Energy, ethanol and the depressing truth (opinion?)

I don't actually enjoy being a total killjoy but sometimes the truth is a bit depressing. That is true with something that happened late last week. And if you haven't figured out my vague references, I am talking about the ever escalating gas prices.

It's not just gas, though. The escalating fuel prices have a bit of a ripple effect. Fuel prices effect the price of everything we consume. All that shit from China (a.k.a. everything sold in your local Wal-Mart or Target) doesn't just magically appear here with the wave of a magic wand. The food sold in those stores and others has a similar but shorter journey. Most everything takes a portion of its journey down our nation's highways via a semi-truck. Those men (and some women) are feeling the crunch. Their paychecks directly reflect the skyrocketing fuel prices. A friend of mine described to me last weekend that the company he drives semi for as an over-the-road trucker slowed their speeds 10 miles per hour to save fuel. They realize that this will only raise prices as it will take longer to deliver products but they have their bottom line to watch out for as well.

Then there are the farmers. Believe it or not, the farm economy feels this too because despite the record high prices their grains are fetching on the markets, they are facing even higher input costs in the form of fuel, seed, chemicals and fertilizer. While my parents are selling their crops from 2007 for record high prices and have contracted a large portion of the speculative 2008 crop for those same prices, they are feeling the pinch with fertilizer costs (particularly the cost of nitrogen whcih makes corn grow) that have practically tripled since 2000 if they can even acquire the very nitrogen (anhydrous amonia) they paid for due to supposedly short supplies. Couple that with diesel fuel prices that have quadrupled since 2000 and seed prices which have nearly tripled int hat same time and they are no further ahead now than in 2000.

Of course plenty of people will want to say something about ethanol when the subject of farmers comes up. The truth is that while ethanol does divert corn from the food supply, the overall supply of corn in our country has increased due to increased yields and will continue to increase but eventually will be severely outpaced by the demands (for food and ethanol) if current trends continue.

That means that ethanol as we currently know it is far from the solution. The current high corn prices are seen as one obstacle.

The supply of corn in relation to our gasoline consumption is another hitch.

Amazingly, the best ethanol solution may be prairie grass (or switchgrass as Geroge Bush stated a few years back). Of course our future doesn't have to be bleak as oil prices begin to put a very noticeable crunch on the middle class. If money from, I don't know -- war spending, was diverted to financing research and development of viable fuel sources in the private or public sector and not by petroleum companies who only profit more with higher oil prices, our country could again become a superpower, this time by supplying a technological solution to fuel prices.

Of course, with the alternatives come more ideas to simply reduce our own energy consumption. Plasma and LCD televisions use far less energy than traditional CRT (tube) televisions and computer monitors. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (when recycled properly) pay for themselves and then some in reduced energy consumption. Recycling your glass and plastic makes sense. But I am sure there are plenty of other ideas. What are some ways you are conserving energy? Or do you not believe we need to do anything?

Ethanol not to blame for tortilla prices

Ethanol has come under an insane amount of scrutiny. Mexican residents are blaming it for the increased cost of their tortillas. Americans are livid because they have been lead to believe that it is to blame for high prices of meat, milk and eggs.

In short, people are looking for a scapegoat for the increasing cost of food.

The USDA, though, has just released a report stating that ethanol is not solely to blame for higher food prices. The real culprit is actually, wait for it, oil prices. No shit, huh? Who could have imagined that oil prices which effect transportation costs would have an influence on food prices? Wow. There's a revelation but because too many Americans and others in various countries around the world want to blame the evil ethanol for their woes, they will do and say anything to downplay the fact that ethanol, while anything but perfect, is at least a band aid for the gash that is our dependence on oil.

I am not an apologist for ethanol. As I said, it isn't perfect but for the time being it is the only viable alternative that is widely available. Until our narrow-minded and short-sighted leaders make something as viable as ethanol that is better than a break-even energy solution, embrace it.