Ethanol

The editorial about ethanol, “Policies could add fuel to gas-crisis fire” (5/21), stated that we could be “at the mercy of the corn industry.” Are we not now at the mercy of the oil companies? How much mercy are they showing?

Wouldn’t ethanol production provide competition in the marketplace and help keep gas prices down?

Yes, there are some problems with ethanol, but I believe these problems can be solved.

President Kennedy committed this country to going to the moon in the ’60s. The country rose to the occasion. Why can’t we rise to the occasion to declare our independence from foreign oil?

When Kennedy gave his speech, no one had ever gone to the moon. Brazil, on the other hand, has become independent of foreign oil.

I believe we can become foreign-oil independent, if we could just find someone to lead us there.

Tom Herrmann
Overland Park

Comments

[CRD]

"There is not enough crop land in the USA to produce the weight of corn that would be required to make enough ethanol to replace our oil use."

That may be true, but upon what do you base that opinion? And is that our current oil use or our oil needs -- because god knows we use way in excess of what we actually need.

[Engineer]

There is not enough crop land in the USA to produce the weight of corn that would be required to make enough ethanol to replace our oil use. And even if there were, then where would we get the energy to produce the ethanol? Brazil produces and uses ethanol from sugar cane. They have reached energy independence this year. Not only because they use ethanol but because the have opened a new, large off-shore oil field. Could this be an idea? Don't we have huge, untapped off-shore oil deposits?

[jack]

Ethanol is no more than a stop gap answer. Beyond that it is maybe a piece of a long term solution.

[Joe Barone]

Ethanol is not the long-term answer. Conservation is. As soon as Ethanol producers have us dependent on their product, they will limit refineries and restrict existing supplies to raise the price, just as oil companies do now.