Well, if you've read many of my posts you probably know where I stand on man-made Global Warming. Considering this fact, it's obvious where I stand on the production and use of ethanol. However, just for fun, I'm going to pretend that I believe in global warming and cover some more good reasons not to use ethanol.
However, just for starters, lets look at the supposed benefits of ethanol (while pretending to believe in Global Warming).
1: Ethanol reduces CO2 emissions. Actually, burning ethanol produces CO2 also, but all of that CO2 has been taken out of the atmosphere while the corn grows. Therefore the increase in atmospheric CO2 is 0, unlike fossil fuels, which have been storing that carbon for thousands of years (or maybe even forever if the young-earthers are right).
2: Ethanol reduces reliance on foreign oil. This is an obvious benefit considering the current unrest in the middle east and the fact that most of the people we buy oil from are our enemies or uneasy relations.
There. Now we can look at the disadvantages (not mentioning the fact that the first benefit is pointless anyway). First of all, many people don't realize that there is a lot of oil that goes into the planting, growing, harvesting, moving, fermenting, and further moving of the corn. I know I've heard the stat, but I can't remember how many gallons of ethanol you get for one gallon of gasoline. But if you include the production of pesticides and other factors like the ones I mentioned above, I'll bet it's less than 3 gallons of ethanol per gallon of gasoline, and I think I'm being very conservative. Prove me wrong. The point is, why on earth would you want to use tax payer money to make gasoline out of corn AND gasoline. Doesn't that just seem dumb to you?
Sorry I'm not done yet. Ethanol gives cars a lower gas mileage. Because ethanol does not burn as well as gasoline, you go less miles on a gallon of gasoline corrupted with ethanol than you do on a gallon of regular gasoline. Furthermore, many people claim that ethanol is bad for cars and causes engine trouble. This seems pretty likely to me, especially in older models that weren't designed to burn ethanol. If this is the case, it would seem that we are not only using gasoline to create fuel out of food, but the fuel we make is inferior in almost every way.
Finally, ethanol causes an increase in corn prices. Furthermore, an increase in the cost of corn causes an increase in beef, dairy products, and a host of other products that use corn as feed for animals and as components of the product. As we have seen, the price of food has gone up significantly since the large-scale production of ethanol was introduced. If people have to spend more on food, they have to spend less on other things. If they spend less on other things the economy is hurt because there is less consumer demand for non-essential products.
Ok, lets sum things up quick. To slightly reduce the increase in atmospheric CO2 and somewhat reduce our reliance on foreign oil, we are subsidizing making fuel that is inefficient, less effective, and probably more detrimental to engines. In addition, we are dramatically increasing our demand for corn, at a time when world hunger is one of the largest exporters of corn in the world. This causes economic depression at home and abroad. Although farmers will respond by growing more corn, that will mean that they will be growing less of other things, which will and if it causes an expanse in farmland, they will have to cut down trees and ruin natural habitats, which the greenies typically don't like. Although ethanol may have a few benefits, the harmful affects are pretty steep.
Now, since ethanol's benefits are arguably far outweighed by its harmful affects, why does the government both subsidize it and force people to use it? Doesn't it seem rather odd that in the land of the free we are forced to use fuel that hurts our engines, hurts our economy and that of the rest of the world, and arguably is worse for the environment that regular fossil fuels. Although I have no problem with people using ethanol because it makes them feel environmentally conscious, it seems rather odd that our government would force us to use an inferior product.
In fact, there are a number of reasons why our government does this. First, farmers who grow corn receive a HUGE benefit from ethanol, which makes sense because someone has to benefit from all this waste stupidity. If you are a politician from a state that produces a lot of corn, you could very easily be voted out of office for even thinking of touching ethanol subsidies.
In addition to this, the government likes bossing people around. Politicians usually have a mentality that they are smarter than everyone else and know what's best (even though most of them probably don't even know what ethanol is). Because of this they like to take away as much freedom as possible from people so that they can control them with godlike power and wisdom. Unfortunately, they happened to be born in a republic, so they have to find ways to control people that seem good and necessarily, like making everyone use recycled toiled paper. (Fortunately that one didn't make it, but they did consider it. People are only green because it makes them feel good. Recycled toilet paper arguably does the opposite.)
Because of these factors, congress voted against eliminating ethanol subsidies. There is, however, a chance that it'll come back and pass later. Contact your representative.
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