It seems interesting that corn-based fuels will save the country's national security. It certainly may seem like a change that could do the country some good, but I have my doubts.
We feel good about generating less dependence on foreign oil, by substituting for domestic crop fuels, cellulosis-based, etc. However we have induce a greater demand for crop resources against synthetics manufactured from our crops for corn oils, ethanol plants, and general grocery products our population relies upon. It's scary when you think about it.
So lets say we go with this growing ethanol-market lessing the dependency for crude, "to save a buck", and then inject higher demands (consequently high prices) for corn crops. Now we have that buck shifting from foreign oil costs, to pay that higher-cost corn, which by the way increases that price to enthanol-based fuels. See a problem?
We not only industrialize the corn to products, inject it into the enthanol equation, but we also have to have that special food group (meat) for the dinner table. A generous portion of crops are used to feed w/ a mixture of proteins, minerals, and other grain additives to feed our domestic stock; another factor reliant upon corn production annually.
And what about our South American neighbors like Brazil? They have a triple-based production of Corn due to the Tropical Climate that simply allows them to produce corn nearly three-time more than the United State's Market. Now we're driving a foreign dependence for corn yields when we fall short of supply within the North American Market. Now we have to set aside the fact that Brazilian infrastructure is nothing compared to the North American Rail & Interstate systems but we with due time that could also change. China also returns a significant role in the global corn producer. What does that do for us?
I just do not see how we're calling for energy independence because corn-based or crude-oil based we're merely shifting markets of fuel. We only product so much production from our homeland oil fields, as we already know the same to be true for corn-based fields. So what else is going to be politically accepted to "reduce" energy dependency?
