Ethanol: Getting There Is None Of The Fun - Forbes.com

This short article is a must read...providing many interesting points about ethanol such as the following:

1) Ethanol is produced in mainly five states: Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Illinois & Minnesota~all about 1,500 miles from 80% of the population.

2) Ethanol is corrosive so it cannot be transported through pipelines but must be transported by trains, barges, or trucks.

3) Our U.S. waterway is overtaxed and antiquated, besides the fact that the Mississippi freezes so that takes care of the barge issue, backlog for rail cars has risen 400% since 2005, so rail is not an option, which just leaves the transportation of ethanol by trucks.

Therein lies the rub!

to quote William Pentland, the author of this piece:

"The best hope for clean, green ethanol right now is to ship it in diesel-powered trucks. Unfortunately, the U.S. already lacks the drivers available to meet anticipated growth in shipping demand, even without ethanol. Driver shortages will reach nearly a quarter of a million by 2015, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Ethanol producers are likely to have particular problems because of the hazardous material certifications required to haul the loads. Add to this the cost of diesel fuel, the extra carbon emissions and the further strain the trucks would place on the nation's highways and the outlook for clean, supposedly green ethanol looks dimmer and dimmer."