Oh Shadow, there will be plenty of adverse reactions with the progression of ethanol. And as far as the 'tree huggers', they apparently don't care about this adverse reaction, but God forbid, don't drill for oil in Alaska or any other of the tree huggers sacred grounds!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

CAPITAL REGION
Ethanol arriving at local pumps
Trade out of Albany boosting availability of fuel blend in area
BY JASON SUBIK Gazette Reporter

    Thanks to easy access to corn-based ethanol from Logibio Albany Terminal at the port of Albany, the Capital Region is quickly becoming fueled with E10 blend.
    Stewart’s Shops President Gary Dake said converting gas pumps to E10 was costly but subsidies reducing the price of ethanol and an increase in local supply have made the transition worth it in the Capital Region.
    “We have to do this for pollution control down in some of the southern counties near New York City,” Dake said. “Now it’s become available in the Albany terminals and we’ve learned how to convert the tanks, so we’ve started to expand its use a little bit more.”
    E10 blend pumps have been spotted popping up at convenience stores throughout the Capital Region, including at some Cumberland Farms locations.
    Nathalie de Vos Burchart, the vice president of logistics for Houston-based ethanol trader BioUrja Trading, said ethanol trade out of Albany has increased since her company purchased the former Cibro Petroleum Products Albany terminal for $10.125 million at bankruptcy court auction in March and created Logibio Albany Terminal in July.
    “We barge ethanol out to New York harbor, to Boston, to Philadelphia, to pretty much the end-user terminals. We also truck it out to the local Albany market,” she said. “There’s several stations converting [to E10 ethanol] as we speak.”
    New York Association of Convenience Stores President James Calvin said selling E10 is becoming more popular among his member stores.
    “There is growing interest among ethanol blends among motor fuel retailers, but that is gradual rather than meteoric,” Calvin said. “I think there is increasing supply of ethanol, again gradual, and increasing interest on the part of the consumer.”
    Corn-based ethanol production, although controversial for its possible negative impact on coastal fi shing ‘dead zones’ created by nitrate fertilizer runoff, has steadily grown more popular in Washington D.C.
    The U.S. now produces 7 billion gallons of ethanol, all of it made from corn, thanks in large part to government mandates and subsidies included in the 2005 energy bill. Last week President Bush signed legislation mandating a sixfold increase in U.S. ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. Of that, 21 billion gallons will have to be from feedstock other than corn such as prairie grasses or wood chips.
    Mike Bombard, Stewart’s Shops Corp.’s gasoline manager, said 198 of the approximately 300 Stewart’s Shops stores have converted to offering 10 percent ethanol blends with all gas sold.
    “The vast majority of the marketplace has done this,” Bombard said. “Approximately 20 [of the E10-only Stewart’s Shops] are mandated. That’s in the southern tier.”
    Since 2004, the federal government has required gas sold in and around New York City to contain 10 percent ethanol to replace the gasoline additive MTBE, originally thought to be a pollution reducing oxygenate until it was shown to easily pollute large quantities of groundwater when spilled or leaked at gas stations.
    Ethanol raises the octane level in gas without polluting groundwater when spilled, although Ethanol refineries do produce more toxic emissions than MTBE refineries, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.
    Actually using corn-based ethanol for fuel, however, is thought to have a net zero impact on carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming because corn plants absorb as much CO2 as burning the fuel emits Most able to burn E10 fuel with only a slightly negative impact on fuel economy. It’s also relatively cheap to obtain in the Capital Region.
    “Albany is a very large transportation hub for ethanol product, so we’re kind of tapping into local resources that are available,” Bombard said. “The port of Albany is one of the largest ports in the country for ethanol transportation.”
    Since July, CSX Corp. has increased ethanol transportation from the Midwest to Logibio Albany Terminal from 80-car trains to 102-car trains, for an approximate monthly average of 1,000 train cars carrying about 29 million gallons of ethanol, de Vos Burchart said.
    Corn-based ethanol can only be brought to market by trucks or rail car because pipeline technology cannot protect the fuel from being contaminated by water, according to the EIA.
    “The terminal is just generally growing in volume and activity, particularly on the ethanol side,” de Vos Burchart said.
    Logibio Albany Terminal officials call it “pace setting in the ethanol industry” because the port of Albany has no dock congestion and it only takes about a week for ethanol transporting cars to unload in Albany and return to production plants.
    De Vos Burchart said 25 percent of the terminal’s 2 million barrel storage capacity is dedicated to ethanol.
    “That’s what we’re concentrating on. That’s our background,” she said. “BioUrja Trading is a large ethanol trading company. Our lead trader was the U.S. buyer of ethanol for Exxon Mobil. A little over 10 percent of the U.S. ethanol volume, pretty much, went through his hands when he was at Exxon.”
    Dake said he hopes increased use of ethanol will have a positive impact on the region.
    “It should ultimately have a depressing effect on the price of the gasoline,” he said. “But that’s going to depend on the price of ethanol, which has been going up.”

