In the meantime, corn ethanol continues to enjoy its subsidies.
First, not all subsidies to those in the ethanol biz are direct.
Butanol, however, has four carbon atoms in its molecules, whereas ethanol has two.
The return on sources such as tar sands and biofuels like ethanol are in the single digits.
The resulting biofuel is not only energy-rich and water repellent but it also has a higher boiling point than ethanol.
There the cane is weighed, washed, tipped onto a conveyor belt, crushed and then, depending on market conditions, crystallised into sugar or distilled into ethanol.
Moreover, even though switchgrass and other plants can be grown in places outside the Midwest, Iowans will benefit from the fact that leftover corn stalks can also be used for cellulosic ethanol.
"t is also used in automotive antifreezes, in rocket fuels, and as a solvent. It is flammable and explosive. A clean-burning fuel, it may substitute (at least in part) for gasoline. It is also used for denaturation of ethanol. A violent poison, it causes blindness and eventually death when drunk. "
"No beaches have been closed due to ethanol spills," one AD notes.
Experts say ethanol is better for your car, especially if you want to go fast.
Why are we continuing to use taxpayer money for the bad policy of subsidizing and mandating ethanol production from corn?
Gibbons explains that the first generation of biofuels focused on using corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel. "that was the traditional approach," he says.
In el Salvador, the first country to ratify the accord, exports are sluggish. The main exception is a lively business in re-exporting Brazilian ethanol to the United States to get round tariffs.
Choren is making hydrocarbon diesel and Range ethanol.
It can ostensibly run on a variety of fuels, including: gasoline, kerosene, propane, natural gas, ethanol, methanol or hydrogen.
The water ethanol mixtures didn't have much of an effect, but the drinks did induce superconductivity-red wine best of all.
The growth in biomass ethanol and third generation fuels is just beginning. We are going to need many more students in science and engineering to make this a reality.
The failure to reduce oil dependence is not the only flaw in the ethanol program.
If all the American maize that goes into ethanol were instead used as food, global edible maize supplies would increase by 14%.
This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains.
Several corn ethanol projects have been delayed for lack of financing in Iowa and Oklahoma since last month, and one plant operator in Ohio filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
Where the effects of bad policy are clearest, however, is in the rise of demon ethanol and other biofuels.
Take America's supposedly verdant ethanol subsidies.
Last year it bought Exxon Mobil's distribution and retailing business in Brazil to help it sell its ethanol.
