[Terrapreta] evil ethanol

[lou gold]

Excellent op-ed in today's NY Times about this...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/opinion/24cohen.html?hp

Cohen misses the point about rising soybean prices having a ripple effect
into Amazon deforestation but otherwise it's a good piece.







On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 7:57 AM, lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think that we understood that Michael but it was a good opportunity to
> point out the distortions and dislocations and inefficiencies promoted by
> the subsidies to corn ethanol. The point was that the shift to corn was
> raising the price of other crops such as soybeans.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 7:48 AM, Michael Bailes <michaelangelica at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>  *Corn ,The "evil' ethanol producer**" had risen the least. *
>> I meant that comment to be sarcastic or ironic or something. Certainly not
>> to be taken literally
>> Although you will see so much about the "evils" of bio-fuels on websites
>> such as *Care2 *and *Permaculture Forms*
>>
>> I started this discussion some time ago on Hypography
>>
>> http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta/11716-what-plants-might-grown-just-bio.html
>> .
>> It seems to me there are many opportunities for growing a wide variety of
>> plants that do not compete with food plants.
>> *
>> I also suspect that a lot of the hysteria about ethanol and biofuels is
>> being 'fuelled' by Big Oil.*
>> * When you can make bio-fuel for $65 a barrel rather than $115 for oil
>> you can see bio-fuels are a threat to Big Oil.*
>>  Bio-fuel production is spread among thousands of farmers and producers
>> not centralised into the hands of 5-6 Big Oil companies. Big Oil must be
>> scared stiff by that.
>>
>> *ALSO*
>> Last night the ABC News ran a segment  the NY stock exchange and food
>> prices.
>> . Money, they said, was flowing into food futures at an ever increasing
>> rate (One BILLION a day now) as the stock market and the housing market had
>> lost their appeal to Fund Managers and other Investors.
>> It seems to me this is one of many reasons food prices are going up.
>>
>> Michael
>> 2008/4/23 Gerald Van Koeverden <vnkvrdn at yahoo.ca>:
>>
>>  I get weary of reading of "evil ethanol".  Ethanol is merely a symptom,
>>> albeit a knee-jerk reaction to rising drilled oil and natural gas costs.
>>>  The dramatic rise in cost of these natural commodities beginning a few
>>> years ago, meant that all at once it was cheaper to burn corn, wheat, etc.
>>> in boilers than buy gas and oil.  In fact, at $2/bushel corn, heat could be
>>> produced at half the cost of natural gas.  As agricultural commodity experts
>>> predicted at that time, the cost of these commodities would rise to at least
>>> equal its value as heating fuel.
>>>
>>> Its the unaturally high price of natural gas and oil that is distorting
>>> the world economy.
>>>
>>> If you want to calculated the relative cost of heating with different
>>> materials, just plug the present values into the following exel sheet:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://pikul.lib.ku.ac.th/www/thes_th_adv.php?term=%CB%AD%E9%D2%BE%A7&sort=alphabatic&browse=%E0%C3%D5%C2%A1%B4%D9&opt=exact
>>>
>>> Gerald
>>>
>>> On 22-Apr-08, at 8:57 AM, Michael Bailes wrote:
>>>
>>>  Corn ,The* "evil' ethanol producer*" had risen the least.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Michael the Archangel
>> How strange and sad for the species - have people forgotten that they can
>> always escape to the fairy dell and talk to the ducks?
>> -Leunig, 2008
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> http://lougold.blogspot.com
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>



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