I was looking for a good reason to make a blog entry. Today's Blog Action Day is that reason. I really wonder some times if burning corn is an environmentally concious thing to do. The fuel, its true, is renewable. But yet, it relies on the oil infrastructure to be in place. Farming is a resource intensive operation. Between the diesel fuel used in implements, to the natural gas feedstock that makes nitrogen based fertilizers, there is a lot of consumption. In the case of a serious shortage of these fossil fuels, corn burning isn't going to be in our future either.So what is? Biomass fuels? Switchgrass? Or, something that is yet out there on the horizon? I have great confidence the inventor making up the corn burning community will be there at the forefront of what is next.
 |
I would like to see this movie when it makes the rounds. Hopefully the preview shows up here in this blog above.
An interesting article in the Star Tribune last week. The Boom Fades as Ethanol Floods the Marketplace Profits are in the gutter because of the high cost of corn and the soft demand for ethanol. I wonder how much lower the profits are going to be in a couple of years when the administration in Washington changes and people are allowed to take a closer look at the ethanol business. My guess is the government payouts to the corporate ethanol producers are going to dissapear and suddenly there will be a firesale as oil, and other large corporations rush over themselves getting out of the business.
What will happen to farmers then? The ones that tied their whole future to selling five dollar a bushel corn are going to be in for a rude awaking. I hope that farm subsidies have not been allowed to expire while the general public has been looking the other way. Thinking about all the happy motoring they will be able to do in their ethanol powered SUV.
2 comments:
New to your site! I am the corn-manager of probably the only corn Co-op in the country. We have a small 22 ton capicity bin about 7 miles from the White House in Takoma Park, MD. We have about 68 members and are looking at opening up a second bin in the next few months. The majority of us use corn to heat as an environmental issue above anything else. Our founder, Mike Tidwell, writes about the corn coop in his bookThe Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities. I look forward to reading and participating!
"environmentally conscious" I don't think means "looking out for the interest of the planet before ours" but rather "looking out for the planets interest while fulfilling ours". Since we (as a species) are such large consumers of resources it is impossible for us to (on a mass scale) do what is absolutely 100% right for the planet, the only thing we could do is die off. I don't want that to happen by the way;). All we can do is try to do better by the planet. Corn burning is a great idea on a small scale but not on a large scale. and ethonal production through the use of corn is a great idea as a starter for the ethonal industry. but it is not the final outcome. I'm afraid though that the ignorance in Washington combined with the greed of humans has made it what it shouldn't be. We should be switching to switch grass.
Also Ethanol isn't a final solution for the oil issue, it is a transition fuel. With 20% ethanol in our cars we cut out probably 15% of the oil use our country is doing (this is of course under the assumption that we are using switch grass and biofuels in our farm tractors as we should be).
I truly believe that the solution for us will be our electric grid. As we move to electric cars and shift our wasting from millions of cars to thousands of power plants we can better manage our waste / use. The grid may require redesigning but in the end solar / wind / biofuels can find their true place in the equation.
Maybe we will get lucking and some one will find an amazing way to store energy in large scale so our cars can go 500 miles on a charge, and be recharged in 3 minutes at some quick-e mart down the road. and even better yet we will have so many electric cars that the cost of this new amazing undiscovered technology will drop in cost quickly.
Which brings me to my last comment for now... Ja why haven't you done that yet?!
Post a Comment