They didn’t make new fields for this, agriculture had to dedicate old fields and partially restructure to supply for Ethanol, for which it had to be subsidized by the gov’t.
What does that mean? Gov’t $$$ spend, and $$$ of our foods go up.
It takes gas to manufacture ethanol and it still needs 15% of regular gas for E85. So you’re still using gas while getting worse mileage. Winning? I think not.
Put 10% of that shit into regular gas and decrease fuel economy across every vehicle in the US while we are trying to increase MPG and crying for green vehicles? Not winning.
Did we start paying $1 a gallon because of this wonderful alternative? Prices didn’t even blink.
For the fourth time in our history the ethanol industry has come undone and is quickly failing nationally. Of course it’s one thing when Detroit collapsed with the economy; after all, that is a truly free-market enterprise and the economy hasn’t been good. But the fact that the ethanol industry is going bankrupt, when the only reason we use this additive is a massive government mandate, is outrageous at best.
Don’t let anybody mislead you: The new push to get a 15% ethanol mandate out of Washington is simply to restore profitability to a failed industry. Only this time around those promoting more ethanol in our gas say there’s no scientific proof that adding more ethanol will damage vehicles or small gas-powered engines. With that statement they’ve gone from shilling the public to outright falsehoods, because ethanol-laced gasoline is already destroying engines across the country in ever larger numbers.
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/may2009/bw20090514_058678.htm
A gallon of ethanol may require up to more than 2,100 gallons of water from farm to fuel pump, depending on the regional irrigation practice in growing corn, according to the study detailed in the April 15 issue of journal Environmental Science & Technology.
In June, the Bush administration reported to Congress that the federal ethanol incentive program has done precisely the opposite of what was intended. Instead of reducing gasoline consumption, foreign oil dependency, and air pollution, the program caused Americans to use 473 million more gallons of gasoline in 2000 than in 1999. In fact, if this program remains in place, it actually will increase gasoline use by 9 billion gallons from 2005 to 2008.
Written on March 30, 2011 by Nathaniel Davidson
Late last year, even the Eco-Prophet (or should that be Eco-Profit?) Al Gore had to admit the failure of one of the grand schemes of environmentalists: ethanol in fuel:
We’ve tried the ethanol experiment, and it’s failed.
Ethanol hasn’t significantly affected our dependence on imported oil, nor has it significantly cut carbon emissions. It has, however, cost taxpayers a bundle, including raising food prices.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700091509/Declare-ethanol-a-failure.html
Any questions? This stuff is garbage that’s increasing the cost of foods, actually increases our oil imports or at the very least does nothing to effect them, ruins small engines and cars, decreases MPG across the board and is costing us a fortune in gov’t subsidies.