Bush explains corn-based ethanol

[ProSense]

Text: Bush on Energy and Fuel Prices

By The Associated Press
Tue Apr 25, 1:01 PM ET

Snip...

Bob, thanks for the introduction. It's always good to be introduced by somebody who's referred to as the promoter-in-chief.

Snip...


Ethanol has got the largest potential for immediate growth. Most people may not know this, but today most of ethanol produced in America today is from corn. Most vehicles can use 10 percent ethanol in their automobiles.

Snip...

And so, we're strongly committed to corn-based ethanol produced in America. Yet you've got to recognize there are limits to how much corn can be used for ethanol. I mean, after all, we got to eat some. And animals have got to eat.

And so, I am committed to furthering technological research to find other ways, other sources for ethanol.

Snip...

Last year I went out to see a biodiesel refinery in Virginia that's making clean-burning fuel from soybean oil. And it was a really interesting process to watch. I don't know if you know this or not, but they are able to use waste products like recycled cooking grease to manufacture biodiesel.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_text_1

[DrGonzoLives]

1. I GOTS to eats my corn!

:eyes:

[C_U_L8R]

3. Bush is corn

yesterday's corn

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. That guy can suck all the intelligence molecules out of a room.

He just radiates stupid.

[JuniperLea]

10. LOL!

I'm writing that one down for future use! heh!

[jayfish]

40. I Lost Ten IQ Points Just From Reading It. -NT-

Jay

[Lisa]

47. no kidding ...

If I listen to him too much, I might have to give back my postgraduate degree!

[marmar]

4. Mr. Presidunce, WTF are you talking about?

'Cause nobody else has a clue.

[Kagemusha]

5. People keep telling me it takes too much energy to make ethanol

That is, from corn (subject line had space limits).

Well... is that true? Since EVERYONE is pushing ethanol this week.

[rodeodance]

12. takes lots of fuel to grow corn--and to process. Lots of reports on Net

about this. It is not fuel efficient means.

[northofdenali]

33. I remembered one from Mother Earth News a few years ago -

found it - just a small report but could lead you to more research if you want -

"Fuel from Straw

Ethanol fuel was hailed as the savior of both farm country and the environment—in 1992. Since its introduction, ethanol hasn't exactly stolen the renewable energy spotlight.

The problem isn't performance: Ethanol does burn cleaner than petroleum products. For environmentalists, the problem lies with production.

Mostly made from corn, ethanol production eats up a good deal of fuel. U.S. cornfields are addicted to oil: oil for pesticides, oil for fertilizers, oil for planting and oil for harvesting. All that oil use takes a little of the shine off ethanol's clean record.

But corn isn't the end-all and be-all of alcohol fuels. The logen Corporation of Ottawa, Ontario, has developed a process that produces ethanol from much less energy-intensive sources, such as wood chips and straw. The process is very similar to ethanol production from corn—or, for that matter, alcohol made for human consumption.


More: http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/2002_June_July/Green_Gazette

[Kagemusha]

42. Thanks, that helps a lot.

And I have no idea what would possess someone to reply to my post with something that moderators would remove. I didn't see it, so not even the slightest clue what that was all about...

[WinkyDink]

53. That's "Internets" to you.

[Name removed]

Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[davekriss]

38. Corn is not a substitute for the cheap kick of energy from oil

Growing and converting corn to ethanol has an EROEI ratio (Energy Returned on Energy Invested) of 1.3. It takes the equivalent energy of 1 barrel of oil to create 1.3 barrel-equivalents from corn. Corn residual varies, ranging from 0.7 (a net energy sink, not source) to 1.8, depending on the quality of the residue and technology adopted. Bottom line is little excess energy is thrown off when energy input is factored in. (Source, Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, 2003, p 192.)

To contrast, in the 1940s oil supplied an EROEI ratio of better than 100.0, and even in the seventies, production yielded an EROEI of 23.0, though notably new discoveries even then were yielding EROEIs in the 8.0 range.

What this means is there is not enough corn-growing land-mass on the face of the earth to come even remotely close to the cheap energy kick provided over what Heinberg calls the "Oil Interval", a period now closing.

