Is ethanol here to stay?
Community
Or will we be able to get rid of the crapp some day?
I doubt it. It makes no sense to continue using it but there are principles involved now... (money, yours and mine going to big ag and via them back to our representatives)
CRP is a thing of the past. Those were long term contracts so many are still in place, but as they expire you can expect it to disappear. Well, except for the crappiest tracts of land.
Its a matter of money. Gov't pays $99 an acre for CRP but a farmer will pay $125 and more on rent for the same acre. If the farmer owns it, they might be making $200-$400 per acre.
My main hunting area area has been CRP for as long as I can remember, but last year it came out and is now being farmed. I actually expect it to improve our hunting.
Ethanol is here to stay. No way the green weenies are going to admit they were full of crap and that making ethanol creates more pollution than it saves!
"No way the green weenies are going to admit they were full of crap"
That x2. Being an Elitist means never having to say you are wrong, much less sorry.....
Also it has created a whole new class dependent on Gov.
Terry
"Gov't pays $99 an acre for CRP" Many places $30 or less.
My neighbor has about 500 tillable acres. Last year, in the fall, some friends of mine tilled about 25 yards out from the woods all around his property. It is over a mile around his fields. They planted some kind of mix but it has grass and clover in it. It is a beautiful green band all the way around his farm. The deer and rabbits love it. The guy that tills the corn and beans loves it because he doesn't have to get close to the woods with his huge equipment. I drive my Gator around it and always see turkeys and deer.
Ethanol as a fuel/fuel additive is not predicated upon science based science. There is a higher ratio of available energy in unicorn farts in comparison.
I had heard rumors of getting rid of it. Not cost effective! The only ones making money off it are the farmers! And the hunting now sucks because all the fence rows and wood lots have been bulldozed to plant MORE corn. Pheasants are all gone... no winter or nesting cover. But... Yeah...will they ever get it out of the gas? All my carbureted engines sure hope so. Can't stand the crap and all the problems it creates!
Ethanol was first used as a way for farmers to market their grain when grain prices were very low and petroleum prices were high. Farmers formed cooperative groups through which they marketed their grain as ethanol. This was before the government started pushing it as a "green" fuel. The volume of ethanol produced and public acceptance of the product were both low. I know that Nebraska was a state where ethanol was available earlier than other states where I traveled.
Government intervention may have had a lot (or a little) to do with the low grain prices. When ethanol was mandated, grain prices were tied to the price of oil at a time when oil was high and stayed high for a number of years. This caused record high grain prices, encouraged greater production, etc.
All of this is a separate question from the energy question as stated by Mouse. I am not convinced that organic ethanol production produces a net positive energy.
SB, buy or rent some land and grow your own weeds/pheasants
What ethanol has done is take what should be a food source and channeled it into a questionable fuel source.
Now poor people all over the world are seeing higher food prices or outright food SHORTAGES because corn that was once used in food is now in fuel, AND the acreage that was used for other non-corn food sources have been converted to corn.
My daughter is an ag reporter who researches and writes about these things, and she reported on a study that determined that switchgrass is a FAR better source of ethanol, AND it also doesn't have to be plowed under every year and it is far better for soil conservation, not to mention wildlife habitat.
But there's no "welfare" for switchgrass!
Another great example of the government "helping" when they are actually doing just the opposite.
Ethanol is not good for small engines. Ethanol only has about two thirds the energy as gasoline. You lose 3-5% fuel mileage when ethanol is in the gasoline. It also increases the price of gasoline and it's just a damn shame. You guys remember back in the day when you used white gasoline for outboard motors on boats?
E-85 is the real joke, by the time you loose mileage and performance it is no cheaper than no-lead regular. The car guys that know say never put alcohol through a carbeurator. The most expensive engine I own is a big outboard and you should never put alcohol through a 2-stroke.
In many cases by the time you factor in the fewer MPGs you get with the fake fuel, it many times costs you MORE than the 87 octane!!!
And 2 cycle engines DO take a real beating from it.
It has nothing to do with the greenies since even they know switch grass is better than ethanol. This has to do with "farm welfare"
No arguement Mint regarding corn use, just the whole basis of ethanol is related to the green weenies.
It takes more resources to create ethanol than is saved by the use of it.
Anybody notice the price difference growing between ethanol and regular ?
Wouldn't know, you can't even get regular gas around here anymore! Used to, but now even that has switched to ethanol.
I used to pay more for the regular for my small engines, but it got to the point a couple years ago that the station couldn't hardly get it and the price diff. kept going up.
"The government needs to stay the F out of agriculture."
The government needs to stay out of EVERYTHING except national security.
Yeah, and their doing such a great job with that!
Point taken. Let me modify that....
Let the ARMED FORCES do what they know how to do best(kill people and break things) and keep the POLITICIANS out of it!
A great example is the Department of Energy. It was created "to decrease our dependence on foreign oil". Boy, that was a real success and now the dept. has 16,000 employees DOING WHAT???
I drive way out of my way to get ethanol free gas for my dirt bikes and sleds.
