I think the writer makes very good points, but there are a number of counterpoints:
First, R&D is continuing on ethanol using other sources of raw material and improving the efficiency of existing sources. So banning ethanol isn't really the issue; it is the source material that is, and I can't imagine that people involved in agriculture would not be interested in developing additional uses for things like cornstalks, leaves and other byproducts of production if that were available. Even algae would be an easy and natural transition for farms that have waterways and an outstanding environment for production given field runoff of nitrates.
Second, you have the issue of volatility; commodity prices, land rents and land values have soared in recent years, in large part due to the stability that a secondary product from the same harvest yields. Subsidies paid to farmers have decreased and the huge corn surpluses have all but disappeared. If we pull the plug on corn based ethanol production too abruptly, we would likely see a huge economic impact that would send shudders through the entire economy worse than the collapse of 1981 caused.
I would say ramp it down a little bit at a time and continue to develop alternatives. There are a lot of different reasons to wean ourselves off corn based ethanol and an overly aggressive mandate helped the boom in prices take off-but most of the price increase is seen in land values, rent and distribution, not the price of food itself, where a doubling of commodity price at the point of production has maybe a five cent on the dollar impact on the retail price of the product. Getting all knee jerk and wanting to abruptly change course will cause more problems than it will resolve...and the writer's bias is not exactly obscure.
Well yes... sort of. Scrap the Renewable Fuel Standard that creates an artificial demand for ethanol for motor fuel. Right now the most economical way to produce ethanol is from maize. The RFS creates an artificial demand for ethanol that is creating the problem you see. If and when there is a cheaper way to produce ethanol that has an eROI a lot better than 1, and doesn't compete with food, the RFS could be brought back.
I agree that we should ring the necks of politicians who try to force it down our throats. It is another shining example of what happens when the feds stick their noses in the market where it doesn't belong. 20 years ago they forced MTBE down our throats and into our cars which suffered major damage and the MTBE spilled into the ground and now provides much of my employment cleaning it up. Since it is an alcohol, it is extremely soluble in groundwater and it migrates a long distance from the source making it extremely expensive and difficult to clean. Ethanol is another substance that is hard on automobile parts. Maybe they can come up with something better but it seems clear to me that corn isn't a very good producer of ethanol and it is little more than Washington politicians buying votes with taxpayer trillions.
Banned, no. It still has its uses. What we need to do is to make it from sources other than maize. That was only picked in order to solicit votes from Midwestern farmers. Brazil has the right idea, using bagasse (waste from the sugar industry) as a feedstock. We don't produce enough sugar for this to be feasible on a large scale but switchgrass, which grows well in non-agricultural land and requires minimal energy input, is feasible.
Maybe Congress should have listened to the environmentalists that said corn alcohol was a bad idea instead of the Archer-Midlands lobbyists?
Let market forces count instead of buying votes from corn producing states and it will be gone tomorrow, except for on your liquor store shelf.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
You could be right, my diesel car exhaust does smell funny. We should grow food and pump oil.
But but but... This is green energy? fully renewabl eand carbon nuetral! Why are you such a downer????
Dang it all.
DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAINS!!!!!
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/climatism-watching-climate-science/2013/apr/16/it-time-end-ethanol-vehicle-fuel-mandates/