Our Oil President, Oil Vice President, and Oil Secretary of State are keenly aware of this and the flip in economic relations it augers (frankly it means the end of the middle-class as we know it while they engage in Resource Wars and Police State tactics to guarantee the life-style of their "base" for a few generations more -- it's not the only course of action available, but it is the choice they've made).

Having said that, even an EROEI of 1.3, combined with all other sources of renewable alternative energy sources, will soften the slide down the backward slope of Hubbert's Peak. But it alone is not enough to safeguard a humane quality of life for our children and grandchildren.

I highly recommend this long, multi-year thread at Urban75: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45251 . Though filled with emotional rants at times (from yours truly and others), it is filled with quality information for anyone interested in this critical subject.

[Chemical Bill]

52. Good, factual post.

Corn is not the best crop for ethanol production, far from it. We could make more of a dent in our energy needs with switchgrass or hemp.

Bill

[rodeodance]

6. the Educator-in-Chief has a demeaning manner when he talks-like he is

talking to second=grade school children.

[Arkansas Granny]

30. I figure he's explaining things the way they had to be explained

to him so he could have at least a miniscule amount of understanding of the subject. It was probably watered down to a second grade level just for him.

[ProgressivePatriot]

7. Monkeyboy's explanation...

is akin to a proctologist explaining brain surgery.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. Monkeyboy explains things to people just how it was explained to him..

like explaining things to a very young child.

[saltpoint]

8. Sure enough. We eat corn at my house all the time.

_ _ _ _

I heard Bush's explanation of ethanol use excerpted on NPR and assumed he was on hog tranquilizer. I could barely tell what language he was speaking.

[LSparkle]

9. Corncob cornhole cornball

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. It sounds like he's dipped into the corn liquor! :) eom

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. I want him to make oakanol from acorns.... now that would impress

me a bit.

[DemonFighterLives]

15. Big Eddy was playing up the know it all president today

since he just found out about corn and grease. John Kerry came on and echoed the sentiment. It's hard work learnin about corn and stuff and dubby assumes no one else is beyond him.
:dem:

[Bluebear]

16. Feel free to use this PHOTO to illustrate your post: >>>>

[nonconformist]

22. .

:spray:

[htuttle]

26. Hmm....Corn...

[C_U_L8R]

29. corn? that's just one of those

novelty diguised flasks...

how dry i am.. how dry i am....

[lutefisk]

31. Only person I know of who eats corn on the cob raw.

I think someone tried to stop him but he said something like "this is how we eat it in Texas." Maybe I'm remembering that part incorrectly, but he ate it raw. Very odd. One story says he did it to top Kerry, who simply held raw corn up in his hand. Too bad it wasn't chicken- that would have been interesting.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/040804/137/2fc72.html

[verse18]

34. He thought it was a pretzel!

[babylonsister]

17. Thus that ridiculous 'corny' background today. Rec'd for dimson's

assholeness. :banghead:

[Lorax]

18. He can have my corn

I don't eat it anyway.

I, too, hate how he talks to people like WE are the morans!

[smirkymonkey]

19. "Explains?" Did you mean "Drinks?"

:beer:

[upi402]

20. Shwitchsh grass

Ah my precious shwitchsh grass. I love you no shit.

[Disturbed]

23. Busholini talks down to his Cult because he feels that...

they are dense. Stupid people do not realize that they are stupid. This is Busholini's problem.

[Live_Liberty]

21. Actually we can have a new Tar-Sands project

Since all the Presidunce's friends drive SUV's, we can just rip up, grind up and melt down all that old unnecessary asphalt and make crude oil back out of it...

[MichiganVote]

24. So...is * trying to say we're corny or he is?

[nonconformist]

25. He's so condescending

Which is rich, considering he is one dumb motherfucker.

[NI4NI]

27. The boob is incapable of

delivering a thoughtful speech on his own. He only reads what's in front of him and doesn't understand what he's talking about. Paul Winchell's dummy "Jerry Mahoney" was more believable and wiser than this national embarrasment.

