To hear all the hype, you’d think ethanol is the miracle drug of this or any other century, able to cure everything from America’s addiction to foreign oil to global warming to hemorrhoids.
Ethanol is alcohol distilled from organic matter. You can drink it or you can burn it. As a fuel, it has quite a few things going for it. It burns clean – much cleaner than gasoline. In the United States the great bulk of ethanol is made from corn, but it can be made from virtually anything that can be fermented – potatoes, sugar cane, sawgrass, even wood pulp.
That means ethanol, unlike petroleum, is a renewable resource. It also means we can produce it here instead of buying it from those nasty countries in the Middle East.
All this has prompted people from all points on the political spectrum and at all levels of government to get on board the ethanol bandwagon. (George W. Bush is an enthusiastic ethanol fan, which in itself should make any reasonable human being skeptical.) Last year the Oregon Legislature jumped aboard the bandwagon too, passing a law requiring all gasoline sold in the state to contain at least 10% ethanol.
No doubt the legislature had the best of intentions, but it failed to look at all the facts before it leaped. This “miracle fuel” is not going to solve all our energy problems. And there are some problems it probably will make worse.
First, there’s fuel economy. A gallon of ethanol contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline, which means it won’t propel your car as far. Ethanol users report a reduction in mileage of nearly 40% or more – no small matter with the price of gas pushing $4 a gallon.
Another negative economic impact is rising food costs. As croplands are converted to growing corn and other stuff to make ethanol, the price of everything from beef to beer is being pushed upward.
There’s a long-running dispute about whether ethanol even is worth making, in terms of net energy gain. Supporters say a gallon of ethanol yields as much as 35% more energy than it takes to produce it. But more skeptical scientists have calculated that when you factor in all the energy needed to produce the crop, distill the fuel and transport it (ethanol can’t travel in pipelines and has to be shipped by truck, train or barge) there’s a net energy loss of nearly 30%.
Finally, even if ethanol production was pushed to the utmost, it wouldn’t amount to much more than a drop in the American gas tank. A 2006 analysis by University of Minnesota researchers concluded that even if every acre of corn was turned into ethanol, it wouldn’t supply more than 12% of the nation’s motor fuel needs.
Considering all the known disadvantages of ethanol and all the unanswered questions, the Oregon ethanol mandate was a bad idea and should be scrapped ASAP. To help the process along, we’re giving it THE BOOT.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2008.
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Great article. Don’t lose hope on ethanol just yet, though. It was certainly too early in the game to create a mandate, but further studies on how to refine ethanol, as well as finding more effective and efficient ways to do so could lead to promising uses for the product down the road. Everyone’s just too excited about the promise of a renewable combustable fuel we can grow here in the good ole’ USA.
The ethanol mandate (HB-2210) also poses safety and availability problems for aircraft that use auto fuel.
See for example:
http://www.eaa.org/news/2008/2008-01-04_oregon.asp
Well done Source, this analysis is spot on. Boot well placed.
Good Lord, Jon Jegglie and I agree on something! The end times truly must be at hand.
I have a selfish motive for disliking the use of ethanol. It has driven the price of hay for my horses up 200% in 2 years. My only hope is that once all folks like me have sold their horses, and once a better fuel is discoved, the growers of today’s hay will feel the pinch.
Just want to let you folks know here in Wisconsin E10 has caused over a million dollars damage to cars in the Milwaukee area, as reported in the Milwaukee Journal. Food prices here have skyrocketed hurting the poor and causing places like the Salvation Army to cut back on supplying meat to the poor. the local Ethanol plant has been sited for polution. Boat gas tanks in Minnesota are disolving! This stuff is WWII technology, and is embarrasing. Ethanol has got to go!
smart fuel? ,I lost about 9 gal’ per mile in my 30 mile per gallon car,and 15 MPG on my normally 50 MPG motorcycle !,wheres the “green” in THAT?
PS,read SB2210,Oregon isn’t required to blend our “pump” fule until the OREGON’S production of ethanol reaches 40 million barrels a year!,YET oregonians have had no other choice than “E-10” year-round for over 1-1/2 years now.
Ethanol. Allows Oregonias to drive SUVS while starving the rest of the world. Gas for graves.
Idaho is doing it too now, it gets voted down and yet the fuel companies mandate it anyhow. They are the driving force behind this fleecing. Not too disimilar to when the tobacco companies benifitted from creating “quitting smoking” and anti-tobacco agencies. It’s the new scam.