Midwest politicians and farmers have been saying for a long time we should use more ethanol as motor fuel because it is cheaper. That has always bothered me because one of the reasons it is cheaper is that farmers and agriculture are much more tax-advantaged than petroleum companies.

My concern has always been does producing ethanol have a net increase in the amount of energy available to use as a motor fuel. Stated another way, does it take more tractor diesel, fertilizer chemicals, etc. than we get back in usable ethanol?

I did a little research today and the answer is that it used to take more energy to make ethanol than we got back, but today we get between 25% and 35% more net energy back than it takes to produce it.

So feel free to root for any ethanol initiatives that you may hear being considered by the politicians.