Is Ethanol Worse Than Gasoline?
Posted March 12th, 2008 by George Zens
Dear Reader,
I'm beginning to think it is. As regular readers of this column will recall, I have never been particularly enthusiastic about ethanol.
But even I underestimated the enormous negative repercussions the ethanol frenzy is having around the world, fed, I might add, by us, the United States.
Many people like ethanol.
First of course the corn growers who suddenly have a huge new market for a crop that is way too important in our agricultural system and our food chain.
The businesses behind the ethanol boom like it, too, understandably so.
Our politicians like it because it seems to be a silver bullet that allows them to be seen as if they were serious about climate change and our dependence on foreign oil.
I should mention at this point that I do know that corn is not the only plant material from which ethanol can be produced, but in this country it is the most important.
So, what's wrong with ethanol (corn-based and other wise)?
For one thing, it lulls us into a false sense of security. Our government, industrial corn lobby and car manufacturers would have us believe that we can keep up our free-driving ways if we only put ethanol in those huge trucks and SUVs.
But even if all the available agricultrural land in the United States was used for growing crops for ethanol, it would at most be able to replace less than twenty percent of our present gasoline (this estimate is the highest I have come across - most are even lower).
Which brings me to a crucial point: We are taking millions of acres of farm land out of food production and are instead growing corn on them for ethanol.
Let's think about that for a moment: We are abandoning food production, so that we can use the land instead to grow fuel!
It's absolutely absurd.
Because, no matter what the ethanol-lobbyists say: That is exactly what is happening.
If you have noticed rising food prices, then you can blame the ethanol-craze for a good chunk of that. And not only in the United States, but worldwide.
Meanwhile, international food conglomerates are trying to make up for the disappearing farmland in the United States, by encouraging farmers in South America to cut down the rainforest to make room for agricultural land.
We, as consumers and taxpayers, pay for this nonsense several times over.
First through higher food prices. Second through the billions of dollars in subsidies that farmers receive for growing corn and ethanol producers to convert it to fuel.
So, besides the devastating economic effects and the destruction of the rainforests - what else can be said about ethanol?
Well, according to recent studies, ethanol's effect on the environment is worse than oil's.
It produces more greenhouse gases than it replaces, not only through the whole production process (which uses a lot of fossil fuels), but also because the vegetation that is destroyed as a consequence of ethanol (like the rainforests) is replaced by inferior species.
The only 'green' aspect of ethanol is the amount of dollars it costs us.
