Both state and federal support is critical to building a real ethanol industry. Real action is needed, and the $150 million per year President Bush promised is wholly insufficient. |
California is about to become the leader of E85 in the country. |
Converting to fuel ethanol will not require a big change in the economy. We are already ethanol-ready. If ethanol were available on the supply side, the demand is there. |
It is better to use various inputs to grow corn and make ethanol and use that in your cars than it is to use the gasoline and fossil fuels directly. |
It is not a massive savings, not like putting in 10 percent energy and getting out 100 percent. We find it is somewhat better than gasoline, but it's not a home run. |
Oil futures are based on people's fears. It's almost exactly similar to the stock market. We buy oil on the futures market. So if you look out in the future, you have to say, is it likely that Iran will have a conflict? |
The assumptions made by some of the authors were not based on the best data, or were just a little bit too convenient, and had a strong impact on the results. |
The people who are saying ethanol is bad are just plain wrong. But it isn't a huge victory -- you wouldn't go out and rebuild our economy around corn-based ethanol. |
The real benefits come from this switch [from corn to other plants], and it is a switch we want to see happen. |
This is the tragedy of the commons because there is no clear winner. |
We found unequivocally that it does not take more energy than you get out of the amount of ethanol. So it's a net good if you grow ethanol and use it. |
You're not going to save the world this way. People are doing it at their discretion. |