No matter how much U.S. or world grain production gets diverted to make motor fuel, it will never make a large dent in global oil needs. According to the latest U.S.D.A. estimates, total world grain production – including corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, millet, and other grains – is currently about 2.1 billion tons per year. Each ton of grain yields about 105 gallons of ethanol. Thus, converting all of the world’s grain into ethanol would yield about 220 billion gallons of ethanol per year, the gasoline equivalent of about 9.5 million barrels per day. That’s only about 11 percent of current global oil demand. The ethanol mandates that have been foisted on American taxpayers are not just fiscal insanity, they are immoral. Congress has created a system of subsidies and mandates that requires the U.S. to burn food to make motor fuel, at a time when there is a global shortage of food and no global shortage of motor fuel. Therein lies one of the real perversities of the ethanol mandates: as the global economy heads for rougher times – thanks to higher energy prices and the subprime mortgage meltdown – food prices are soaring. And those food prices will increase anxiety among consumers, who will further reduce their discretionary spending. With the ethanol scam, Congress has created a food-eating Frankenstein. The only question now is: can it be killed?
http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=891