Food or oil?

fidel castro supposedly predicted that biofuels would lead to world famine and genocide in an essay credited to him. Hyperbole aside, one has to wonder if burning up 1/3 of the U.S. corn crop as fuel makes any sense. Corn, as we all know, is one of the most important crops in America. Almost anything sweet that you eat contains corn syrup. Corn is used in Animal feed. Is it any wonder that food prices are on the rise?
Well there seems to be some good news that won’t be viewed as good news by some. The U.S. Geological Survey has announced that deposits of recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana are estimated to contain between 3 billion and 4.3 billion barrels. According to the report, that’s 25 times more than previously thought.
Now ask yourself if it isn’t smarter to exploit domestic oil supplies than corn-based ethanol given the fact that oil has no other real use than as fuel and is more efficient than ethanol?
Wait till the proponents of the incredibly flexible theory get their hands on this news.
H/T: Asymmetric

4 thoughts on “Food or oil?”

  1. Hey Henry,one of the big beneficiaries in this whole put corn in your car, is Archer Daniels(ADM), the stock has had a huge run. I remember that during the Elian saga, when they went to the dinner party up in the DC area, it was at one of the ADM ceo or cfo, I don’t remember. Perhaps you could look into the archives for it. Take care Chief, keep up the good work

  2. Claudia’s right. They can even use to leftovers when making sugar to make ethanol. Corn takes two units of energy to produce one. Sugar takes one unit of energy to produce two.

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