Quote Of The Day: Al Gore's Ethanol Regrets Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first generation ethanol. First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small… One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president

Al Gore reveals [via MSNBC] that politics, not science, made an ethanol believer out of him. More than anything else, the admission underlines how badly ethanol can lose the war of ideas and still be heavily subsidized without fear of political attack. After all, what Presidential hopeful (read:every member of Congress) wants to shut down the biggest pork trough in Iowa, a state that just happens to be the first primary of the race for the White House? Heck, Al Gore probably had to lose his favorite weedwhacker to ethanol gum before he came out against the stuff. But just because your representative won’t vote against ethanol, doesn’t mean you can’t… surf over to pure-gas.org for a list of ethanol-free gas pumps near you.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • FleetofWheel FleetofWheel on Nov 23, 2010

    Good on Mr. Gore making making this admission. As time progresses, expect to see further retraction-like statements from him regarding the areas of energy and the environment.

  • Dr Lemming Dr Lemming on Nov 23, 2010

    Lots of Gore hate, which I suppose is to be expected on a gearhead site. The simple reality is that politics is a messy business often filled with uneasy compromises. Gore was correct when he said a few years ago that the trouble with many of the proposals to respond to global warming is that they may be technically astute but lack a political reality baseline. I give Gore credit for admitting the folly of of his ways. Compare that with GW Bush, who in his new book blatantly lies that he was hesitant to invade Iraq. All documentation points in the opposite direction. He should have manned up and admitted that he was wrong on that one.

    • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Nov 24, 2010

      It's not so much Gore hate as it is calling a spade a spade. Gore, like nearly all politicians, is a whore. He's also a hypocrite with regard to energy consumption, asking others to do what he will not. If it's so important for everyone to do, let's see someone like Gore lead by example rather than continue his life of conspicuous consumption.

  • Fred diesel Fred diesel on Nov 23, 2010

    The REAL shame (sham?) is that low BTU, low value corn-ethanol isnt really a BIOFUEL. Its manufacture and transportation take large amounts of diesel. And it obscures the real biofuel that we should be developing huge...cleaner, higher-cetane, BTU, value...BIODIESEL that can be used in most any diesel or jet/turbine engine.

    • See 1 previous
    • Bytor Bytor on Nov 23, 2010

      Why would corn be grown anyway? There isn't an unlimited market for corn. Nearly half the supply is going to Ethanol, it has largely been an increase in production, only a small is diversion from food. If it wasn't for Ethanol there wouldn't be near as much corn being grown. It increases land use, fertilizer use, energy used in producing ethanol, fertilizer run off, that increases the ocean dead zone. All for a ridiculously low 1.3:1 energy return, and that is the optimistic number when you count by products. It is really a sad joke. The result of lobby dollar driven political system.

  • Brandloyalty Brandloyalty on Nov 23, 2010

    I would save some anger for the farmers etc. who put their morals aside to profit from this fiasco. No better than someone who works at a cigarette factory. Now, the Canadian national government (right wing, based in the prairies) is preparing to require gas sold in Canada to contain 5% ethanol. Then again, why should I expect a rational response to the stupidity that got us into this mess?

    • Tparkit Tparkit on Nov 23, 2010

      Indeed, save-the-earth huckstering is a political way of life up north. The biggest problem in Canada is that there are no actual conservative parties -- with the exception of Alberta's Wildrose Alliance, newly formed at the provincial level for the same general reasons as the Tea Party. So far, the federal-level "Conservative" party has provided Canadians with increased taxes (by reversing a campaign promise to protect existing resource income trusts, then eliminating these), done absolutely nothing to reform the nation's human rights gestapo, shepherded illegal migrants from the high seas into Canada's porous refugee/welfare system, spent billions to bail out the auto industry/unions, fattened the banks and blown an enormous real estate bubble by providing taxpayer-backed mortgages to people who are bad credit risks, and generally out-liberaled the Liberal Party at every turn. The US has its RINOs, Canada has its ubiquitous CINOs.

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