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Ethanol: Is It Viable

Here's something in the alternative energy category. An article entitled, "Ethanol: Is It Viable", examines the pros and cons of ethanol production and the outlook for the ethanol industry. Contributed to Financialsense.com by Salman Anwar.

For more on the subjects of ethanol and sustainable energy, you may also want to take a look at Robert Rapier's R-Squared blog. There you will find some interesting discussion about the merits and demerits of grain ethanol as a renewable energy source.

Rapier recently challenged Vinod Khosla, a well known venture capitalist and ethanol backer, to support his claims that ethanol production would lead the U.S. to energy independence. In a post entitled, "Vinod Khosla Debunked", Rapier outlined his objections to many of the statements made by Khosla and his fellow ethanol supporters.

In fact, he found Khosla's claims about ethanol's potential and the lobbying efforts of "Big Oil" to be so objectionable, that he issued a challenge to Mr. Khosla for a written debate on these issues. Khosla contacted him, saying he would agree to discuss the matter by phone, and the resulting discussion is summarized in "A Conversation with Vinod Khosla".

Very interesting turn of events. Rapier's post gives us an inside look at the economics behind these energy schemes and the political side of the ethanol debate.

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