Quoted Text

“It should ultimately have a depressing effect on the price of the gasoline,” he said. “But that’s going to depend on the price of ethanol, which has been going up.”

....Interesting......

It isn't just the cost that 'we'  are concerned about but the 'cleanliness' of the product used and it's process. the cost is just your basic supply and demand and the unjust scales the may be used.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Schumer blames milk cost on ethanol
The Associated Press

    NEW YORK — Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday that rising demand for the corn-based fuel additive ethanol is contributing to a spike in milk prices and called for lifting the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports.
    Schumer, D-N.Y., said rising milk prices have been caused by, among other factors, a nationwide increase in demand for ethanol. The same corn used for ethanol is used in animal feed.
    He called for the immediate lifting of the tariff on foreign ethanol imports to increase the supply of the federally mandated fuel additive, reduce pressure on the corn market, and bring down milk prices.
    “Reducing the pressure on the corn market is a quick, commonsense way to bring down milk prices across the board without hurting our region’s dairy farmers,” Schumer said. “No family should every have to do without milk but unfortunately, many families are now being forced to make that terrible choice.”
    According to the Consumer Price Index, the cost of dairy and related products rose 14 percent nationally between November 2006 and November 2007, the most recent figures available.
    Speaking in front of a Manhattan supermarket, Schumer said the price of milk increased 35 percent in New York City between January 2006 and January 2007.
    In Manhattan, for example, he said the average price of a gallon of milk is now $4.52, up from $3.52 a year ago.
    Schumer said his plan would not hurt Northeastern dairy farmers because lifting the ethanol tariff would reduce their costs.

Hey, Chucky, how about letting us drill for oil in more areas of this country so we didn't have to import it?  How about setting up another refinery or 2.  Haven't heard about one opening lately...like since I was born.  The lower gas price would help to offset the corn price that they need to buy to feed their cows, and not only reduce your payment for the milk (which I'm sure they're already getting subsidies for production), but also on steaks and anything else coming from the farms.

Quoted Text

Schumer, D-N.Y., said rising milk prices have been caused by, among other factors, a nationwide increase in demand for ethanol. The same corn used for ethanol is used in animal feed.

Why don't you tell us something we don't know? We knew this was coming a long time ago. I guess our elected officials are just flying by the seat of their pants. I mean where is their vision and planning for the future of the people? Clearly they saw this coming and yet made no previsions. Everything is always in a crisis mode. I just don't know why we bother! >

http://www.timesunion.com

Quoted Text

Farmers cash in on demand for corn
State's growers expand output to satisfy needs of ethanol producers as wheat, oat and barley crops fall
By ERIC ANDERSON Deputy business editor
First published: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

ALBANY -- New York farmers committed more acreage to corn production last year as ethanol producers drove demand higher.
Output of grain corn surged 13 percent to 69.9 million bushels, as farmers boosted land devoted to grain corn to 550,000 acres, a 15 percent increase from the year before.
     
Production of silage corn, used to feed cattle, climbed 2 percent to 8.42 million tons, while the acreage devoted to growing it increased 8 percent to 495,000 acres.
Meanwhile, production of wheat, oats and barley all fell, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The impact has been to boost crop prices, with corn in November going for $3.65 a bushel, said Greg Lemmons, an agriculture statistician at the USDA's Albany office. And that likely will increase prices at the supermarket.
"Eventually it's going to trickle down to the stores, but I don't know when or how much," he said Tuesday.
Farmers are benefiting from the increased prices, and so putting as many acres to corn production as they can.
"Right now, it's very lucrative to grow corn," said Todd M. Erling, executive director of Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corp. in Hudson. "It's replaced some of the other crops."
But Erling said the increased demand for corn could be making ethanol less competitive as an alternative to gasoline.
"Ethanol needs $2 to $2.50 a bushel of corn to be competitive with oil," he said. "We're at the point where we're about killing both of them."
The demand for ethanol is one of several factors pushing overall grain prices higher. Another is last summer's weak wheat harvests in Europe and Australia, which drove U.S. wheat exports higher. Much of that wheat flowed through the Port of Albany, heading to France and Spain.
While soybean output fell statewide in 2007, that could change. The crop is used in the production of biodiesel, and the crushed soybeans that remain after the oil is removed can be used for cattle feed.
The USDA reported that soybean prices grew faster than corn prices last year. Meanwhile, corn is considered a nutrient-heavy crop that requires fertilizer, which itself is getting more costly because of the energy needed to produce it. "You have to fertilize every year if you're going to keep planting corn," said the USDA's Lemmons. "If you don't fertilize, yields are going to plummet in a hurry."
The USDA earlier this month predicted that these factors could alter the planting decisions farmers make this year.
"There's very strong competition with soybeans and wheat," said Rick Tolman, chief executive officer of the National Corn Growers Association in St. Louis. "Soybeans and wheat have gone up substantially more" in price.
He expects the land devoted to corn nationwide will drop this year to 87 million acres from a near record of 93 million acres in 2007, a level not seen since 1946, as farmers plant more soybeans and wheat.
Farmers, for a change, are benefiting from all the demand.
"We produced a record crop of corn last year and we still had rising prices," Tolman said. "It's a dynamic farmers haven't seen before." Eric Anderson can be reached at 454-5323 or by e-mail at eanderson@timesunion.com.

