The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 605
Now while it took several paragraphs to explain these rudiments of manufacturing, it is really very simple to understand and makes all the sense in the world.
So then why don’t the oil industry shills get it? Why do all these high-powered,
well-educated people like Robert Bryce and his cohorts not understand this?
Why do they insist on painting the food vs. fuel picture? The answer is that they
either don’t know this because they have no real business knowledge and experience or because they are paid to not acknowledge it. I happen to believe
it’s both.
On the other hand, if I’m the one who is wrong or ignorant, then virtually every
manufacturing company in the world is wrong and ignorant.
Food vs. fuel is a non-issue, unless you are a fool, Mr. Bryce.
Moreover, specific to the corn issue, corn doesn’t have to be used to make
ethanol. In fact, it is one of the least desirable crops to be used because of the
relatively low annual yield and the heavy requirement for water. But again, the
reason why corn is the primary base material is that we have so many farmers
who are experienced growing it and because we have so much land. In Brazil
they use sugar and in Australia, they use sweet sorghum. Some American ethanol farmers are already switching to sorghum because of water issues. Sorghum can also be used to make distillers grains too, so we’ll still get a crop that
can feed animals and produce fuel. It’ll be fun to see what argument the oil
industry comes up with then.
One way or the other, I’d rather have my fuel money go to American farmers
than to foreign terrorists.
LAND HO … HA, HA, HA
Bryce takes the usual line against using corn or other produce because of available land. In doing so, he again makes the jump from present ethanol production and use to a full-on replacement of all fossil fuels as a way to portray the
impossible nature of the effort. He has no room for a middle ground.
Bryce takes the amount of land currently used to grow corn (that’s used to make
ethanol), multiplies it by the liquid volume that would be necessary to replace
all gasoline, and declares it is impossible.
The number of the amount of land that he uses for his statistics was a number
given to him by someone else with an anti-ethanol agenda. He then uses it
against a crop yield number that is out-of-date or was never correct in the first
