Does corn Ethanol need to die?

[moritheil]

This could really vier off in to politics, so I'll tread carefully.

The problem is farm subsidies. The farmers make a lot more money growing corn than they do other products. Our approach to farm subsidies needs a major overhaul, but rich lobbyists have prevented this from happening.

Veer off? Isn't the issue inherently political to begin with?

I mean no disrespect, but one look at your post indicates that different factions are involved . . . which strikes me as automatically meaning politics.

 

[Megaton]

As I understand the state of things, it isn't that simple. The issues aren't just depth. Most oil isn't sitting in pressurized pools just waiting to come gushing out like in the cartoons - the oil is often impregnated into the surrounding rock, and you need to inject steam or detergents at high pressure to coax it out. Or the reservoir is under the deep ocean, so that you can't build a stable rig on a solid base. Or you have to drill sideways for a couple miles to reach the stuff.

Ah, thank you for clarifying that. I always wondered why it wasn't economical.

I wholeheartedly agree though that we should not be complacent and should be researching alternative fuel/energy sources. I was just hoping oil prices could possibly go down in the meantime.