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America Was Wrong About Ethanol - Study Shows

10 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this explainer2 months2022–2023 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited as an accessible summary of evidence that corn ethanol is no better than gasoline for emissions.

Engineering Explained examines new research suggesting corn ethanol in US gasoline may emit as much or more carbon than gasoline. It covers the Renewable Fuel Standard and why ethanol was assumed to be a green fuel.

“Corn-based ethanol is at best as bad a carbon emitter as gasoline, and it's most likely worse.” (HN, 2022)

3 recommendations · 1 critical · Explainers · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@dreamcompiler Apr 2022 Recommends
on HN thread The logistics behind corn farming [video]
Supports your point with numbers: [this video] tl;dr: Corn-based ethanol is at best as bad a carbon emitter as gasoline, and it's most likely worse.
Numbers showing corn ethanol is no better than gasoline
@dmbche Jun 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Net energy of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass
This paper shows how much more efficient switchgrass is at producing ethanol than corn. This video is an interesting look at this whole issue:(Engineering Explained - America Was Wrong About Ethanol) [this video] Especially his summary, where corn creates 20 percent less GHG than gasoline and ''breaks even'' after 28 years, while switchgrass creates 94% less GHG and breaks even in it's first year.
Compares corn and switchgrass ethanol GHG emissions
@dmbche Jun 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Grass Makes Better Ethanol Than Corn Does (2008)
This video is an interesting look at this whole issue:(Engineering Explained - America Was Wrong About Ethanol) [this video] Especially his summary, where corn creates 20 percent less GHG than gasoline and ''breaks even'' after 28 years, while switchgrass creates 94% less GHG and breaks even in it's first year.
Compares corn and switchgrass ethanol GHG emissions

Citations, criticism and jokes

@syshum Mar 2022 Pushes back
on HN thread UN Climate change is so severe we're running out of time to adapt
Wait, so your solution to massive economic harm caused by government regulations, and money printing is to increase government regulations and print even more money... That's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for them last time government tried to solve climate change we got 10% corn based ethanol gas which current research indicates has made things WORSE not better.[1] [1] [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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