Scott Paulsen's Saturday column, " Farmers gamble with high-test moonshine " (Living, Jan. 3 and PghTrib.com), contained some misleading statements and factual errors that suggest he's a few pages behind on the ethanol issue.
He states that ethanol is "clean-burning and higher-octane, producing more horsepower per gallon."
This is false. Ethanol contains water and, by volume, provides less energy than does gasoline. Some estimates are that as much as 40 percent more ethanol must be burned to travel a distance equal to that attained from gasoline.
Another error is that Paulsen misstates the price of gasoline two years ago, which then wasn't anywhere near $4 a gallon.
I would note that investing in ethanol hasn't exactly been a "gamble" for farmers, who have been on government subsidies for a century. They are at least as familiar with Uncle Sam's economic "safety net" as the defense industries.
This brings me to where I hoped his column was going from its headline and then didn't: Would a moonshine industry be viable?
Could these ethanol distilleries be easily adapted to making liquor for human consumption⢠How large is that global market?
As Mr. Paulsen knows, corn liquor is a fine libation, and it could be highly competitive with any other liquors found on the store shelf. But I have to say that I got more out of the headline on Paulsen's column than I did out of its contents!
Mike Sanderson
Penn Hills
