Ethanol Power

[Fransisco]

My answer to the food vs fuel debate is let the market decide what is the best allocation of resources.

A government policy that tips the scale in favour of either one or the other, food or fuel, will pretty much guarantee that the whole thing will get screwed up.

[jensend]

i wonder how the energy efficiency of hauling a few loads home to heat the house, shop, hottub, etc. would compare to hauling the same amount to an ethanol plant, processing it and getting the ethanol into market position? i would suspect grain furnaces make more sense than ethanol.

[Fransisco]

What was that about the price of fuel being double without biofuels...

Merill Lynch commodity strategist Fransisco(gotta love that name) Blanch said that oil and gasoline prices would be 15% higher if biofuel producers were not increasing their output. U.S. gasoline prices would have surged to more than $3.70/Gallon, instead of $3.25. Oil prices would be about $115/barrel, instead of $100.

[cottonpicken]

Let the market descide the fate of a billion souls-classy.

[Fransisco]

You prefer a wannabe Stalin, Mao, or Kim Jong il type bureaucrat?

No thanks, I'll take the market which happens to be made up of billions and billions of people who know perfectly well what is best for themselves.

[Fransisco]

This is far too important to be left up to the politicos and their minions.

[jensend]

if you start diverting traditional food grains into energy production it could spawn the rise of stalins, kim's or others in developing countries as food shortages grow into civil and social unrest and revolution. the whole ethanol thing is bogus for canada, especially. as fransisco has pointed out it makes no economic sense and on an energy audit basis it's at best questionable and at worst a waste of good grain.

[Fransisco]

Actually most third world countries already have that problem, that's why they are third world countries. And it predates biofuels by a wide margin.

Zimbabwe anyone?

[cottonpicken]

And if a city is running out of water, rich people water their lawns while average joes dies?

Love to see the look on your face if someone you loved was dieing and the rich person beside you was pissing away a vital resource.

[Fransisco]

Its the Robert Mugabe's and Kim Jong il's of the world who have been doing just that to the people in their countries.

The Bill Gates's and Warren Buffet's, not so much.

So I guess in your world cotton Mugabe and Kim Jong are the free market capitalists while Gates and Buffet are the totalitarian dictators.