Several years ago when I heard about Willy Nelson’s push for bio-fuels, I decided to look into it.  It sounded like a fairly good solution.

The first thing that I found out was that it costs more to make Ethanol than to make gasoline from crude oil.  Well that was a negative right there. 

Then I looked at the impact, if any, it would have on the food supply.  Oh boy, that was a shocker.  If 20% of corps would be diverted from to Ethanol production, we would see a huge increase in the cost of milk/milk products, beef, chicken, pork, and other goods.  This is now happening.  Although the cost of gas and diesel are the major cause of across the board increase in just about everything we buy, the diversion of crops to make Ethanol is also fueling the higher costs. 

This diversion of crops affects not only the U.S. market but the whole world.  The U. S. is a huge supplier of grains.  We already are seeing the effects in third world countries.

There is one more negative.  Ethanol fires can not be put out with water or the chemicals used for gasoline fires.  Production of a substance to put out an Ethanol fire is just about non-existence.  The transportation of Ethanol is going to become a great concern.  This will add an additional cost to the use of Ethanol. 

Ethanol is not the short or long term solution to our energy crisis or the dependents on foreign supplies.  We need to develop our plentiful supply of crude.  Had we not listened to the liberal “green” lobby twenty years ago, we would not be in the mess we are in now.

We have enough oil and natural gas to provide us with energy for over sixty years. 

It is time to get real and start developing our own sources of energy by more drilling and exploration of crude oil.