Have our Fuel and Eat it Too?!?!?

I borrowed the title from Ira Flatow on NPR. I was listening to Science Friday and maybe I've been harsh on ethanol. He had David Blume of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture and ethanol expert. He made some excellent points and the way he describes the use of ethanol and structuring of an economy around it we can supply fuel and food. It may sound easy and simple from an academic perspective but I think it has some merit. He basically outlines a system that has alcohol fuel production integrated into the local economy through agriculture and transportation. You can find out more by checking out his book, reading a brief primer or listen to the NPR broadcast by downloading the podcast. It was broadcast August 15, 2008 during hour one from 2-3 eastern.

Ethanol, subsidies and more

I'm not a fan of corn based ethanol. One of my main reasons is that it requires a lot of subsidies to make it viable. It is also not that efficient in producing energy as opposed to other forms of ethanol. The subsidies create distortions in the marketplace and allocate resources in an inefficient manner and we could be investing in more effective solutions to solve energy problems. I found a great article that highlights the amount of subsidies given to Iowa in particular. $4 billion in farm subsidies. They may not all be related to ethanol but in a period of rising grain prices but I'm not sure if all these subsidies are really necessary now. I guess it is just more proof that government regulations can be very misguided. Maybe we'll see some changes in policy.

More bad news for biofuels

A new study will be released showing that biofuels actually create more greenhouse gases (GHG) rather than offset GHG from fossil fuels. Biofuels have been heralded as the way to reduce GHG emissions and reliance on foreign oil. However, it does not have the environmental benefit as originally thought and it is creating a problem in food supply. Crop land is being diverted to produce heavily subsidized biofuels, like corn ethanol. A good article in IHT gives a good account of the issues. The study it refers to is from the journal Science and is titled "Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt" if you have access to the journal somewhere.

Biofuels are a product of our thought process when trying to solve problems. We are not looking at the cause but the effect. We, as citizens of the world, need to start making our voices heard and being the catalyst for change.

Deadly Brew: The Human Toll of Ethanol

There has been a documentary called Deadly Brew: The Human Toll of Ethanol provided by Bloomberg Television recently. I haven't seen it but a short review at AutoblogGreen with a video clip is available. The commentary sounds interesting and the post raises a few points for debate as well.

I like the idea of ethanol but the political tinkering with it in the U.S. has made it an exercise in pork spending, which, ironically, raises the price of pork and other foods. We shall see what happens with ethanol but I'm not optimistic.