Comments on: what’s that got to do with the price of beer? http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/ Getting around the Bay Area with Denis Cuff and the Queen of the Road Tue, 17 May 2011 06:04:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Bruce De Benedictis http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-1981 Bruce De Benedictis Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:15:32 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/#comment-1981 The long term problem is that one gallon of gasoline contains 31,000,000 small calories, or 31,000 large calories, the latter being what we count when we eat. So replacing each gallon of gasoline’s energy content from foodstocks is the equivalent of feeding over a dozen people a day. I think on the average, Americans use at least 2 gallons of gasoline a day. So replacing gasoline with foodstocks like ethanol will be like feeding a population of about 4 billion people in this country alone.

As I said before, we are living lives of incredible ease, so that our children will not in the future.

]]> By: david vartanoff http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-1982 david vartanoff Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:26:26 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/#comment-1982 right, just let the free market fix ethanol like it fixed electricity. I agree about cutting sugar subsidy, but ethanol wouldn’t even be an issue if we were not REGULATING emissions. and you have I hope noticed the “free market” SUV drivers and their fuel economy efforts.

]]> By: Reedman http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-1980 Reedman Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:09:42 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/#comment-1980 There is a possible solution to the problem/question about the cost of ethanol
production ==> deregulation. Presently, the USA (with limited exceptions)
doesn’t allow ethanol to be imported. So, even though Brazil is the low cost provider
in the world, we’re not allowed to buy their fuel. Similiarly, the price of sugar (another
possible feedstock in the ethanol world) in the USA is kept artificially high in order to keep farmers planting it instead of something else. We might not be using corn to
make ethanol if the government didn’t intervene in the marketplace. Biofuels are a
good idea, we just have to let them find their place.

]]> By: david vartanoff http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/comment-page-1/#comment-1979 david vartanoff Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:21:24 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2007/07/16/whats-that-got-to-do-with-the-price-of-beer/#comment-1979 yes ethanol diversion does effect milk pricing. agricultural production chases price just like any other business. this is BTW part of why ethanol made from petro fertiliser grown crops is so completely wrongheaded. converting the stalks and other waste is fine, but diverting food to fuel single driver commuting is dumb. from my reading while ethanol is cleaner burning, energy inputs to produce a gallon far outstrip that available at the pump merely moving wasted oil from cars to ethanol conversion plants.

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