Hows my little Gas Problem?

Americans rely on foreign fuel too much. Yes
Americans can fix this by adding ethanol to gas. No!

When I heard about ethanol getting mixed into gas at first I said HURRAY! But over time I heard little mutterings of how ethanol getting mixed into our gas is not the enviromental savior our government is investing in.

I read once that bush went to Brazil to meet about how they could produce more sugar and corn for us Americans to pour into our cars. Of course this was met with protests from the general Brazillian public, because they actually like their rain forests and don't want to lose more in order to make some gas (for someone else). That is one great reason to not support ethanol.

I like the nitty gritty facts myself though. So here goes:

Using ethanol instead of gas can reduce greenhouse gases by 35-46%, according to Argonne National Laboratory. But it's not as efficient a fuel as gasoline. In fact, it takes a gallon and a half of ethanol to give you the same energy as a gallon of gas.
--That is kind of a give/take fact, yes its good, but what we have currently is better (kind of).

To get a gallon of ethanol, you need a little more than 26 pounds of corn, and an acre of land can yield about 9,400 pounds per year. In other words, one acre of land can generate about 362 gallons of ethanol per year.
--Assuming the farmer has a good year (lets ignore global warming on this one for the sake of the farmers)

People in the U.S. use about 174 million gallons of gasoline per day. Convert that to 100% ethanol and you have 261 million gallons per day.
--Imagine seeing a 50% larger fuel truck driving next to you on the road. Think it would need more (ethanol) gas to move it?

To produce that much corn Farmers would need 260 million acres.
--Farmers harvest from about 73 million annually.

So going along with that, to get a good yield you can bet they aren't farming organic corn. You can expect increased insecticide usage, more fertilizer (takes 137 pounds an acre) and a little weed killer.
--Don't forget we need to water that corn. Fresh water, Water people can drink.

These are just some simple facts about ethanol, yes it burns cleaner, yes it can "help" the atmosphere. But in the long run it CAN NOT help the environment or the human race.
Since it takes more to drive, we would need a bigger gas tank or a smaller car, and we know smaller cars won't happen soon.
It also raises the average American's grocery ticket. Remember when you look at all ingredients in the food you eat. You are guaranteed to find Modified Corn Starch, and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup, both found in corn, surprisingly. Thats because Sugar can't naturally grow in America, so we use this product. Lets not forget about livestock, remember what they eat? Ethanol takes farmers crops devoted to our diet into our gas tank. I would rather eat personally.

Really if you drive less, use more public transportation, and vote, you can make a bigger difference than ethanol will ever make.