[KY_Canyon]

Originally Posted by shovel

According to the EIA we use about 137,760,000,000 gallons of gasline per year. How much gasoline does the United States consume? - FAQ - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

So if we saved 25 cents per gallon on that, it means we saved about 34 billion dollars on fuel by spending 11 billion dollars on corn. Sounds pretty cool to me.

Again, that is the direct costs. It does not take into account all of the indirect costs of corn based ethanol use:

1)Decreased efficiency--there is not a 1:1 energy comparison of ethanol to gasoline, and given that petroleum based fuel is used in the production of ethanol than there isn't even a 1:1 replacement factor.

2)inflated costs of corn based products--beyond livestock feed, there a way too many products to name (plastics, linens, etc, etc, etc.)

3)Reduced corn exports--Corn could easily be one of our most viable exports.

4) on, and on, and on.


I'm just saying there has to be a better alternative than corn (grass, seaweed, something)