Quoted Text

"Right now, it's very lucrative to grow corn," said Todd M. Erling, executive director of Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corp. in Hudson. "It's replaced some of the other crops."

And that's where THOSE prices go up, less supply, same demand, higher price.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

EDITORIALS
Ethanol’s downside not limited to milk

    Sen. Chuck Schumer is blaming corn-based ethanol — and the use of so much of it as a fuel additive — for the high cost of milk, but that’s really only part of the trouble this commodity has been causing.
    Ethanol is pushing up prices for a whole slew of products that are made from corn or rely on it. Take livestock — beef, pork and chicken, for example. Those staples of the American diet have also grown more expensive in the past year or so. Take products that contain the ubiquitous sugar substitute, high-fructose corn syrup. (Many of them are junk food, but no matter: They’re an integral part of the American diet.) And don’t forget to take the packaging that’s derived from various parts of the corn plant. With demand for corn higher than ever because of ethanol production, prices of many corn-based products are near record highs.
    The overproduction of corn is also hurting the environment in Corn Belt states (most notably Iowa), where little else is being grown anymore. It has obliterated the concept of crop rotation, which helps keep soil from becoming depleted. And the high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous from the fertilizers used to maximize corn production is killing aquatic life all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico. A “dead zone” the size of the state of New Jersey has developed at the mouth of the Mississippi River, where runoff from the Corn Belt winds up.
    So when Schumer calls for lifting the 54-centa-gallon tariff on imported ethanol, he’s got a good idea — unless you happen to be a farmer who benefits from what is, in effect, a government price support. As long as imported ethanol remains too expensive to import, the price of domestically produced ethanol will only go so low. It has, in fact, been falling in recent months due to overproduction, but the market would really be flooded (and prices would fall even further) if the tariff were lifted.
    That’s unlikely to happen, in large part due to politics: The candidates that spend so much time in Iowa in advance of the state’s fi rstin-the-nation presidential contests invariably promise farm-friendly policies in exchange for farmers’ votes. Those who won’t kowtow to this influential lobby typically don’t get very far in the presidential derby.
    So while Schumer might have the right idea, he’s probably not going to get very far with it.

Milk cost more than gas-----HEEEELLLLOOOO!!!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Ethanol less efficient, more expensive in end

    The Feb. 3 article, “Fuel for thought – Some consumers notice decrease in fuel mileage as more stations switch to E10 gasoline,” stated that a hybrid car owner who used to get 50 mpg highway, with 100 percent gasoline, is now getting 40 mpg with fuel that is 10 percent ethanol.
    Let’s see: With 100 percent gasoline, this driver would use four gallons of gas to go 200 miles. Now he has to use 5 gallons of fuel to go that same 200 miles.
    But now 10 percent of that “new “ fuel is ethanol (10 percent times 5 gallons equals 0.5 gallons). That means the driver is now using 4.5 gallons of gasoline and 0.5 gallons of ethanol to go the same distance! Talk about fuzzy numbers! The same trip (200 miles) needs 0.5 gallons more gas — how is this helping the environment?
    Now instead of paying about $13.20 (four gallons times $3.30 per gallon) to make the 200 mile trip, he has to pay about $16.50 (5 gallons times $3.30 per gallon) or an increase of $3.30! Where are the economics of this?
    All this without even considering the costs and fuel used to grow the crops from which ethanol is derived, as well as the cost of producing the ethanol and the water used, the cost to transport ethanol because it can’t be piped! And still more questions than answers: How can the new federally mandated mileage requirements be met if they keep diluting the fuels used to power our vehicles?
    EARL F. SPENCER
    Palatine Bridge

I've filled up with the 10% ethanol blend when traveling from here to Maryland and back and the gas mileage is not as good as with regular gasoline and as Mr Spencer points out it will cost even more to use this type of fuel. This is just another case of rushing to judgement about how to fix a problem without doing the proper research on the subject.

Quoted from senders

Milk cost more than gas-----HEEEELLLLOOOO!!!

Not anymore!

Quoted from Shadow

I've filled up with the 10% ethanol blend when traveling from here to Maryland and back and the gas mileage is not as good as with regular gasoline and as Mr Spencer points out it will cost even more to use this type of fuel. This is just another case of rushing to judgement about how to fix a problem without doing the proper research on the subject.

Funny you should mention gas milage, cause my isn't so great any more either. We are paying more for gas and getting less milage and the prices will be going sky high once this entire ethanol really picks up. Ya know, it just doesn't matter anymore. We will either be paying a fortune for oil or any alternative we come up with.