Local Ethanol Refinery in the Works


The Business Journal is reporting that ground has been broken for an Ethanol plant in in Longview.

Production is still 18 months away.

Time to buy Oregon corn futures?


3 responses to “Local Ethanol Refinery in the Works”

  1. Or futures for engine maintenance companies.

    Expect the life span of engines to degrade by about 20-30%. :0

    All for a more costly, barely cleaner, fuel that tears up vehicles.

    I’m in no way a fan of Ethenal unless people do what I do ie. – “race on the weekends, transit for everything else” otherwise Ethenal is bad news.

    It’s kind of sad, considering I noticed one of the reasons our fuel prices are kept as low as they are with the silly regulatory rules like requiring a “gas pumper person” is the fact that most of it comes from local areas. Local areas also however produce really dirt gas.

    …bad situation. I guess it balances out the fact that we have wind and hydro… :(

  2. It takes nearly a gallon of fuel to produce a gallon of ethanol from corn and bring it to market. Do to the corrosive nature of ethanol, it must be transported by tanker (truck, train or boat) and not through a pipeline. The corrosive nature of ethanol also can shorten the engine life on many vehicles. Furthermore, using ethanol vs gasoline reduces the MPG for most vehicles by 10 to 15 percent (check with a certified auto service representative if you are a disbeliever). All the ballyhooing about ethanol helping to improve air quality and the environment is offset by adding more trucks to the road, more farm machinery working to produce the product and motor vehicle engines running less efficient and not at peak performance. Promoting ethanol is scamming the public.

  3. Terry –

    I agree… it has yet to be shown that corn-based ethanol is anything other than a waste of good cropland, and for the modest local air pollution savings gained, there are other better alternatives available.

    Brazil has been doing interesting things with other sources for ethanol, such as sugar beets. I’d like to know more about their overall results.

    – Bob R.

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