Ethanol Fun time!!

One of the biggest issues facing the country today is the dependancy on foreign oil. Many people are looking toward the farms and the corn of Iowa to help reduce those needs. Well, we may need to look farther...

Ever since farmers started selling their corn to be fermented into alcohol for motor fuel, the ethanol business has wrestled with the question: Is it a waste of energy to make energy from corn?

Recent studies could put that question to rest.

But they also raise a new problem for corn ethanol: It appears to be a lot more energy-efficient — and better for the environment — to make ethanol from corn stalks, rather than the corn itself.

Two previous studies by David Pimentel at Cornell University and Tad Patzek at the University of California-Berkeley concluded that it took more energy to grow corn and process it into ethanol than the alcohol was worth.

This is a great issue facing the nations and it is good to see that both sides of the aisle can agree on something. The research needs to move foward and hopefully will. Everyone has to do their part and continue on the right path toward correction.