Ethanol & Other Alternative Fuels
...Fuels in the United States
Overview
I have discovered that the high price of gas has intensified the search for alternative fuel
resources to help lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. Methods such as carpooling, mass
transit, and hybrid cars will not, by themselves, solve the problem. As the debate goes on for
ethanol and alternative fuels, I found that President Bush has backed federal funding for
continued research and Congress is calculating the best way to implement it.
One alternative that has received a great deal of attention is ethanol. There is some debate
about the efficiency of ethanol. One side feels the energy costs to produce ethanol outweigh the
benefits. These opponents state producing and running tractors, the production costs and even the
energy consumed by workers including food, transportation and police protection raise the costs.
The worker cost is not usually figured in comparisons like this. I also found that the naysayers
also didn't take into account the added value of ethanol byproducts, which can be used in cattle
feed. The analysis was based on the technology in use at the time, which included old processing
plants. There is reason to believe ethanol production will become more efficient, possibly at a
faster rate than the mature petroleum industry. The newest plants incorporate technology to
streamline the process and save energy and money.
"There are a lot of new technologies", said Hosein Shapouri, an agricultural economist for
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "It's going to continue to improve the yield, and also lower
Managerial Economics 3
the energy."
Besides bushels of corn, researchers are looking for other energy efficient methods to
produce ethanol. They're researching sugar cane and switchgrass....
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