Friday, April 28, 2006

Bill O'Reilly is Still an Economic Simpleton

Harvard grad Bill O'Reilly has been called out as an economic simpleton by Porkopolis in the past. Mr. O'Reilly's latest crusade is a push for energy independence using ethanol ala Brazil:

...Next year the country of Brazil, population 188 million, will be energy self-sufficient. That is they will not import a drop of oil.

Why? Because the Brazilian government in the seventies mandated that Brazilian cars would run on ethanol, which is made from sugar. Who is the biggest sugar producer in the world? Brazil! Now if Brazil can make its cars run on sugar, the U.S.A. can. We have even better technology than Brazil but we do not have the will of Brazil....
O'Reilly's recommendation is another ill advised shoot-from-the-mouth solution offered by an anti-Big Oil populist.

While ethanol is and will continue to be a component of our liquid fuel needs, it is not the be all and end all as noted by zFacts.com's Ethanol Production: at $7.24/Gas-Gallon-saved? (The article makes a point of noting that:
zFacts favors alternative energy (See Cellulose Ethanol) and likes conservation even more. But keep your eye on the ball ADM is pitching. Corn ethanol is good for them but expensive for us.
zFacts answers the question, Could the U.S. become energy independent with ethanol?':

A: No.To become energy independent, we would have to grow corn on every square inch of the U.S. including Alaska and then half that much again. Well, that was last year. Unfortunately this is not good for the soil, and corn uses more nitrogen fertilizer than other crops, which pollutes our waterways. But those ethanol subsidies are good for Archer Daniel Midlands: $500 million of your tax dollars at work.

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