The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 621
David Blume provides additional in-depth discussion of EROEI online and in his
book "Alcohol Can Be A Gas." In as much as it is now nearly 4 years after the
taping of this conversation and advances in farming and ethanol production
have continued, it would be intriguing to hear what an updated Blume-Pimentel
conversation would sound like.
In 2011, Forrest Jehlik, Research Engineer, Argonne National Laboratory responded to what he felt are the 5 most prevalent myths about ethanol. He said
that ethanol does not take more energy to make than it yields, “Argonne National Laboratory research has shown that corn ethanol delivers a positive energy balance of 8.8 megajoules per liter. The energy balance from second-generation biofuels using cellulosic sources is up to six times better…”
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded a report on LIFECYCLE
ENERGY BALANCE by stating "...corn-based ethanol shows a clear benefit
over gasoline." You can read this report by CLICKING HERE.
In 2016, The U.S. Department of Agriculture released an updated report that
verified corn ethanol's positive EROEI and stated that additional gains had been
made since 2008. This report can be found by CLICKING HERE.
Nonetheless, it's clear that it’s not the ethanol industry that’s been using Enron
Accounting, it’s Bryce and Pimentel and Patzek and everyone else fronting for
Big Oil. You, know, just a little more of the ol’ doublespeak.
ROBERT BRYCE, CHAMPION OF MTBE
Why should it have surprised me that Bryce would devote a section in his book
to defending methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) and blaming ethanol? It
shouldn’t have, after all, look how many decades it took to get the world to agree
that cigarette smoking is harmful. And look how long it took for everyone to
acknowledge that tetra-ethyl lead is poisonous. Not-so funnily enough, in 1974
Vice President Joe Biden (then just a senator – yes, he has been on the public
dole for more than 40 years) stated in congress, “In my opinion, lead from auto
emissions does not constitute a public health hazard.” I guess Bryce figures that
if we can have a stupid congressman who works his way to first in line for presidential succession that being a stupid author is no big deal. Congratulations,
Robert, you’ve made it to the front of the stupid line.
When the gasoline industry was finally faced with the mandate that they clean
up their act – to get the lead out, figuratively and literally, they had two choices:
The first was to go back to the original formulation that cured the ills of low
