Read this paper before getting too involved in the hype about ethanol.
http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/patzek/BiofuelQA/Materials/RealFuelCycles-Web.pdf
When I lived in Nebraska 15 years ago it was generally stated then that it took the equivalent of 1.5 gallons of energy to produce 1.0 gallons of ethanol. In other words it took more energy to make ethanol than if we had just used gasoline.
Of course using ethanol helps the "poor farmer" (the last poor farmer I know of fell of his yacht in Antigua harbour in 1988 and was later seen mailing his absentee ballot for an entire slate of Repugnicans from his villa overlooking the harbour in Roseau, Dominica) and its use makes people think they are doing something for the earth. Nebraska has a $1 billion corn industry. Unfortunately for us, $600 million of that comes from federal subsidies and target payments. Obviously we're harming the earth by using ethanol not helping her.
One other thing that needs to be taken into account with the upcoming surge in corn production to make ethanol is the stress that will be put on the land. Alot of the prairie region is no longer black dirt because of set aside programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program. With increased prices for corn there will a logical push to plow up all of that CRP land and convert it back to corn production. Watch soil storms return to the prairies when our greed surpasses whats best for the earth, and full scale corn production is the norm again.
Hal Kantrud and I once coined a couple phrases to describe agricultural land use on the prairies. "Butzed" land was land that had been plowed from fence row to fence row in response to an incentive provided by former Agricultural Secretary Earl Butz. "Glinzed" land was land where the fences had been totally removed and all the land was laid bare. Glinzed land was named to recognize the contributions to soil erosion by Stutsman County North Dakota farmer Arvel Glinz who treated the land with no respect. (He was also named "Duck Conservationsit of the Year" by the Stutsman County chapter of Ducks Unlimited. Arvel had probably drained 10 times the amount of wetlands of everyone else in the group to make way for wheat production. But, Arvel paid $5,000 each year for 3 years to buy a shotgun auctioned off as a fund raiser by DU, so that made him a duck conservationist). Arvel Glinz is why I will never support Ducks Unlimited.
I fear that growing corn for ethanol production will lead to "hosed" land - a concept I dont want to deal with.
Read on.
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