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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (22238)	7/17/2008 6:50:52 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 36917

Yes that link is already posted in my post to you. It seems the link when cut and pasted from the original article from rightwing messes up in an SI post. But your post and the link to aps.org make for great reading.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (22238)	7/17/2008 9:32:43 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 36917

OECD: ethanol reduces greenhouse-gas emissions compared with regular fossil fuels: by 50% in the case of American corn ethanol, and 90% with Brazilian sugarcane ethanol. High Oil Prices? Blame Ethanol, OPEC Says Posted by Keith Johnson Kenneth Rapoza reports from Sao Paulo: Ethanol is on the ropes because of the food versus fuel debate, but now a new heavyweight just stepped into the ring and this one has got some really big guns. The fuel versus fuel debate, courtesy of OPEC (AP) OPEC president Chakib Khelil has a new culprit for the rising cost of oil–ethanol. Mr. Khelil says about 40% of the recent rise in oil prices can be chalked up to ethanol, which accounts for about 1% of the world’s transportation fuel. The other 60%, apparently, is due to a weak dollar and “geopolitical worries.” The problem: OPEC’s boss doesn’t lay out the logic explaining why ethanol blended into gasoline is to blame for high oil prices. Why ethanol falls afoul of big oil producers and oil companies is easier to explain. Oil companies don’t want to be forced to shell out for a whole new infrastructure for ethanol, from pipelines to special gas pumps. And ethanol blends in gasoline do make gas supplies go further–not good news for producers at a time when high prices are already starting to dent demand for gasoline, in the U.S. at least. Big Ethanol is striking back. The world’s four largest ethanol lobbies, The U.S. Renewable Fuels Association, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, the European Bioethanol Association, and Brazil’s Sugarcane Industry Association joined forces in a full page open letter to Mr. Khelil published in the Financial Times on Wednesday. The foursome call OPEC greedy, and say the cartel wants to kill U.S. ethanol mandates in particular in order to sell more oil, and make bigger profits when new oil discoveries are scarce. “New sources of energy are beginning to weaken OPEC’s grip on the world and threaten to reduce the $1.2 trillion OPEC nations will rake in this year from the exorbitant price of oil,” the letter said. Suddenly, ethanol producers are getting hit from all sides–food and fuel. Ethanol lobbies made their pitch to G-8 leaders earlier this month, pleading with under-fire world leaders not to scrap ethanol programs in light of rising alarm that ethanol and biofuels are to blame for high food prices. Ethanol producers got no favors Wednesday with a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based rich-country club, which said biofuels do contribute to rising food prices. The OECD urged governments to pour subsidies into energy efficiency, instead. Those outside attacks are helping paper over internal differences between the big ethanol lobbies, most notably Brazil’s longtime desire to knock down U.S. tariffs on imports of Brazilian ethanol. Brazil (and some congressmen) figure more Brazilian ethanol means cheaper gas. U.S. ethanol producers like the $0.54 per gallon tariff just fine. At least ethanol got one good piece of news in an otherwise bleak year. The OECD said that ethanol reduces greenhouse-gas emissions compared with regular fossil fuels: by 50% in the case of American corn ethanol, and 90% with Brazilian sugarcane ethanol. Permalink \| Trackback URL: blogs.wsj.com