The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is offering grants of almost $5 million to expand access to ethanol blends at gas pumps. But experts say the environmental and economic tradeoffs of ethanol aren’t worth the investment.

“Ultimately, we want to use less fuel, not more, and so we should be looking at increasing vehicle efficiency more,” he said. “We should be looking at public transportation options.”

The article doesn’t get into it much, but an acre of solar panels provides a lot more vehicle-miles than an acre of corn turned into ethanol.

  • kata1yst@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    12·
    12 days ago

    Yep. Corn ethanol is notoriously inefficient. It’s well known to consume more energy and water than it can offset with its products.

    Even when I was in university in Minnesota in the late 2000s my environmental sciences professor was campaigning to do ethanol from wild grasses and corn stalks, because it actually scales far better.

    But… That doesn’t subsidize the corn farmers so the proposal went nowhere.

    • science4life@mander.xyzBanned
      16·
      11 days ago

      No it’s not.

      Consume the limitless solar energy? Oh no. What will the sun do?

      They already use corn stalks. The whole plant is used. And no… Wild grasses aren’t as fermentable as corn.

      Distillation is low sugar ferment costs mush more.

      • kata1yst@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        10·
        11 days ago

        Energy is consumed in watering, fertilizing, harvesting, shipping, and then the processing and fermenting.

        Ratio is estimated at 1.34 for the whole system. Which is fucking terrible.

        https://www1.eere.energy.gov/bioenergy/pdfs/energy_balance_of_corn_ethanol.pdf

        And that doesn’t even touch on the horrific water consumption of corn. Or the greenhouse gasses released in the production. Or the pesticide usage.

        EDIT: while I thought the source I first linked had many valid points, I did some digging and found that the funding and politics of that source were suspect.

        Here’s a more reputable paper with deeper analysis of the water issue.

        https://itspubs.ucdavis.edu/download_pdf.php?id=1467

          • kata1yst@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            9·
            11 days ago

            I made a claim based on research and facts.

            You said nuh-uh.

            I sourced my claims.

            You accuse me of hysteria.

            I don’t think you’re here for an intellectually honest conversation. Do you think you are?

          • stabby_cicada@slrpnk.net
            5·
            11 days ago

            It’s not hysterics. It’s fact.

            Ethanol burns more fossil fuel than it replaces. It turns more fuel into less fuel and pisses away irreplaceable topsoil in the process.

            Facts don’t care about your feelings.