Ethanol from corn may not be a panacea, but Brazil put ethanol into play 25 years ago and today it is a viable, unsubsidized competitor to petroleum. Gasoline prices in Brazil don’t climb as high or as fast as they do in the United States simply because people can easily switch from one fuel to the less expensive one. Managing the market place is indeed required, but we would be better off by requiring all newly manufactured vehicles sold in the U.S. be flexible fuel vehicles rather trying to pump up fuel economy by the unrealistic amounts you speak about in your article. Greater demand for ethanol will bring innovations in the market place because ethanol doesn’t have to be made from corn alone. It can be made from sugarcane as it is in Brazil, it can be made from sugar beats here in the U.S. and deep into Canada, it can even be made from cow manure as Panda Energy makes it. I wouldn’t hold my breath about cellulosic ethanol; it’s not coming any time soon. If made using the wet process it can produce ethanol and biodiesel at the same time and the leftovers can still be used for feeding livestock and once digested can be used to extract ethanol once again. If you use tractors that run on ethanol and biodiesel you aren’t using petroleum products to produce the fuel, you can use the corn stalks to heat the mash, and since the corn isn’t being grown for eating but rather fuel you can slow up on the heavy petroleum based fertilizers that are designed to give the consumer a more appetizing look to ear. Brazil has figured out how to produce ethanol for about 50 cents a gallon.

By mandating that all new gasoline vehicles sold in the U.S. be flexible fuel vehicles and switching the subsidy to ethanol producers rather than the oil companies (the blenders) we create a bypass around oil companies and fuel economy standards and immediately offer to the general public the ability to choose a less polluting and less expensive fuel, and money flows into the farm belt rather than into the hands of nations that may wish us harm. At first there will be many growers that will plant corn to sell into this market. Later as other less expensive forms of ethanol become available farmers will return to planting food crops to garner higher margins. The subsidy should be phased out over a 25 year period so that ethanol stands on its own as it has in Brazil. In the end I see vast amounts of waste, such as paper, manure, human waste, food scraps, grasses, wood waste and more, as well as crops, such as soy bean, fodder beats, peanuts and grasses being used to produce ethanol at a much lower cost than corn. This diversity of supply will keep ethanol prices steady as a commodity should be, and with proper crop rotation ethanol production will be able to go on in perpetuity since it is renewable.

Having said all of that, the best alternative of all the alternatives is electricity. It is so, simply because electricity can be produced with minimal pollution to begin with. Wind power now rivals coal in cost, given a few years it will be the cheapest form of production. Austin Energy, an electric company that has invested a great deal in wind energy over the last two decades is finally reaping the rewards as it pays off fully the first of its purchased wind turbines. Its costs have dropped so dramatically it offered its customers a rebate on their electric bill this year. Austin energy is a big fan of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids simply because the wind doesn’t stop blowing at night. Since electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids typically charge at night it is a way to take advantage of the electricity produced at night that goes unused and to use that otherwise unused energy to displace oil energy typically used during the day.

But wind is not alone in being a pollution free way to produce electricity. No, no, far from it. There is wave, micro-hydro, inline hydro, sea current, ocean current, tidal, solar thermal, photovoltaic solar, temperature difference conversion (sterling), geothermal, and many, many more ways to produce electricity in pollution free and local/distributed way. There isn’t any need to burn anything to produce electricity and therefore there is no need to produce any pollution at all in making electricity. On top of that electricity is, when produced this way, a zero emission energy, and electric vehicles are zero emission vehicles.

In conclusion, if we really want to solve our problem of climate change, we need to get our selves off of oil first by any means necessary and then get ourselves off of burning anything to produce our energy.
Posted by: Joseph Lado

With a simple understanding of economic principles anyone could understand that what will happen next is that the farmers will return their corn crop to the food supply dropping corn prices, while ethanol's current price drop will respond to the reduced amount of corn ethanol by bidding up the price so that it becomes equalized with food prices. More corn is being supplies so as demand for ethanol increases corn prices will move in equilibrium as supply and demand ballance. I am sure I will here an article next year from the author with the tone of great alarm that corn prices are dropping. Its economic. Let it play out.
Posted by: Joseph Lado