To Governor Crist: I Have a Better Plan to Purchase 300 Square Miles of US Sugar… for No Money Down! Ethanol Production Needed Now

You and the  State of Florida has decided to buy 192,000 acres ( 300 square miles) from US Sugar and will place a burden of more than 3.5 billion dollars to the taxpayers at a time where property taxes are at an all time high, fuel cost skyrocketing and no relief in sight from government spending.   The land is being purchased to turn back into wetlands to help with the recovery of the everglades to satisfy environmental concerns.

What if both the taxpayers and the environmentalists can be satisfied  if the deal could be done at no cost? Not one cent!   I have a plan that will allow the purchase of the land,  bring revenue to the State of Florida,  lower the cost of gasoline and satisfy the environmental requirements, all at the same time.   I will pay the state of Florida $120,000,000 per year rent for the land, provided the State of Florida allowed me to harvest the sugar crop and produce ethanol from the cane sugar crops on the land, for the next 30 years.   After 30 years, the land will be able to be used for  the restoration of the everglades there will be no need to continue refinement, since no doubt that our country will find alternate forms of energy.  This would not only be a great deal for the state of Florida, for the taxpayers , since the rent on the land would pay for the mortgage , but a great deal for me. That is because I can produce 120,000,000 gallons of Ethanol from the sugar cane harvested there.  At current prices, that would give me more than 480,000,000 dollars of sales, at a cost of 350,000,000 to produce.

How do I know that I can make money at this?  I read the USDA report (http://www.usda.gov/oce/EthanolSugarFeasibilityReport3.pdf )  concerning the feasibility of  turning crops into ethanol.   Not only does this report give me the ammunition needed for my business plan, but it can in fact save the entire country billions since we can use the money we pay farmers not to grow crops  to grow them.  Corn can be used as well to make Ethanol.  We have a lot of corn in this country.   I figure that with all of the corn that we normally would sell to the middle east, we can turn it into liquid gold,  Ethanol!

According to the conservative estimate of the USDA,  the production of sugar on 192,000 acres can product 120,000,000 gallons of ethanol each year, that’s where I got the conservative figure from.   This replaces the same amount of  gasoline in something called E10 gasohol.  That is a mixture of 10% ethanol to 90 percent gasoline, and is perfectly safe for any and all of the automobile made today.  There is a current bill in front of our Governor that requires signing that would in effect put into production the need to replace gasoline with gasohol, or E10. This is timely considering the need to reduce our dependence on oil, and to make this country energy independent.

With the passing of the new Energy bill requiring 10% of the gasoline used in our cars to become Ethanol,  why not kill two birds with one stone ( please environmentalists…this is only an expression 🙂 ) and turn the Sugar Cane of the US Sugar into ethanol.

The USDA  states that  Florida accounted for 44% of the production of sugar in the United States.  In 2006,  there was a total of 376,000 acres harvested of which ¼ is US Sugar’s  and the land that is going to become yours and mine.  At least if you believe that we have a government for the people and by the people.  It is the people that are now the proud owners, and the people that should decide what to do with it.  Shall we turn it into the everglades, or shall we instead stall these efforts for 30 years, and turn this into a renewable resource by which Florida can reduce its Carbon Foot Print so to speak, and get into the energy business in a big way.

The USDA claims that each acre of sugar cane can produce  965 gallons of ethanol.   Based on these figures, and not taking into account any  harvesting of seed,  we end up with 120,000,000 gallons of ethanol a year from the 192,000 acres of US Sugar land.   This  makes up only 10% of what we really need in the state of Florida from ethanol production to reduce our dependency on the oil industry but is a great start.  We can make up 40% of what is required if the sugar mills are able to turn the rest of the sugar cane crops into the new energy cash.   It is not hard to figure out that we can in fact find the other 60% from land that we are paying farmers not to grow stuff.

This is but a start in what I would call our needed drive to become the ethanol capital of the world.  With our ability for farming, and our ability to take some of that corn we are selling to the middle east and other oil producing nations and turn it into fuel that will replace their oil, our country can soon become the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world.  Our farmers will start to see the day, where crops are more valuable than oil, and where growing agricultural products which do nothing but provide us with both oxygen and energy, will once again rule the world.  Stick that in you pipe and smoke it.   Expand this to every state in this country that produces corn, yes corn can be used to make Ethanol as well,  and soon our country will be self sufficient reducing our carbon footprint, lessening the dependence on fossil fuels and lower the effect of global warming. Al gore would be proud of me. Since the burning of alcohol has less of a flash pint or temperature than the burning of gasoline! Global warming. Bah!  Then again the byproducts of Alcohol are simple.  Water and Oxygen.  Not bad.  But the growing of any crop,  cane sugar, corn or any crop  produces oxygen!   In less than 5 years we can become the energy giants in the world  pushing aside the middle east oil as Brazil has done and forging ahead with a renewable resource, non polluting that can replace oil and nuclear power and …whatever we want.  Farmers are to become Sheiks.  And guess what.  We will become energy independent really quickly.

Thirty years from now, the land can revert back to the environmentalist  which they can do what they want with it.    What will happen to the wheat, corn and sugar we send to the middle east and other oil producing nations that will now be turned into energy in our country needed to  replace their  fossil fuels that they are now price gouging us with? Well,  we have enough to feed our country and most of the third world. The oil producing nations can eat their own oil.   It won’t taste as good as our wheat, corn and other essentials.  But after all, we all have to make choices in this world don’t we?   And best of all.  I will make a lot of money, help save the everglades, reduce our carbon footprint,  lower the effects of global warming.  Maybe I can even win the  Nobel Peace Prize just like Al Gore.