The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 493
fuels that are less expensive and healthier than ethanol-free gasoline, why is
this a problem? A professor of economics should know this; a six-year-old child
should know this.
Peter Grossman then cites a Wall Street Journal comment that the use of a
biofuel in our national supply of gasoline would cause "a gigantic transfer of
wealth," and he cites this as it being a negative effect. But the transfer of wealth
that WSJ is talking about is taking money from foreign dictators and terrorists
and giving it to American farmers and consumers. Which precept in economics
makes this a bad thing?
Peter should have concluded his nonsensical opinion piece with the cost issue.
However, for some strange reason, he decided to push on; I guess he was
getting paid by the word from Big Oil so he decided to up the bounty with commentary on the availability of corn.
He brings out the old canard about America not having enough corn to supply
all of our ethanol needs...that it would take 100% of the American corn crop to
do so. So what? So what if it was necessary to use all corn grown in the U.S.
to make enough ethanol to replace gasoline? What deprivation would that
cause, not enough popcorn for movie theaters? Not enough corn to make the
endless supply of tortilla chips that Jay Leno once assured us there would always be? So what, we'll eat more potato chips; movie goers will buy more
Raisinets and licorice; kids can learn to love green beans instead of corn-onthe-cob.
But the real response to the stupid corn availability issue is that corn isn't the
only crop that can be used to make ethanol, nor that it's the best to use (from a
yield perspective) ...and I'm not even referring to cellulosic raw materials. I'm
talking about sorghum, sugar cane, sugar beets, cattails, Jerusalem artichokes,
buffalo gourds, and algae. The reason we don't use all these other crops is that
we don't yet need to, we have plenty of corn for our current needs, and we could
grow enough corn if we switched from E10 to E85 as our basic engine fuel.
Even then, we could probably still grow enough corn to keep popcorn eaters
rotund and happy.
• For more info about available land to grow ethanol crops CLICK HERE
and scroll down to "LAND HO … HA, HA, HA."
For crying out loud, Peter, didn't you do any research when you accepted this
writing gig from the oil industry? Who did you speak to about any of this? Did
you speak to anyone about any of this?
