Quote Originally Posted by midcarolina View Post
I'm certainly no fan of oil companies.........The truth is there is NO need for a alternative fuel source If certain things changed, But if we did I just do not think ethanol is the answer.......
If Ethanol was to get a major hold of the market there is nothing to stop them from closing the spigot to manipulate the price either
And there really aren't any conservatives in congress any more........just Democrat lights.
Well I respect Your opinion. Just don't agree with it. Brazil has already proven that it works just fine as an alternative. They make theirs from sugar and when they have a crop issue, the Ethanol gets higher than gas. They switch to gas because it is cheaper. When Ethanol is cheaper, they use that. That cuts demand on gas and forces the gas price back in line. Now if we were to do that here, anytime Iran closed up that straight in the Mediterranean that 1/4 of the worlds oil flows through, we would not have a threat of gas spiking to $8 a gallon. shutting this country down over night.

The free market would work fine with two competing fuel sources. The thing about ethanol is You can also diversify the feed stock to produce it. It can be made from many different things. When many of them become economically viable, it will not have the effect it has now on corn price. The feed stocks will compete for demand. The only place you can get oil is from the ground. Ethanol sources are grown every year and replenished. In other words, we will never run out. If we could learn to use E50 here, then we would take power from the oil market. It would not be able to spike as much because it would be known that there is an alternative.

Some of us remember the gas lines of the 70's. There was a push to start Ethanol then. When the oil embargo ended, the gas prices went cheap and we lost interest in Ethanol development. Brazil did not. they kept their program in place. Because we did not find a competing source of fuel, we suffered the collapse of our economy in 2008. People had to decide whether to buy gas or pay their mortgage. Since they had to drive to work, they bought gas. They lost their homes because of it. Had we had an alternative fuel program in place then, we may have been able to avoid the whole situation. If we don't use something to diversify our energy, then we will continue to cycle and in 20 or 25 years, we will be right back in the same situation. You never put all Your eggs in one basket. Unless we have no choice. We have a choice here and it can be blended with gas so there is no need for changing infrastructure. It works with the same pumps that pump gas.

One question I have never been able to figure out is, why would a president who came from one of the biggest oil states in the country, sign the energy bill that made ethanol happen? There had to be a reason.CF