So. How will the evolving national primary impact the ethanol lobby?

[NNadir]

Since the days of Jimmy Carter, all Presidential candidates have had to start in Iowa and thus kneel at the temple of ethanol.

As noted by Kos over at daily Kos, now a national primary is shaping up.

The environmental impact of this change may reduce the effect of ethanol on Presidential brains, since the previous system elevated the Iowa caucuses over other states with interests other than those of Iowa.

I am agnostic on ethanol. If it works, great, but if it's just a subsidy offering no real advantage, well then...

[phantom power]

1. I agree with GG's take on biofuels.

There is a certain amount of land that humanity can devote sustainably to biofuels. Which is to say that there is a certain amount of biofuel that can be produced. I think GG's calculations show pretty clearly that that amount is a small fraction of the world's current fuel demand.

I also agree with his assessment that once we start down this road, the pressure to exceed that relatively small fraction of fuel is going to be enormous. If we give in to that pressure, it seems to me like a recipe for an environmental holocaust.

It's rather analogous to the situation with coal. The pressure for increasing coal use (or coal-derived synthetics) is already mounting. And we all know what kind of disaster awaits down that road.

[NNadir]

3. Anyone who does calculations is a man or woman after my own heart.

I too saw the calculation and was impressed.

Definitely biological sources can work in some cases, but they are indeed limited.

[Kolesar]

2. That's a good angle on ethanol and elections

The "farm" states are way overrepresented in the Senate as it is. I am highly skeptical of ethanol. The current high demand is for ethanol as a fuel additive, but I think that that will be the zenith of its use in motor fuels.

We need to live near where we work--and drive less.