« ENERGY MATTERS: Gasoline May Have Summer Fling With $4/Gal | Home | Fuel From Veggies »
The Great Ethanol Debate
By Mr Ethanol | March 12, 2008
Motley Fool:
You can’t carry on a debate about the economy these days without two nagging points coming up: The price of oil is on a tear, and inflation remains a serious threat.
Of course, the increase in the price of oil is a telling sign of an inconvenient truth (no Al Gore cliche intended): Oil is finite; our appetite for it is not.
So when ethanol was introduced as a viable alternative, it wasn’t any surprise that hallelujahs made their way around the country. Finally, we can free ourselves from the Middle East’s abundance of black gold. Instead, we can use our heartland’s trademark: corn.
If only…
As the popularity of ethanol grew, the price of its main input, corn, mushroomed, doubling in price in just the past year. Farmers took advantage of the new price, clearing fields used to grow other crops to make room for - you guessed it - corn.
That price disruption has an ugly effect. The price of soybeans has climbed more than 20% to date. Wheat has more than doubled
in the past six months. Some of the increase in commodities is from lower interest rates and speculators looking for an inflation hedge, but a good chunk of the runup stems from good ol’ fashioned supply-and-demand imbalances caused by the ethanol crush.
Topics: Energy, Ethanol, News |
Related Posts
- Students Launch Ethanol Blog For Community
- Ethanol Gets Mention During Debate And Divide Rural Opinions
- Taking Stock In Ethanol: Risks, Challenges And Opportunities
- Ethanol Conspiracy Theories Ignore Fuel’s Legitimate Shortcomings
- Law & Order & Ethanol
- Ethanol - Where Hype Meets Reality
- Supporting Agriculture’s Investments And Opportunities
- The Dirty Little Secret Behind The Ethanol Hysteria
- Is The Long-Term Price Of Ethanol Too High?
- Ethanol, Water, Pollution, North Korea And Free Trade
New Way Of Making Easy Money Online