Escalating consumer prices driven by the demand for corn is only the tip of the iceberg. I obtained some figures from a friend who is a high-level executive with an energy company that produces and markets oil, natural gas and ethanol.

He confirmed my suspicions when he told me it takes more fossil fuel energy (from natural gas) to distill a gallon of ethanol than the energy it returns when burned as a fuel. Thus, we are squandering fossil fuel energy just to produce it!

The negative yield as a fuel is further increased by the additional consumption of fossil fuel (diesel/gasoline) required to plant, harvest and transport the corn to the ethanol plant.

Ethanol activists will claim these costs are justified because ethanol is an environmentally “friendly” alternative fuel.

Another scam! What their lobbyists are careful not to tell the American public about ethanol production is these plants not only consume a walloping volume of natural gas, they also consume horrendous volumes of water in order to make the slurry for the fermentation phase of the operation.

Even if processed sewer water is used, it is turned back into “sewer” water after use and the spent slurry “sewer water” must then be re-treated and disposed of in a safe manner that uses still more energy.

My friend told me the water consumption and disposal alone limits the location of ethanol plants to selected communities. And he works for a company that has interests in ethanol plants! (He also said you can make a lot of money with ethanol plants until the public catches on and the bubble bursts!)

That’s not the end of it. The fermentation of huge quantities of corn into ethanol also produces horrendous volumes of gasses, primarily carbon dioxide. (If you don’t believe it, ask anyone who has had a batch of home-brewed beer explode in the basement!)

Some may be harvested for industrial uses, but they can only sell so much. Most of it is allowed to escape into the environment, and it stinks!

Did I miss something here? Isn’t the reduction of carbon dioxide gas escaping into the environment one of the arguments the environmentalists use to lobby their “global warming” campaign?

How interesting — another case of two environmentalist movements, contradictory to one another in effect, each creating more problems than they are solving!

Now, here comes the really good part. Let’s get down to what it really costs us at the pump. A few weeks ago, a local convenience store in Marion was discounting “super unleaded” (with 10 percent ethanol) as much as 8 cents per gallon less than “regular unleaded”. To the ordinary consumer, ethanol fuels appear to be more economical than the “bad” unleaded gas obtained from pure petroleum.

Again, part of the scam! What they don’t tell us is it takes roughly six gallons of ethanol to produce the same amount of energy contained in a single gallon of unleaded gasoline. Oh, oh! Let’s do the math.

If we buy 60 gallons of “regular unleaded” at the pump (recently priced at $3.03 per gallon), it’s going to cost us $181.80. The same 60 gallons of discounted “super unleaded” with 10 percent ethanol was priced at $2.95 per gallon.

Thus, the ethanol gas will only cost us $177, for a perceived “savings” of $4.80.

But, the ethanol gas actually is costing us more than the regular unleaded. Those 60 gallons of “super unleaded” contain a full six gallons of ethanol.

But remember, six gallons of ethanol is only worth about one gallon of regular unleaded. So, in terms of the actual “energy” we are buying, 60 gallons of 10 percent ethanol gas is only equivalent to 55 gallons of regular unleaded gas.

Now, if we calculate the actual price of super unleaded based on its total energy potential, it is actually costing us a whopping $3.22 per gallon! That’s actually 19 cents a gallon more than regular unleaded gas in terms of the energy we’re putting in the tank.

In addition, that 10 percent ethanol in your fuel decreases your mileage by as much as 7 percent to 8 percent.

Kind of plays with your head, doesn’t it?

D.L. Salsbury, who is a veterinarian, resides in Hillsboro.