Dr. Pimentel estimates the current ERoEI of corn-ethanol as 0.8. In comparison, current calculations of the ERoEI of oil reveal an impressive ratio of 3:1. Of course, this number is miniscule in comparison to the 1940’s when only 1 barrel of oil was required to extract 50 – 100 barrels of oil. The reason for the gradual decrease in oil’s ERoEI has been the increasing amount of energy needed to be used to extract an increasingly scarce natural resource. However these calculations only take into acc
Though this is controversial, today much of the US ’s foreign policy initiative is directed towards securing our oil interests in the Middle East . The government expenses on just the Iraq war have exceeded over 400 billion dollars. In addition, Linda Bilmes of Harvard University , states that if the war continues for another 5 years the total cost will amount to 1.4 trillion dollars. Though it is debatable how much of this money is directly used to secure oil interests, should we include this entire amount
Dr. Pimentel has provided us with a very in depth analysis of the energy balance associated with the production and transport of ethanol. Estimation of the true cost of oil may benefit from a similarly in depth analysis that takes into account the political and military costs of our addiction.