Re: Another Gore Miracle: Turning the Gulf of Mexico Green
- From: Deathbringer <Deathbringer.2ugqzr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 22:15:40 -0500
Captain Compassion;1587766 Wrote:
Another Gore Miracle: Turning the Gulf of Mexico Green
by Fulton Lewis (more by this author)
Posted 07/27/2007 ET
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21699
On his presidential campaign trail late in 1999 and in serious need of
at least some farm votes, Al Gore boasted to a Midwest audience that
it was he who had cast a tie-breaking vote in 1994 against a proposal
by New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bill Bradley which would have cut tax
incentives for ethanol fuel. ?It?s well known that I?ve always
supported ethanol. And I have not ducked when votes for ? agricultural
interests were on the floor.?
Ethanol has been a major part of Gore?s ?Green? campaign to save the
environment. By switching over to E85 (85% ethanol/15% gasoline) in
our vehicles, we would supposedly consume less fossil energy while
simultaneously reducing those damaging greenhouse gases that are
causing everything from global warming to respiratory ailments, not to
mention nasty smog. President Bush and many bi-partisan members of
congress also bought into the idea, although ethanol was on the bottom
of a long list of his 2005 Energy Policy ideas that included some
effective steps like hydrogen fuels, tax incentives on hybrid
vehicles, and encouraging automakers to produce more clean diesel cars
and trucks.
Now, we discover that, thanks to increased ethanol production,
something else is turning ?Green? -- the Gulf of Mexico. A huge
8,543-square-mile dead zone, roughly the size of New Jersey, is
growing off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. It is the result
of a huge algae growth, fueled by nutrients flushed from the farmlands
in the Midwest watershed.
These feed enormous soupy green algae blooms that suck oxygen from the
water, suffocating any fish, shrimp or mollusks that become trapped in
that area. As the algae die, the mass of cells sink to the seafloor,
bacteria break down the organic matter consuming most of the oxygen at
that level which, in turn, suffocates sea stars, corals, snails and
other shellfish.
What has caused this sudden ecological catastrophe? The culprit is
believed to be the sharp increase in ethanol production in the Midwest
-- 19% more corn in 2007 than in 2006.
Being the skeptic that I am, I asked Kelly Wilson, a good friend and
the best researcher I know, to dig up the statistical data on ethanol.
The results confirmed my suspicions that ethanol is doing more harm
than good.
At present, 6 million of the approximately 250 million vehicles in the
United States are E85 Flex-fuel designed and 50% of those are in
commercial or government fleets. A gallon of E85 has only 72% of the
energy available to a gallon of gasoline. So, a V6 Chevy Impala which
the EPA rates at 21mpg city and 31mpg highway will get only 16mpg city
and 23 mpg highway on E85. (The power and drivability is almost the
same.) You consume more gallons to go the same number of miles you
used to get on gasoline. And, of course, E85 nationwide averages about
25 cents per gallon more than gasoline even though it returns 20 to
30% less fuel economy.
But, we?re saving fossil fuels, you say? Less petroleum and less
dependency on foreign oil imports? Well, the picture is not quite that
pretty. It takes 1 acre of corn to produce 300 to 330 gallons of
ethanol fuel. (To replace the 200 billion gallons of petroleum
products we now consume yearly, we would need to commit 675 million
acres of our farmland to its production. That would be 71% of all
available farmland in which case we would have to start importing our
food products.)
Keep in mind that corn doesn?t grow itself and ethanol doesn?t appear
magically when the corn is harvested. It takes 4,000 gallons of fresh
water per acre per day to replace evaporation in a cornfield. The crop
will require 129.9 pounds of nitrogen and 55.5 pounds of phosphorus
fertilizer per acre. It requires petroleum products to pump, produce
and deliver these. In addition, fields must be ploughed and
cultivated, and crops must be harvested -- all by petroleum-driven
farm equipment. That requires 6.85 gallons of diesel fuel and 3.4
gallons of gasoline per acre. And to finish the distillation process
after harvest requires 3.42 gallons of LPG and 33.49 kWh of
electricity per acre.
All in all, it takes 1.597 gallons of diesel and gasoline used in the
corn crop growth, harvesting, shipping of corn to ethanol production,
and distribution of ethanol to the consumer for every 1 gallon of
ethanol that is produced. And, again, that 1 gallon of ethanol is
going to be 20-30% less efficient than the gallon of gasoline it is
replacing.
Most of the new ethanol production plants (called dry mill operations)
are now being built to use coal as their primary source of power,
mostly because the natural gas that was initially used has become so
expensive. The coal-fired plants produce twice the emissions and
essentially cancel out the global warming benefits of the use of
ethanol fuel in vehicles. Putting more E85 vehicles on the road will
actually increase greenhouse gases, smog, respiratory ailments, etc.
And, it is the sharp increase in nutrient runoff which is magnifying
the green ?Dead Zone? in the Gulf.
Al Gore, I apologize for all of these facts. Just look at them as
another ?Inconvenient Truth.?
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here,
not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they
alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your ignorance continues to amaze me. The gulf dead zone has been there
ever since they converted the Mississippi delta into parking lots and
towns and sent all that outflow straight into the gulf instead of
letting it filter through the marsh like its supposed to.
Your number for the energy balance of ethanol is also seriously wrong
or badly out of date.
http://www.ethanol-gec.org/corn_eth.htm
--
Deathbringer
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