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Follow on Google News | US senate votes to cut ethanol subsidiesThree-quarters of the US Senate approved an ethanol subsidy-slicing measure. Both the tax credit and the tariff are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Producing ethanol from corn is much less efficient than making it from sugarcane.
By: Rory Fontaine Ethanol is a viable and even economical alternative to gasoline if it is produced from sugar cane. But it is highly inefficient to make ethanol from corn because it has lower sugar content, and the starches need to be converted into sugars that are fermentable. It takes almost as much energy to make ethanol from corn as is retrieved from the ethanol. Producing ethanol from corn is five to six times less efficient than making it from sugar cane. For every unit of energy put into production of ethanol from corn, only 1.3 units of energy are produced. With sugar cane, for every unit of energy that goes into making ethanol, eight units of energy are produced. Because of the huge federal subsidies, about 40 percent of America's corn production (which is 41 percent of the world's) is now being used for ethanol. The result is that corn prices have skyrocketed in the United States and other nations that buy U.S. exports. To receive subsidies, many American farmers have switched from growing wheat to growing corn, thus driving up the price of wheat as well. Under a 2007 energy law, the United States was supposed to use 500 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol in gas tanks in 2012. This ethanol comes from renewable sources such as switchgrass, waste products and woody pulp -- but it hasn't been made in significant quantities. The Environmental Protection Agency has again proposed slashing next year's advanced ethanol requirements, citing "market availabilityā€¯ # # # About Southeast Asian Ethanol: Southeast Asian Ethanol is a private group that is dedicated to supporting the development of localized sugar cane based ethanol production throughout the Asian Region. End
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