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East River SoDak | The reason corn ethanol is around and sustainable right now is for one reason only.......it uses up a surplus of corn. Economics 101 tells you the cure for high prices is high prices and the cure for low prices is low prices. Well corn ethanol was the cure for low corn prices. It took something that was cheap and in excess and turned it into something everybody uses or can use. Essentially all that was required was to build the plant because all the other ground work was laid. I don't believe that it is hurting the environment, but i certainly don't believe it is saving the environment......it's not going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and all these other catch phrases people used when ethanol was really being hyped. Are we going to start burning anything that can turn into ethanol? Are we going to start a wood ethanol plant and people can start cutting down their shelter belts? I hope we never get going in cellulosic ethanol because IMO it is down the wrong path. Can it really be a good idea to start baling your cornstalks every year. Our fertilizer demands are high enough every year besides for the P and K it would take to replace that. The loss of all that organic matter couldn't be good either.
Edited by Traveler 11/10/2010 07:35
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The Future of Switchgrass as a Cellulosic Ethanol Feedstock
