Transit Miami

Politicians are hyping corn-based ethanol as a major industry that South Florida should embrace. In June, the Senate all but announced that America’s future is going to be powered by biofuels, mandating the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. According to ethanol boosters, this is the beginning of a much larger revolution that could entirely replace our 21-million-barrel-a-day oil addiction. In light of these developments, I thought it was necessary to take a closer look at corn-based ethanol.

So, is it really the magic bullet that will provide clean fuel, allow us to sever ties with oil-rich terrorist nations, and save American farmers, all while not asking anyone to even think about changing their driving habits?

Of course not.

While there are several sources that outline the limitations of of corn-based ethanol, I think a recent article by Jeff Goodell does a particularly thorough job articulating the issue. Click here to check out his article, “The Ethanol Scam: One of America’s Biggest Political Boondoggles”.

A second source that I like is Robert Rapier’s energy blog, R-Squared. The information here can get rather technical, but it nonetheless serves as an alternative voice to Big Corn insiders, who are the ones doing most of the studies and making most of the claims regarding corn-based ethanol’s “merits” (reminds me of the oil industry).

It’s critical that as citizens, we don’t allow Big Corn and its crony politicians to conspire to swindle us with another “magic bullet” energy fix that won’t even require use to alter our driving/consumption habits.