Senator Nelson Defends Ethanol
May 24, 01:29 PM CST
Senator Nelson, along with five of his colleagues in the Senate, held a news conference defending ethanol against false information spread by some of its opponents.
“I’m not sure when it happened or why it happened but it’s incredible to me that someone decided to add ethanol to the members of the axis of evil,” he said. “As an oil-based economy, we have to move to renewable fuels in order to provide for our own energy security in the future and that means we’re not going to find the solution to the problem at the bottom of the next empty oil well.”
– by Eric Van Horn | Send this to a friend
That said … as an ecologist I can’t see that ethanol is a good long-term solution for our energy problems. I want good long-term solutions. Most of us have had the negatives of ethenol shown to us in one way or another. One aspect of ethenol production that doesn’t always get a lot of press is the amount of water needed in the processing. Where are we going to get all this water? What else is going to suffer because we are using water and the base of our livestock food chain to run cars? What will happen to any incentive a farmer might have had to leave a field in CRP or to plant a grass buffer around a stream when they can plow that area up and make record profits? Just like Exxon … they aren’t going to worry about the common good … they are going to put money in the bank. And why shouldn’t they?
I’ll accept that it’s part of the picture for transitioning away from oil but … let’s get on with the real, long-term energy solutions. Get the government busy funding research for doing away with inefficient, carbon-based fuels.
— Marian Ingwersen May 26, 02:48 AM CST #
We are all still in energy kindergarten.
One aspect of petroleum production that doesn’t always get a lot of press is the amount of human blood needed in the processing. Where are we going to get all this human blood?
Ethanol is not a perfect answer, but it is a great alternative to building the corporate war machine. The higher grain prices today are providing a way for small farmers to survive and plow profits back into conservation and more efficient , less toxic farming practices, possibly leading to a new and better form of agriculture based on smaller, more sustainable farming operations.
I’m not much past half a century, but I remember a time when almost all water for livestock in Nebraska was pumped by the wind. I look forward to a time when Nebraska farm folk learn to produce farm fresh electricity, along with fresh eggs, milk, tomatoes, corn, meat,and soy products.
One last note: Most of the solutions to today’s biggest problems can be solved by imaginative, sustainable,intelligent practice of the fine art of farming. A man who would run from the immense challenges of leading our nation’s ag industry has a small soul, proba
bly incapable of effective leadership in the national arena.
— Steve Hollister
— Steve Hollister May 26, 09:56 PM CST #
I also agree that small, sustainable farming should be part of the picture. I grew up on such a place and watched in dismay in the late 70’s as the huge tractors came out and many of our neighbors lost their farms which were gobbled up by the “big guys” who no longer cared about each acre of land and what was best for it. My husband and I just bought enough land to feed ourselves … and maybe a few extra critters to sell. I think it makes sense in light of the current world situation.
— Marian Ingwersen May 27, 10:01 PM CST #
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— Myles Prince May 29, 09:52 PM CST #