Will the falling oil prices force folks to abandon the corn to ethanol ventures?
How far will the oilprices have to fall before the alternative energy source search gets put on the back burner?
Are falling oil prices what we need right now, just at a time when folks are serious about developing alternate energy sources?
Or are the falling prices going to be the saving grace as folks get into winter and fuel oil burning season?
Around here, Arkansas, folks along the eastern side of the state have gone into corn production at a maddening pace. If corn-ethanol gets dropped due to cheap oil, what will happen to the corn farmers with a huge corn glut on the market?
If oil prices fall enough, will the corn-ethanol subsidies be something the in-coming President will have to cut?
What will the cost beto the farmer to switch back to soy bean production? (Will we see another bail-out?)
Just wondering if the corn-ethanol venture will turn into our next boondoggle?
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
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Will the falling oil prices force folks to abandon the corn to ethanol ventures?
Though the corn ethanol helped alot of farmers out there with a new market that had opened up.. It did not produce a large amount of ethanol when you compare it to what has been costing us in food prices or the farmer buying grain for thier livestock.. I can not see how it was such a great thing to have happened. I do not mean nothing bad to the farmers that had found a way to perhaps save thier farms by no means. But the overall cost factor I am not that sure it was worth it though..
Falling oil prices as it relates to corn/ethanol is a moot point. many if not most ethanol plants were built or being built when oil was still in the $30 per barrel range. Ethanol is still just an alternative fuel and can never replace our need for oil or other alternative fuels. Its too expensive to make and gas mileage is lower using it as the main fuel.
Ethanol is plain stupid nothing more nothing less. Much Less Fuel efficiency then Gas and using land otherwise used for food production and turning it into land for what?
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I kinda wonder how much the rise in corn prices really helped the average farmer sometimes.
Sure corn tripled{roughly} in price but so did the cost of planting it, harvesting it, drying it, trucking it, etc.... Im sure they made out a little better but Im not convinced it was the profit level some would think it was when you add the extra costs in.
Im like OEH. I've always questioned the wisdom of using food to make fuel. Especially when you can make it from grass much cheaper with a much higher yield per acre. However the corporate farm lobby in DC will never allow something that makes common sense to happen. Corn based eth is just another a** grab proudly brought to you from the Washington lobbyists which have brought you the rest of the crap that comes from Congress.
American oilmen are no more merciful on us than the Arab Oil-Men. As the oil companies merged, the ownership/control of the refineries fell into the hands of a small enough groups as to allow them to better control gas prices.
The crude oil produced locally sells at the same price as the imported oil. (as far as I know.)
I have to wonder what will happen if our food sources fall into a small enough domestic group as to allow them to dictate price.
The folks that control this country (to a degree), are much more forward thinking than the average person, most of us are "Chasing the Market" so to speak.
As DeerHunter 1224 stated "Just read in the paper many [farmers] are closing their doors, and going bankrupt".
Are we seeing the beginning of the next "shoe to drop", another round of large scale farm failures?
Who will have bought those farms and what will that mean to our basic food prices?
Perhaps I am just being a Henny Penny running around thinking the sky is falling, when it is only an acorns hitting the ground.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
P.S. Old Elk Hunter, your post is the very thinking that started me thinking about this. I agree corn to ethanol is/always has been a stupid idea. Yet here we are. Farmers up to their neck in it, and the taxpayer isknee deep in it.
Where did that come from? Chance events perchance?
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Ethanol is the second biggest scam behind the "manmade global warming" scam.
I agree. We still pay for it through subsidies, decreased mileage, repairs (the stuff has been blamed for gumming up motors, especially 2-cycle motors), and it's currently not cost efficient.The reports I saw said basically that if every square inch of farmland in the U.S. was used to grow corn, and every kernel of that corn was used to produce ethanol, it still wouldn't be enough to make a dent--not to mention what it would do to food prices.
The sad part is I don't know if there's any local gas stations in my area that sells gas without the crap added. Burns my butt like a little blue flame when I see garbage like "ENRICHED with up to 10% ethanol!" on a pump--like it's a bonus or something.
Chad
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Falling Oil Prices and Corn Ethanol?
