Originally posted by Skip Lackie
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Surely adding ethanol to gasoline slightly reduces our use of gasoline, but...
If we consider the petroleum used in the production of corn - fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, diesel fuel for plowing, planting, harvesting, and transporting and the energy used for fermenting and distilling off the ethanol, then transporting it again, it certainly could be that we do not reduce petroleum imports at all.
The best information I can find is that about 40% of our corn crop goes to ethanol production, thereby driving up the price of corn, corn-based products, and meat from corn-fed animals.
One thing we can be certain of is that ethanol in gasoline is a boon to corn growers.
An acre of farmland in a prime corn-producing area like Iowa will bring $10,000. There must be good profits in growing corn.
Please disregard my statement that ethanol reduces petro imports. That may not be true at all.
Thanks for the insight.
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