The ethanol debate: Khosla vs. Rapier
Matt Marshall over at VentureBeat has this fascinating, blow-by-blow exchange between Vinod Khosla, the highly influential pro-ethanol venture capitalist, and Robert Rapier, who co-authors The Oil Drum and is down on ethanol. Rapier has accused Khosla of overhyping ethanol and in the process misleading his countrymen. Now there’s no mention of cellulose ethanol in this exchange, so I imagine this is focused on Khosla’s investment in corn-based ethanol producers, such as Cilion, as well as some of his public claims about the benefits of ethanol.
I don’t claim to be an expert on this, so I’ll let Matt’s story speak for itself. I guess the only issue I have is that the numbers cited by both Rapier and Khosla are general and don’t specifically address the benefits of innovation (enzymes, fermentation, crops, cellulosic processes, etc.) in this ongoing debate.
BTW: Consumer Reports has an insightful feature this month called “The Ethanol Myth” that is accompanied by test results comparing an SUV running on gasoline blended with 10 per cent ethanol and one running on an E85 blend of ethanol. The 10 per cent blend had better vehicle performance/fuel economy and the same reduction in hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions. But the E85 was dramatically better at reducing nitrogen oxide emissions.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
