OT: Al Gore stupidity..

Why do you waste your money on these useless investment newsletters when you cannot afford a decent internet connection?

Ethanol from corn was always a very obvious sop to the US corn lobby. Votes for subsidies. This isn't news! It has been debated many times in sci.chem the last decent thread I can recall in 2005 after UC Berkeley published a pretty scathing attack on US ethanol policy.

I think they have upped their game a little bit since then and that now the best estimates are that US bioethanol from corn might actually be slightly better than breakeven with about 30% gain. The Brazilian sugar cane with C4 photosynthesis manages about 900% gain which is worthwhile.

See for example:

Also note that the US refuses to import the much cheaper global ethanol in favour of subsidising its grain farmers and creating food shortages.

Ethanol from sugar cane and other very fast growing C4 photosynthesis tropical plants can make sense. But turning grain into ethanol is basically a non-starter and always has been. It is all about US votes.

Pretty much - but this isn't news. The scientists have been pointing out that US bioethanol is a perverse market distortion. Being seen to be doing something that appeals to both the green and grain lobby.

Regards, Martin Brown

Al Gore is the godfather of scammers. He setup and promoted his business of selling so called 'carbon credits', misused a flawed ideal to make money from people who were unwilling to see the truth in what he'd done. He's made millions on these scams, and the American public has paid dearly for his money making efforts.

And because he wanted (and still wants) to get more money.

What is news is that he admitted to being a con man.

It's now positive energy, 1.3 units of ethanol energy output per unit of energy put into making it.

However, switchgrass does better, has less food use than corn, and grows in many areas where corn does not, and has less need for irrigation, fertlizer and pesticides than corn.

But, USA's switchgrass lobby is not as big and powerful as the corn lobby.

--
 - Don Klipstein (don@misty.com)

But the Brazilian sugar cane method yields on average *9* units ethanol for each unit of energy used to make it. But protectionist America refuses to import this much cheaper ethanol to protect their crazy domestic alcohol from grain scheme from external competition.

It is odd that US policy is determined by lobby groups and short term political expediency rather than by rational analysis of the evidence.

Regards, Martin Brown

Does not matter: Anything you do will be crushed by the 7% annual growth rate in energy consumption - that growth rate is about a doubling every

10 years. To be effective, you have to kill the growth before you can deal with acquiring the resources (or not actually, I would bet money on oil production NOT doubling in 2020 if the markets were not so corrupt).

Not odd: As happens in any other multicultural country, effective government policy is centered on the needs and wants of a rich tapestry of different gangs and clans.

He cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to launch the ethanol subsidy. So he will wind up killing more people than Pol Pot, maybe even give Mao or Stalin a run for the record.

John