but the real scientist that tell you Global Warming is the biggest scam ever created get pushed under the bus, while the sotto scientist like Al Gore is allowed to pollute our minds with garbage.

Miles Sharpless of IN 12:58AM May 15, 2009