Making the Right Ethanol Decision

Awareness: Good news today on the alternative fuel front. It seems that people are taking notice that cellulosic ethanol is different (and better) than corn-based ethanol. An article today on CNN.com discussed some of the latest news:

• Greenspan said cellulosic ethanol is the only alternative energy source that could be produced in enough volume to make a dent in gas usage.
• Last month Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest investment bank, poured $30 million into Iogen, a Canadian-based biotech specializing in ethanol made from cellulose.

I’ve written about this in previous posts but there are so many reasons corn isn’t a good crop to use for ethanol. Some of the highlights from the article referenced about include:

• Corn-based ethanol takes a lot of energy to make. Some studies have put the ratio as low as 1:1.5 – meaning that for every one unit of energy spent, only 1.5 units of ethanol energy are created.
• There’s not that much corn available. John Ashworth, a biomass expert at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said corn could only supply about 12 to 18 billion gallons of ethanol a year, or about 10 percent of the nation’s 140 billion gallon-a-year gasoline habit.

The information above is just a couple of points in the growing argument against corn-based ethanol. It should be noted that there a couple of negative aspects of converting to ethanol-based fuels.

• The first problem is that “an expensive infrastructure would need to be built if people started using mostly ethanol in their vehicles, since ethanol is water soluble and the existing pipelines and filling station equipment for gasoline are not completely water tight”. I would think a tax credit program or bonding could be used to pay for the infrastructure investment. The long-term payback would more than make up for the initial capital requirements.
• Corn-based ethanol would start to run up the price of corn, raising the cost of everything from eggs to Coca Cola. Of course the same problem would emerge with ethanol made with sugarcane or soy or any other food crop. But, if a variety of organic waste (anything that contains carbon) like sewage sludge, switch grass, plant stalks, trees, or even coal were to be used the demand would be spread over a variety of industries and therefore keep costs down.

Action: Educate yourself on alternative fuels and no matter your political alliance, support candidates who support smart energy policy. Maybe you or a loved one works in the corn-based ethanol industry . . . unless you actually grow corn there’ll be ample opportunity to take advantage of this burgeoning industry. Moving entirely to corn-based ethanol is driven by political will, not science or common sense.