The Great Ethanol Boondoggle

[rangerrebew]

 Written by Clarice Feldman on Dec 29, 2021. Posted in Latest news
The Great Ethanol Boondoggle

cellulosic ethanolDuring the Jimmy Carter administration when gas shortages and long lines at the pumps were high on voters long list of dissatisfactions, a bright idea took hold: mandate ethanol, the creation of gasoline from crops, most especially food stock like corn –about 40 percent of which is now used to produce it.

It was convenient for politicians on the left. It was renewable. It was domestic and, not least of all, it was a political plus for those who supported it because Iowa was the first primary election in the country and it is corn country.

For decades afterward, even when there was no shortage of available fuel from conventional sources, Congress adored ethanol. Of course, there have always been problems created by the ethanol mandate.

It raises the price of food—corn and meat in particular. It can damage car engines and fuel pumps.

Two years ago, the Atlantic decried the lost promise of ethanol, once the darling of the Democrats:

https://climatechangedispatch.com/the-great-ethanol-boondoggle/

[Smokin Joe]

When Congress mandated oxygenated fuels, there were two additives considered effective in that regard for gasoline. One was MTBE, which turned out to linger in groundwater if spilled, as fuel is, inevitably, at gas stations. Not only was the MTBE not breaking down or evaporating, it was considered harmful to humans and other critters.

So that left ethanol, around which no small industry and lobby has grown.

Not that we've ever had a smog problem in North Dakota, or many other parts of the rural midwest or northern plains or southwest or southeast....

But no one asked us if we wanted it.

[Hoodat]

Not that we've ever had a smog problem in North Dakota, or many other parts of the rural midwest or northern plains or southwest or southeast....

But no one asked us if we wanted it.

Burning ethanol in an ICE produces formaldehyde which is a major contributor to smog in Brazil.