The Oil Drum: A Hard Look at Pataki’s Ethanol Proposal

As expected, Gov. George Pataki’s (R-NY) alternative fuel proposal that I wrote about earlier in the week, is largely based on increasing ethanol production and availability. As I learned from Cornell Professor Pimentel’s analysis of corn to ethanol, the Energy Return On Energy Invested (EROEI) is low (perhaps less than 1.0) and cannot be scaled to replace more than a fraction of transportation fuel. But the proposal has stirred earnest debate in New York about the efficacy of investing so much in ethanol with this NY Times article.
much more by peakguy after the jump to The Oil Drum.