The biofuels industry is responding to OPEC's claims that ethanol is the reason for high gas prices. Yeah right! Ethanol keeps the prices lower. Several biofuels organizations issued the following press release to draw attention to their ad in the Financial Times.
If you click on the link at the bottom you can view the full ad.
Links:
"Fuelguru" wrote
That is arguable at best. The cost of producing ethanol from corn (like it is done in the US) is actually very high. It is very inefficient (granted, it will improve over time), and it consumes food crop, so it has negative effect on food prices. Ethanol price is government-subsidized with tax money that could have been used for other purposes (education, healthcare, paying off national debt, etc.). In addition, using ethanol-blended gasoline (E85) results in degraded fuel economy, so you end up using more of it.
But I do see the benefit of using biofuels to reduce our reliance on oil. It's just that currently this benefit comes at a pretty high price.
Pete
I'm noticing poorer mileage even with the ubuquitous E10 we're getting these days.
I was using corn along with wood pellets to heat my home until the price for corn more than doubled - making it equivalent to about $5.00/gal, heating oil.
Tom K.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required