Nope, still not working...

Ethanol proponents can't wrap themselves in the flag tightly enough these days while trumpeting energy security (and less frequently now "energy independence").

Well, mandates are making corn farmers like me richer, helping food prices inflate (not the only cause, I know), and giving the livestock industry headaches. For all these side-effects what are the numbers on our "energy security"?

Not promising.

[Note: I have not mastered how to insert tables - bear with me. The BGO total is from the red countries. I wasn't sure about Algeria, but what the hey.]

Crude Oil Imports (Top 15 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day)

Country Jan - Oct 2007 Jan - Oct 2006

CANADA 1,867 19.9% 1,771 18.6%
SAUDI A 1,422 15.2% 1,414 14.9%
MEXICO 1,420 15.1% 1,622 17.1%
VENEZU1,133 12.1% 1,158 12.2%
NIGERIA 1,053 11.2% 1,052 11.1%
IRAQ 494 5.3% 565 5.9%
ANGOLA 511 5.4% 504 5.3%
ECUADO 202 2.2% 278 2.9%
ALGERIA 478 5.1% 368 3.9%
BRAZIL 175 1.9% 131 1.4%
COLOMB 134 1.4% 158 1.7%
U KINGD 108 1.2% 134 1.4%
KUWAIT 180 1.9% 173 1.8%
RUSSIA 124 1.3% 113 1.2%
LIBYA 83 0.9% 66 0.7%
BGO 3,790 40.4% 3,744 39.4% (BAD GUY OIL)
TOTAL IMPORTS 9,384 9,507
Annual Ethanol Bgal 6207 (e) 4855

If there is any trend in "dependence on evil furrin orl" is the the wrong way. Seems like I mentioned this possibility a few times before.

Ethanol mandates are the political will of the people, so it doesn't really matter what any stoopid facts prove. But they are clearly not helping our alleged "energy dependence".

In fact, using this data, a little crude calculation would suggest getting to 15 Bgal of ethanol would increase our dependence on BGO by about 2-3% of total use.

Hmmm - obviously we need a bigger mandate.