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Ethanol More Mean Than Green

Posted Jul 31, 07 2:54 PM CDT in US,  Politics,  Business,  Technology 

(Newser) – Far from the solution to America’s energy crisis, corn ethanol is “one if the great political boondoggles of our time,” Rolling Stone says in a scathing broadside. The “dangerous” and “delusional” hype over the corn biofuel raises the price of food for the needy because it puts corn to work powering SUVs. And on top of that, ethanol isn’t even environmentally efficient.

Creating ethanol requires a major power input for relatively little payback. But politics and panic over dwindling oil supplies have transformed corn into a bulwark in the War on Terror. The piece argues that “energy crops,” including ethanols produced from wood and grasses, are the real answer to shaking off the yoke of oil and global warming, but warns nonetheless against "blind faith that technology will solve all our problems."

Source Rolling Stone

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This photo provided by Enterprise Rental Car shows Enterprise Senior Vice President Matthew Darrah speaking at a Ethanol Gas Station in Washington, Thursday June 28, 2007. The company has acquired 41.000...   (Associated Press)
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a major proponent of ethanol, speaks in this 2006 file photo in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney, File)   (Associated Press)
Corn stalks are seen near New Berlin, Ill., in this Tuesday, June 19, 2007 file photo. U.S. farmers planted 19 percent more corn this season than a year ago to capture record high market prices, fueled...   (Associated Press)
This plant, the nation's first to make ethanol without fossil fuels is shown on the day of it's opening Thursday, June 28, 2007, near Mead, Neb. The plant gets its energy from biogas, derived from cattle...   (Associated Press)
Ethanol   ((c) swanksalot)
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environment  • global warming  • oil  • energy  • biofuel  • ethanol  • farmer  • corn  • crops  • hunger



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