Stan, you missed the point.
  The amount of energy (not counting manual labor) that goes into
producing ethanol fuel is more than the energy contained in the fuel.
ie it takes 3 gallons of ethanol fuel to power:  1:  the tractor that
tills the field & drags the seeder, 2: the harvester that collects the
grain/corn 3: the transport truck to haul the corn 4: the factory that
ferments and distills the corn 5: the truck that hauls the mash to the
dump in your back yard, 6: the truck that hauls the fuel to your local
service center etc., to produce one gallon of ethanol fuel.  It's a
losing situation. Ethanol production is currently a petroleum based
process. More petro fuel energy is used to produce  ethanol than the
energy derived from ethanol. (numbers for illustration only)
On Wednesday, February 25, 2004, at 07:37  PM, Automatic digest
processor wrote:

> Date:    Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:27:23 -0600
> From:    Stan Wilder <wilden1-1@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
> Subject: Re: unclas gas prices..  and what they'll be this summer
>
> Because you use more energy farming the corn and distilling the ethanol
> then you get by burning the ethanol you end up with.  It's a net loss!
> --
> David Brodbeck, N8SRE
> '82 VW Diesel Westfalia
> '86 Volvo 240DL wagon
> ---------------------- Clip --------------------------
> That sounds just fine to me.
> Do you think the labor in farming, production and distribution will
> replace
> the Jobs that are being shipped out of the US as we converse?
> I'd rather NOT be buying foreign oil if we could get close to the
> price with
> ethanol and engine oils from castor beans.
>
> Stan Wilder
>