Don’t think I have been ignoring the University of Minnesota
study out this week that has given ethanol some bad press. I
have just been playing catch up after being out of the office
for a couple of days. Fact is, the study is actually positive in
many ways. For one thing, the report finds that ethanol from
corn produces roughly 25 percent more energy than is consumed in
growing the corn and producing and delivering the fuel, which
refutes some studies that have claimed a net loss. More
importantly, the main point of the study is that ethanol could
only replace about 12 percent of the gasoline used in this
country, even if we used all of the corn grown to produce
ethanol. That is very true. The point is, NObody in the ethanol
industry has EVER claimed that ethanol is the end all and be all
for the US becoming energy independent. BUT, it can REDUCE our
dependence on foreign oil. That is the key – and it is already
doing that. Here is a good story about the Minnesota study that
puts it in perspective, from the