The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 416
years. Here’s what I mean; they started with a zero–based budget as if America
had no farmers. They even calculated into the energy equation the energy required to build some of the equipment that’s used in farming. Not only were the
tractors they selected unsuitable for the job because they were too large and
cumbersome, but they ignored the fact that almost all corn farmers already own
the equipment necessary to grow corn or other products. They stacked the deck
against ethanol. To be fair, P&P should have calculated in every aspect that
goes into what it takes to get the gasoline to the pump, and that would have
been to add in all of the costs for war, and every single item right down to the
energy it takes to make the zippers on the pants worn by our military service
personnel.
Alright, you have my take on what Pimentel and Patzek did. Consider some
examples of studies that studied the Pimentel-Patzek studies. The first of which
comes from Tad Patzek’s own school, UC Berkeley. It was a study completed
in 2006 after the Pimentel-Patzek studies and it was conducted by UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group.
Here are some highlights of the results:
ETHANOL CAN REPLACE GASOLINE WITH SIGNIFICANT ENERGY SAVINGS, COMPARABLE IMPACT ON GREENHOUSE GASES
“The analysis, appearing in this week's issue of Science, attempts to settle the
ongoing debate over whether ethanol is a good substitute for gasoline and thus
can help lessen the country's reliance on foreign oil and support farmers in the
bargain.”
“Dan Kammen and Alex Farrell of the Energy and Resources Group at UC
Berkeley, with their students Rich Plevin, Brian Turner and Andy Jones along
with Michael O'Hare, a professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy, deconstructed six separate high-profile studies of ethanol. They assessed the
studies' assumptions and then reanalyzed each after correcting errors, inconsistencies and outdated information regarding the amount of energy used to
grow corn and make ethanol, and the energy output in the form of fuel and corn
byproducts.”
“Kammen estimates that ethanol could replace 20 to 30 percent of fuel usage
in this country with little effort in just a few years. In the long term, the United
States may be able to match Sweden, which recently committed to an oil-free
future based on ethanol from forests and solar energy. Kammen last year published a paper, also in Science, arguing that even Africa could exploit its
