Department of Agriculture

[kandrathe]

So the main issue with it, and corn as well, is that you end up having energy production in direct competition with food production (only so much land and the entire edible part of the plant is used to produce ethanol).

The issue is using tillable land that might otherwise be used to grow food, not with switchgrass.

I also have an issue with the government subsidizing land non-use, or the conservation reserve program, where they pay farmers to not farm putting tillable land into reserve, while on the other hand allowing the misuse of wetlands and marginal lands better suited for conservation. The result is more erosion, more flooding, and more social insecurity. It's madness.

You are right about corn based ethanol -- we actually lose energy in the process of making a more expensive less powerful fuel and suffer profound pollution as well. It is the quintessential case of ecological political correctness gone insane.

At least with solar panels and wind mills there is a hope of an energy return within the systems life cycle if they are used in suitable environments (and set their ecological factors aside). One of my gripes with Obama is the lack of progress on an public energy policy, and investment in this type of infrastructure. And to bring this back to topic, it would be a far better investment than paying farmers to grow more corn (or fail to grow more corn) to waste on ethanol.