Urging Congress to Cancel the Ethanol Tariff

reporter writes "The Wall Street Journal is urging Washington to discard the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. This tariff is effectively a subsidy for corn-based ethanol produced in the USA. Yet, producing ethanol from corn is highly inefficient and consumes 1 unit of energy for each 1.3 units of energy that burning ethanol provides. By contrast, ethanol derived from sugarcane (which is the sole source of ethanol in Brazil) yields 8.3 units of energy. Sugercane is about 7 times more efficient than corn. Some studies even show that corn yields only 0.8 unit of energy, resulting in a net loss of energy."

Comments

Re:Energy efficiency

[Comboman]

Many of these studies also leave off the fact that the "byproduct" of producing ethanol from corn is also valuable . . . That leaves behind a protein rich by-product that is then added to corn and other feed used for raising cattle.

Damn, I was hoping the byproduct would be bourbon. Save the planet, drink more Jack Daniels.

Re:Energy efficiency

[epine]

Why drink bourbon when you have pure ethanol?

Why eat cheese when you have lard?