The Clean Energy Scam
April 8, 2008
Amazing new diets, intriguing self-help books, a daily dose of St. John’s Wort - we are a country obsessed with quick fixes. Now, as Time points out in this cover story titled The Clean Energy Myth, we can add ethanol to our national wish list.
Consider this: If every kernel of corn and if every single soy bean produced by American farmers were converted into ethanol, it would account for just 20 percent of the country’s on-road fuel consumption. That’s one of many eye-opening conclusions in Michael Grunwald’s lucid account. Ethanol is not the answer to our national woes. It is one of many answers on a long list of energy sources that are presently underutilized, including natural gas, coal-to-liquids, wind power, solar power, and nuclear power.
Parting Thought? It’s all about the land, isn’t it?
More Field Reports From The Land Report:- The Rise and Fall of Ethanol
One of the more telling anecdotes about ethanol comes from Boone Pickens. It's always an eye-opener to listen to this master raconteur discuss energy and politics. Last month I heard... - Corn Drives Land Prices Higher and Higher
It’s official. The New York Times proclaimed in August that the market for Midwestern farmland was “hot,” a declaration akin to labeling Hurricane Katrina “dangerous” two weeks after it devastated... - Top Ethanol Producer Files For Bankruptcy
One of the leading stories of 2008 has been skyrocketing commodity prices and the corresponding surge in land values throughout the Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, and other mineral-rich areas of... - “The Land Market Has Never Been Stronger”
So says Mac Boyd, a broker at Farmers National in Arcola, Illinois. Boyd is just one of the many veteran real estate professionals who are closely monitoring the strongest farmland market in decades.... - Mexico Opposes Ethanol
As we've seen over the last few months, skyrocketing commodity prices are pushing land values to record levels. They are also squeezing cattlemen and other producers who rely on corn...
[...] bushel. More land was being pulled from farming and expiring CRP contracts to produce ethanol. Now our love affair with this wonder fuel that doesn’t work– has sent our food prices shooting [...]
[...] economy are turning the tide against corn ethanol. Last month it was mainstream media: this TIME cover story titled “The Clean Energy Myth.” Today it was the business press: [...]