Here are some things you should know about ethanol.
* 30% WORSE average gas mileage with e85 than 100% gasoline. Yet you don't pay 30% less.
* Ethanol has a higher octane rating but this doesn't improve gas mileage unless your engine is knocking.
* Since 1978, ethanol tax exemptions have cost taxpayers more than $11 billion.
* A gallon of gasoline has about 125,000 BTUs of energy, while a gallon of ethanol contains about 84,000 BTUs, meaning that a gallon of ethanol contains about two-thirds as much energy as a gallon of gasoline.
* It takes around 98,000 BTUs to create a gallon of ethanol, 22,000 BTUs for a gallon of gas. The ethanol industry claims that equipment will be more efficient in the future with modernized ethanol plants, but that will only get them slightly over a 1:1 ratio.
* You may be getting short changed if your state doesn't require pumps to be labeled that they contain 10% ethanol (aka gasohol.)
Let's say you drive 20,000 miles per year in a vehicle that gets 20 miles to the gallon at $2 per gallon of 100% gasoline. Going by the ethanol price difference at the gas station down the street our example equates to $1.68 per gallon for e85. $0.32 less per gallon is a great deal right? Wrong.
* 1000 gallons = $2000 you would have paid at the pump for 100% gasoline. $166 per month.
* 1400 gallons = $2352 you will have to pay for e85. $196 per month.
* You will have saved 21 barrels of oil and used 6700 bushels (375,000 lbs.) of corn.
Bottom line is that it costs more for gas, raises taxes and wastes energy. I totally support alternative fuels, but not if they are worse than oil.
What a joke! We should be giving Walmart a government subsidy and require everyone to purchase 10% of there products there. That would make as much sense as dumping all our cash in the ethanol toilet!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Yet More Ethanol News
Walter Williams has an excellant article on the ethanol hoax here:
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/Big%20Corn%20and%20Ethanol%20Hoax.htm
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/Big%20Corn%20and%20Ethanol%20Hoax.htm
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Izaty's Resort on Lake Mille Lacs Headed for Bankruptcy Auction
One of Minnesota's best-known resorts is going on the auction block this spring.
Izaty's Resort on Lake Mille Lacs will be sold in bankruptcy auction at 11 a.m. on April 3 at the resort in Onamia, said Doug Kassebaum of the law firm Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. of Minneapolis, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers on behalf of the resort.
The court will be asked to approve the sale the following day.
It's not clear what that means for the future of the resort, or for people who have reservations there this summer. "It depends on what the new owners decide to do," Kassebaum said.
Poor summer weather and fishing restrictions imposed on Lake Mille Lacs and "external factors" contributed to the resort's financial problems, Kassebaum said.
The sale, being handled by the luxury real estate auction company Albert Burney, includes the resort's two 18-hole golf courses and clubhouse, hotel, restaurant, marina, maintenance facility, a sewage treatment center and a three-bedroom house and a four-bedroom house.
Interested buyers can schedule a property tour or request brochures on the property by calling the auction company at 1-800-434-1654.
Izaty's Resort on Lake Mille Lacs will be sold in bankruptcy auction at 11 a.m. on April 3 at the resort in Onamia, said Doug Kassebaum of the law firm Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. of Minneapolis, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers on behalf of the resort.
The court will be asked to approve the sale the following day.
It's not clear what that means for the future of the resort, or for people who have reservations there this summer. "It depends on what the new owners decide to do," Kassebaum said.
Poor summer weather and fishing restrictions imposed on Lake Mille Lacs and "external factors" contributed to the resort's financial problems, Kassebaum said.
The sale, being handled by the luxury real estate auction company Albert Burney, includes the resort's two 18-hole golf courses and clubhouse, hotel, restaurant, marina, maintenance facility, a sewage treatment center and a three-bedroom house and a four-bedroom house.
Interested buyers can schedule a property tour or request brochures on the property by calling the auction company at 1-800-434-1654.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Prices Force SoyMor to Close
I wonder when this will start with the Corn Ethanol Plants. Look for these guys to go crying to the government for more hand-outs.
It was a decision driven by economics.
"SoyMor board of directors have decided to suspend operations at the current time," says Gary Pestorious.
The 32 employees of the SoyMor bio diesel plant near Glenville were notified yesterday that the plant is closing, at least temporarily.
The plant turns soybean oil into bio-diesel.
And with soybean prices at an all-time high, keeping the plant open doesn't make economic sense
"Today, if you were making bio-diesel SoyMor would be doing it at a dollar a gallon loss," says Pestorious.
Soybean prices have jumped for a couple of reasons, higher demand in China, a weak US dollar and, according to board member Gary Pestorious, one of the largest recipients of government subsidies(welfare)in Minnesota, "Index Fund Money", which is buying American corn, wheat and soybean crops by the billions of dollars.
"They don't raise it,(and recieve no government welfare checks!) they have nothing to do with it, but what they've done is drive the prices up," Pestorious says.
"I view it as a temporary setback, I believe the high grain price right now will moderate and I think it will come back into production," says Dan Dorman.
The SoyMor plant has gotten economic help under the state's JobZ economic stimulus program. Yet more GOVERNMENT WELFARE!!
And it's too early to tell how the suspension might affect that status
"Is this a 60 day, or a forever deal, there are certain requirements for the JobZ program, they have to meet and if they don't they'll lose their JobZ benefits," says Dorman. (Oh My God, DON'T TAKE THE WELFARE CHECK!)
And if the economics of the soybean market change
"As we all know things continue to change and we'll back running here within the year," says Pestorious.
Operations at the plant will be ramped down over the next two weeks, and beyond that what happens here at the Soy-Mor plant near Glenville is very much up in the air.
Since 1999, the SoyMor plant has been processing thirty million gallons of bio-diesel a year.
It was a decision driven by economics.
"SoyMor board of directors have decided to suspend operations at the current time," says Gary Pestorious.
The 32 employees of the SoyMor bio diesel plant near Glenville were notified yesterday that the plant is closing, at least temporarily.
The plant turns soybean oil into bio-diesel.
And with soybean prices at an all-time high, keeping the plant open doesn't make economic sense
"Today, if you were making bio-diesel SoyMor would be doing it at a dollar a gallon loss," says Pestorious.
Soybean prices have jumped for a couple of reasons, higher demand in China, a weak US dollar and, according to board member Gary Pestorious, one of the largest recipients of government subsidies(welfare)in Minnesota, "Index Fund Money", which is buying American corn, wheat and soybean crops by the billions of dollars.
"They don't raise it,(and recieve no government welfare checks!) they have nothing to do with it, but what they've done is drive the prices up," Pestorious says.
"I view it as a temporary setback, I believe the high grain price right now will moderate and I think it will come back into production," says Dan Dorman.
The SoyMor plant has gotten economic help under the state's JobZ economic stimulus program. Yet more GOVERNMENT WELFARE!!
And it's too early to tell how the suspension might affect that status
"Is this a 60 day, or a forever deal, there are certain requirements for the JobZ program, they have to meet and if they don't they'll lose their JobZ benefits," says Dorman. (Oh My God, DON'T TAKE THE WELFARE CHECK!)
And if the economics of the soybean market change
"As we all know things continue to change and we'll back running here within the year," says Pestorious.
Operations at the plant will be ramped down over the next two weeks, and beyond that what happens here at the Soy-Mor plant near Glenville is very much up in the air.
Since 1999, the SoyMor plant has been processing thirty million gallons of bio-diesel a year.
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