The entire ethanol scam has been foisted upon this nation by special interests and well-paid lobbyists. Financially speaking, it is a classic 'bubble' scenario, not too dissimilar to what happened with sunflower oil seeds and processing plants back in the 1980's. Some of these plants, built at a cost of $50 million per, never squeezed a seed, and were eventually sold for scrap metal. The same economy seems to be happening with ethanol plants....
As someone on this board likes to say, "follow the money". Who is benefiting the most from the ethanol bubble? Big ag-business in general and the ArcherDanielsMidland Corp., specifically. The concept of ethanol is fine, but its execution leaves a lot to be desired. The cost of food and feed worldwidel, everything from corn syrup to tortillas, has gone up dramatically. While this might not mean much to folks in the US, there was almost a revolt in Mexico over the increased cost of masa....
Ethanol was meant to replace MTBE, methyl tetrabutyl ether as an oxygenator in fuels. Trouble was, MTBE is a long-lasting pollutant/carcinogen easily transported by ground water. Guess who was the largest manufacturer of MTBE? The ADM Corp....
See a pattern here?
There is no way that ethanol made from corn can be economical - it costs too much in terms of fertilizer, food cost increases, and energy. It only enriches a few....
