Ethanol is a Win-Win 4
In the last 3 days, we’ve covered a wide array of ethanol related issues with John Crockett, Senior Energy Specialist with the State of Idaho’s Office of Energy Resources. As a reminder, he points out something important: “In this state, we don’t pump one ounce of petroleum out of the ground. We are totally reliant on other states. We’re one of a handful of states that doesn’t have a refinery so we are totally dependent on everybody. I can also say we have two bio-diesel plants and although there’s probably at least 40 people out there making bio-diesel.”
Crockett says there’s some resistance to a concept he believes makes a lot of sense
(Crockett) “We haul in corn from out of state, we process it and get the ethanol out of it, get the feed and feed it to the cows wet.”
Hmmm. Cheaper feed for dairy farmers who are under heavy financial pressure.
(Conversation on the phone) “Because w can’t sell milk for the amount of money that we have in it. Why is that? Because of input costs…fuel and feed”…(Crockett) “Duhh. Kind of a no-brainer.”
That oversimplifies things a bit but we ought to be thinking outside the box a little more when it comes to…what to do with ethanol.
