Ed Morrisey published a piece on Ethanol earlier today. It was interesting to me that I was having a very similar conversation with one of my fellow Kyuki-do practitioners the other night. I think Ed made some outstanding points throughout his article so I won’t rehash them here, just encourage you to go read them at the source.
Recognize for a moment that I have spent a few years in the ethanol industry recently doing some business process, and systems consulting. Many of the practices and the material losses would amaze you.
One point that I think was missed in his article, is the by-products that are produced in corn based ethanol production. Most of the “waste” stream can be converted to other uses, the exception being the water. But, the “beer stream” can be dried and converted to yeast that then goes into animal feed. Both wet and dry solids from the process are used primarily as cattle and pig feed. One of the examples of this relationship can be found in the Aurora Co-op in Nebraska where the corn is hauled in for ethanol production, and the waste solids hauled back to the Co-op as animal feed.
In my thinking, once the demand for ethanol has reached the point that we are no longer using “surplus” corn to support the industry but reaching into the harvest for material that would directly feed humans, something is wrong with the equation. On the flip side of that, I have seen a huge number of corn fields that were just not harvested in previous years because the market for corn was so low. Finding the balance is key.
I do whole heartedly agree that ethanol is not the sole answer to the global energy appetite, and that our enthusiasm is having unintended consequences.