Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The worst offender being a $17.5 billion dollar request for “energy efficient industrial zones” in a small Puerto Rican town.

From Bnet.com: “Energy, of course, is a major part of the package. Since I’ve already taken a look at how money will be split among different sectors of the energy industry, for this round I went to Stimulus Watch to get an idea of some specific project that might get money. To be up-front about this list, Stimulus Watch is not a perfect source. For starters, it only shows projects suggested by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Most of the proposals have very little detail. The majority are focused on city projects, and many look overpriced — the worst offender being a $17.5 billion dollar request for “energy efficient industrial zones” in a small Puerto Rican town.”

From the Oil Drum: “Any alternative technology with a reasonably high EROI is usually profitable. On the other hand, lets look at alternative energy technologies with very low EROI’s. Corn-based ethanol is argued to have an EROI between 1.2 and 1.6 to 1. These low EROI values mean that the corn-ethanol industry is operating at the margin of positive energy returns, and because of that fact, the industry as a whole is vulnerable to shocks…negative disruptions in financial markets or in the price of oil will have magnified impacts in this industry due to the fact that the energy surplus contained within the ethanol product is marginal at best.

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