Here goes the partially educated blue collar retiree again.
I thought about this issue a few times today while I was away from the 'puter doing chores and errands. As to what Mr Griffin mentioned up thread about the creation of good paying jobs being good for the local economy those good paying jobs could be very short lived. Local news is already talking about possible bankruptcies because the price of corn is up and the price of ethanol is down,
That lousy 1:1.34 energy in to energy out ratio doesn't factor in the cost of the purchasing the corn. So guess what, it just gets worse. Pick a number, if corn is worth $2.50, $3.00, $4.00, 8.00 a bushell the equation just gets worse.
I also forgot to mention that a gallon of gasoline is worth something like 1.5 the "go-power" of a gallon of ethanol.
I have no connection nor loyalty to the petroleum industry.
I think that what it has done to prices in the USA and worldwide over the past 30 to 35 years is CRIMINAL.
I would love to see America not to need a drop of oil from the middle east.
I just think that corn-ethanol, at least in its current incarnation, is not an answer, and that most of those who say that it is, are CRIMINALLY deceptive. Does anybody suppose that this energy in/energy out ratio wasn't previously computed?
If this was such a great investment opportunity do you think that it would have been made available to a bunch of local farmers?
Setting yourself up with a golden parachute when a company or facility goes belly up should be a capital offense,
especially if it was premeditated.