[Lefty48197]

28. So the great explainerator is going to teach us about the environment?

We're so lucky.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

32. Wasn't he speaking before a room full of experts?

He was addressing the 25th annual meeting of the Renewable Fuels Association, and yet he states "I don't know if you know this or not, but they are able to use waste products like recycled cooking grease to manufacture biodiesel". He was saying this to people who have probably been championing this type of alternative fuel for years.

It's clear to me Bush was speaking to the TV camera and to his mouth-breathing, drooling base. The event including the experts present in the room were just props and background scenary as he couldn't possibly have been speaking to them.

[SHRED]

35. What a clueless dumbfuck....

...who thinks he can "lecture".

Who the hell is he talking to?
Why is he so far behind?

Ahhh...fuck it.

[Ilsa]

41. It'll be a hoot to read about how the universities will give him a stipend

not to come talk to their students when he is out of prezidintin.

[left is right]

36. Despite peak oil and increase in green house gases and

all the other problems associated with gasoline, I have concerns about ethanol. If it catches on, lands used by indigenous people all over the world will be seized to grow corn and land used for crop production of food will be converted to corn production that will never feed anyone. And besides that, I think I remember that corn production is very hard on the soil. (I may be wrong on that but that was the impression that I got from my deceased grandfather, the farmer, more than 30 year ago.) So, what we will end up with is people without homes/lands to live on. Hunger and depleted soil.

[Jose Diablo]

37. Well, he should be an expert in this

corn whiskey

[0rganism]

39. "Most people may not know this" = "I didn't know this until yesterday"

"I don't know if you know this or not" = "I got briefed about it yesterday and it's fresh in what little remains of my mind"

Oh well, at least he still gets a gentleman's C for the belated effort.

[Strawman]

44. bingo!

you nailed it...except for the grade. I wouldn't want this spolied frat boy to be the victim of the soft bigotry of low expectations and get socially promoted to the next grade without really earning it.

hmm. then again, maybe that ship has sailed eh?

[0rganism]

46. Understatement of the decade

"then again, maybe that ship has sailed eh?"

Sailed, docked at the port of call, resupplied, and fully whored its many cursing sailors.

I mean, you don't get much more of a "social promotion" than sliming your way to a 2-term presidency of a nation with a huge economy and boucoup nuclear weapons. What comes after that, ascension to demigod? Really, you gotta admit, that's a line item that'll raise eyebrows on the ol' resume': 2001-2008 president of the USA, okay you're hired.

After 2008, everything is an anticlimax for shrub.

[Lisa]

56. shh! he already thinks he's a demigod!

That's why he's blurting out things like "I'm proud to be the nation"!

[Lisa]

48. "Listen ...." -- "See ...." -- "You must understand ..."

I am convinced that he is repeating, verbatim, the frustrated exclamations of people who are trying to brief him. (Like his father before him, reading out his stage instructions -- "Message: I care".)

[0rganism]

49. Might be necessary, given his likely audience

At this point, the only people who give a shit what shrub says are
(a) his diehard base, who he needs to moderate back into something resembling a mainstream,
(b) the people who are paid either to promote him or to mock him,
(c) world leaders who have to be polite to him,
and
(d) those unfortunate members of the press who have to cover his appearances

By far, group (a) is the largest share, and they need as much gentle talk and coaxing as he did -- maybe more. I don't think for a second that bush is a smart man, but he's smarter than 99% of the people who still buy his bullshit.

[bdamomma]

43. bush is so stupid

and arrogant

[dailykoff]

45. This guy makes Gerald Ford look like Hamlet. (n/t)

[DearAbby]

50. That's KORN

"Most people may not know this, but today most of ethanol produced in America today is from corn."


Well, dayum. I had no Ideeeer ::guffaw:: smack me silly, yur shittin me, rite?

[Justice Is Comin]

51. I'd like to see him

corn holed deep and often by angry Republican inmates in a federal prison.

[WinkyDink]

54. Cornholio!

[JunkYardDogg]

55. Rove Backs this ' cause it Promotes the Cornhole Industry

Bush- "If cornholing is good enough for Karl Rove, it's good enough for me"
Bend Over America

BOA

[Tanyah]

57. somebody stop him!

:rofl: