It remains a thing of great curiosity as to how "business as usual" can continue to be a viable business model in these changing times, especially when other areas of the world are making such substantial progress with new models.

Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline.

We need to stop funding the fat cats in the ethanol industry. We need to stop burning our food. The costs of food and fuel would both come down.

And miles per gallon would increase.

"A 4 to 6 % reduction in fuel economy = 2 miles/gallon fuel economy reduction in a car that averages 27 mpg. E85 (85% ethanol) generates only about 75 percent as much power as a gallon of gasoline."

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=gas%20mileage%20ethanol%2010%20vs%20gasoline

Sort of yes but not exactly. Many fuels have lower energy content per volume than other yet their overall abilities to convert their chemical energy into mechanical power are not the same.

Especially so if the engine is or is not built to work most efficiently with that fuel.

I run propane as my primary fuel and despite it having less BTU's per gallon than gasoline my vehicles have the same power and fuel efficiency (thanks to modern emission systems knocking gasoline's actual conversion numbers down so far) on it plus it cost me about 1/3 as much per mile to drive with it.

I also run almost all of my other vehicles and farm equipment on E30 or higher fuels now and I have never noticed any measurable differences in their overall fuel burn and power either.

What I have noticed is that regular gasoline at the pump is running about $2.10 a gallon whereas the E30 is around $1.60. As the end user I could care less about the who and what of the politics behind ethanol usage.

I pay less and thus have lower operating costs plus I live in a place where agriculture is our primary industry so I really don't mind buying ethanol based fuels to help out my neighbors that grow 'Dent Corn' for ethanol production because it pays them better than many other crops most years. If it didn't they wouldn't be growing it.

Interesting that alcohol is more expensive than gasoline (#2), but a mix of alcohol and gasoline is cheaper per gallon that pure gasoline. But a big chunk of the price at the pump is taxes.

I suppose the important thing is miles per dollar as far as I'm concerned.

In the US, the taxes on gasoline are minimal, compared to Europe. That's also why their gas prices tend to be a little more stable, the tax can be 'tweaked' to compensate for a surge in crude oil prices.

Also, alcohol gets taxed at different levels, depending on intended use. When looking at 'potable' alcohol, it gets taxed as beer, wine, or hard liquor, depending on strength, when mixed with a poison ('denatured') it is no longer taxed as drinkable, and is often tax free (as in free of an alcohol tax, there still bay be a sales tax based on the money changing hands, but that is the same whether buying $3 of rubbing alcohol or $3 in razor blades). Blending it into gasoline 'denatures' the alcohol, whereas selling the 'lab grade' undenatured alcohol on its own would have it taxed like Everclear.

You are not looking at the bigger picture or the actual facts of what ethanol is made from.

They use a lower grade nonfood type of corn called 'Dent Corn' and as for where it comes from that simple. Farmers plant what sells period.

If there was a market for Dandelions that paid better than anything else that's what farmers would be gearing up to plant instead.

If there is a market demand for it that pays that's what will get planted the most.

Is THAT why growers have switched from tomatoes to Marijuana!

"Farmers plant what sells period."

And that is where the comment of 'burning our food' comes from. As the old saying goes "Invest in Land, kid, they've stopped making it," and our arable farmland is not growing either.

There's only so many acres out there to grow on, or raise livestock on, and even if the farmers say 'screw the keep-the-field-fallow subsidy, I can make more growing a cash crop on those acres than the government will give me to just sit and stare at the weeds out there,' there's still a limit as to how many acres are out there. Once the max available acreage is used, then we reach the 'zero-sum' portion of the game: to add an acre to growing 'soybean,' one must pull an acre away from growing 'lentil⁽¹⁾.' less 'lentil' grown means the cost of 'lentil' will go up as the demand did not decrease with the decreased supply.

Switching an acre growing Sweet Corn to an acre growing Dent Corn reduces the Sweet Corn supply, which will increase the price of Sweet Corn, straining the food budget of the Independence Day picnickers, forcing them to save money by not buying the beef burgers for the picnic, instead having to purchase the cheaper 'burgers' made from that Soybean-Lentil⁽²⁾ blend of 'faux-beef.'

Notes:

1. Placeholder names, obviously, like the words FOO and BAR, used bu programmers when writing pseudocode.
2. And that's why I chose those placeholders. Could be worse, I could have done my bad Charlton Heston impression.

Okay? what about the millions of acres of cropland being used to grow non food stuffs related crops like cotton, tobacco, animal feedstocks, soil conservation and so forth?

Corn of all types accounts for ~40% of all crops which means that there is another 60% of other crops that are not corn. Where do they fit in?

BTW sweet corn only accounts for ~10% of all corn production and ethanol uses ~22% of the remainder leaving a rather substantial ~68% of it doing something else entirely other than feeding people in our country.

Also a bushel of corn that is used to make ethanol makes a load of other secondary, and rather profitable, products that no one seem to want to include in the ethanol discussion.

"One bushel of field corn weighs 56 pounds, and if it isn't used directly for livestock feed, it is likely to be exported or made into ethanol that is used to fuel your car. Each bushel produces 2.8 gallons of ethanol, 18 pounds of dried distillers grains (a high protein livestock feed), 14 pounds of corn gluten pellets, 1.8 pounds of corn oil and 17 pounds of carbon dioxide (used in dry ice, the beverage industry, water treatment facilities and other applications)." (From Here) What corn gets used for.

Basic US corn production numbers.

In the grand scheme of farming sweet corn and related crops based for human consumption alone makes up less than 5% of the overall US agricultural output and much of that corn that does go to ethanol production also double as the source of other valued corn byproducts often worth more than the ethanol itself that never get mentioned in the ethanol debates.

I was talking in simple abstracts, since to account for the balance of ALL crops grown in the US would take the resources of an entire federal Department⁽¹⁾.

Your counterpoint is that we have NOT reached 'peak acreage,' and that the farmers are NOT cutting back on food crops in order to grow more 'cash crops.' As I do not even tend the family garden in the back yard⁽²⁾, I will defer to your observations.

Notes:

1. We even have one of those in this country, with the appropriate name of the Department of Agriculture.
2. That's my brother's hobby; I maintain the decorative water feature formerly known as the 'Koi Pond' until we discovered that the cheap feeder goldfish we were stocking it with were being consumed by the neighborhood cats⁽³⁾.
3. We were EXPECTING the goldfish to help entertain our Siberian Husky, and if she decided to go fishing in the pond, well, these fish were bred to be food for other fish, so they should be safe for her, and a nice alternative to digging up rabbit warrens and munching on the babies like they were chicken nuggets⁽⁴⁾.
4. Contrary to appearances, we *DO* feed this dog well, and we have raised her from a pup. She just has a really strong hunting instinct.
   

that comment is devoid of logic

The less ethanol, the better.

I want to see E0. Quit wasting perfectly good liquor.

Around here it's available at most every gas station as 'Regular Unleaded' gasoline.

Always has been and likely always will as long as they are allowed to make it.

Not in my area. EPA mandates oxygenated fuel all around the Wash D.C. area. All the refiners choose to use ethanol to comply since MBTE fell out of fashion for good reason. If I want liquor-free fuel, I get some at a Southern States fuel state out in the Shenendoah Valley.

"Perfectly good" liquor? Fuel-grade Ethanol? Made from Dent Corn? and refined/distilled to something like 198 proof?

Robin, you're making me afraid to ask what you stock your liquor cabinet with, if you call that stuff 'perfectly good booze.'

Besides, if they sold it for drinking, the price would shoot way up, after all the booze taxes were added.

No, actually I haven't consumed any hard liquor in decades. I may have two or three glasses of wine and maybe five or six (good) beers in any given year now. I don't miss the buzz. Too busy to sit around drinking.

I've been aghast at the price of beef lately. With so much corn going to fill our fuel tanks, the ranchers pay more for feed corn and hence our food prices go up.

Maybe semi-perfectly good liquor. Have you tasted pure ethanol?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a6244/e15-gasoline-damage-engine/