FUEL to Open Georgia’s First Corn Ethanol Plant in October

That's how things are done here, with a substantial lack of reason. It makes me so mad. They cut down every tree on that land, destroyed the wildlife, to build a corn ethanol plant.

Your sarcasm is rather irritating...bordering on obnoxious. Everyone knows that traditional corn-based ethanol is less than ideal. However, it's an important part of building the future infrastructure for alcohol-based fuels while more advanced technologies are preparing for volume production.

It's a huge undertaking...production and distribution networks, filling stations, flex-fuel vehicles, etc. All of this needs to happen concurrently to avoid the classic chicken-and-egg scenario. Everyone involved must see a market for their products or they will not participate.

Instead of dumping all over the project, why not be happy about the fact that it's 100-million gallons per year which comes from the farm fields instead of the oil fields.

I still can't comprehend why Obama has stood behind this knd of nonsensical alternate "energy." Probably for the mid-western vote (and now GA vote).

Well, at least the have a rail link.

can the corn ethanol facilities like this be retooled to eventually produce cellulosic ethanol from other materials, or would it be to expensive and these plants end up abandoned? just curious

I think you forgot a "not" in "the one thing the United States does need in renewable energyis another corn ethanol plant."

entrenched oil interests, scooch over... big corn's gettin' it's piece

NPR had a fascinating interview with David Blume, author of Alcohol Can Be a Gas!- while many of us know this on any given weekend, he informs much on the extraction of the carbohydrates in a fuel feed stock- say corn, or even better- cattails. The carbohydrates are used to make alcohol- ethanol in the case of this Georgia plant, but the remains of the fermentation process yields a better feed source for cattle, who were never 'designed' to handle the huge amounts of carbohydrates that they are feed on feed lots- the result is that we get BOTH a renewable source of fuel and IMPROVED feed for cattle. He also pointed out in the interview that the US uses about 2% of corn for human consumption- including the junk known as corn syrup- which he stated isn't really a food source, either. The argument is then that the use of corn for ethanol is NOT a drag on our food supply, unless (and this is significant) the production of corn is replacing other food stuffs. Remember the cattail comment? It ends up that cattails produce considerably more biofuel per acre than corn. Blume argues that production of fuel should not be centralized, as this is grossly inefficient- moving raw corn is mostly moving water- biofuels should be generated near the crops as the refined product is far more efficient to transport.

This still props up a diseased overdependence on individual motorized transport. All biofuels do is replace a nonrenewable fuel with a renewable fuel, removing the last desperate limit that the earth had to throw at us, so that we can continue to destroy the earth for decades to come. We will still be driving too fast, too often, still designing cities poorly, deforesting land to build suburbs and strip malls, and carving the countryside up with highways that isolate wildlife. I don't see how ethanol will solve the greater problems inherent in a deeply entrenched automobile culture. That is why the announcement of yet another corn ethanol plant is less than thrilling, opinion.

You know what's exponentially less ideal than corn based ethanol? Continuing to send billions of US dollars to the Middle East so that Dubai can build another indoor ski slope or ice hotel.

I need one gallon of pure Ethanol. Since it arrives from Corn, therefore it can't hurt to drink it.