The US has subsidized the use of ethanol from corn to mix with gasoline as a fuel source, mostly for automobiles. It never seemed to be a great idea, since all of the production and transportation of this corn takes energy, but it is a locally produced product. I was wondering what the future of ethanol (and corn) would be in the US as vehicles transition to electric.

The USDA says about a third of all corn grown in the US is used for ethanol production. I was surprised by this number. There are almost 20 million acres of corn grown in the US. Roughly 6 million are for ethanol. There are 640 acres in a square mile, so this is a bit over 10,000 square miles. This is an area the size of Maryland, significantly larger than New Jersey.

Corn is America’s Largest Crop in 2019

I was wondering how much of worldwide shipping is oil. Just moving crude and products around the world. I was expecting a significant number, but was surprised to learn it is almost one third of all shipping by weight. Not only does it take energy to move all of this oil around, but this also produces pollution. I wonder how this all compounds when you consider nearly all renewable energy is locally produced and requires no transport, at least not in the traditional sense. From Statistia.

In terms of tonnage, oil tankers accounted for around 29 percent of global seaborne trade that year.

Capacity of oil tankers in seaborne trade from 1980 to 2022 (in million dwt)