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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

ETHANOL WILL NOT HELP THE ENVIRONMENT OR SOLVE THE GAS CRISIS

BY HAROLD HOUGH

Ethanol is popular with politicians. Of course, it has always been popular with Senator Ted Kennedy – but served by the ounce instead of the gallon. Unfortunately, the latest ethanol craze has blinded politicians to reality as surely as if they were drinking ethanol in gallon quantities. While they have voted to limit the mining of coal resources, they have blindly voted to mandate the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022. Unfortunately, this isn’t the solution to any environmental problem. In fact, it will actually worsen it.

While people like Al Gore warn about “carbon footprints,” they ignore the massive ecological footprint of an ethanol energy economy. Although ethanol consumes twenty percent of our corn crop and has caused corn prices to double in the past two years, it only produces 6 billion gallons of corn ethanol a year. Compare that to our petroleum appetite of 21 million barrels of oil a day. As a result, current ethanol production only accounts for 3.5% of our gasoline consumption. Except for a few stations that sell E85 Fuel (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline), most of that ethanol is limited to being a fuel additive to make engines burn cleaner.

So, what would it take to make ethanol a major portion of our energy supply? And, how would that affect our corn supply? Here’s the answer - If the entire US corn supply were used to make ethanol, it would only represent 12% of our current gasoline needs. But, it would mean no corn fed meat, no corn-on-the-cob, and no Kentucky bourbon. But, the ecological damage is far greater. The US is the world’s farmer and we export corn around the world. Consequently, the demand for corn ethanol here in the US has forced corn prices up and made it economical for South American farmers to destroy tropical rain forests to produce. That’s hardly the ecological footprint politicians want from this “clean” fuel. Corn ethanol has also impacted the world’s food supply.

There have already been riots in Mexico because the prices of the corn tortilla, a Mexican food staple, have risen over 60%. And, a corn ethanol economy will only worsen it. According to a recent article in the magazine Foreign Affairs, University of Minnesota economists pointed out that filling an SUV with a tank full of pure ethanol would require more than 450 pounds of corn – about the same number of calories to feed one person for a year. Americans are also paying the price for this misguided ethanol craze. Meat prices are creeping up and ranchers are forced to find other ways to feed their livestock economically. There have even been stories about pig farmers feeding their hogs french fries and chocolate (well, I guess the hogs don’t have to worry about heart disease shortening their lives). We also have to remember that corn ethanol isn’t the “clean” fuel source we think it is. Ethanol doesn’t burn cleaner than gasoline. And, since it doesn’t have the energy per gallon of gasoline, you have to burn about 50% more in order to get the same energy output.

Then, there is the environmental impact of growing more corn. Environmentalists currently complain about the impact of our large, industrial farms and the runoff of chemicals into our water supply. Yet, in order to reach Congressional mandates, we would have to drastically increase the industrial production of corn and cause even more runoff problems. In fact, given North American corn yields per acre and the amount of ethanol produced from corn, it would require about three acres to keep a SUV going for one year, assuming one tank of ethanol each week. And, that doesn’t include the amount of fuel needed to plant, harvest, and transport the corn. This brings up the issue of the energy cost of producing ethanol from corn. In Brazil, where they use sugar cane for ethanol, every BTU of energy that is used in production produces 8 BTUs of ethanol energy. In the United States, corn based ethanol only produces 1.3 BTUs for every 1 BTU in energy expended.

Given that gasoline has a 5 to 1 ratio; it makes more economic sense to stick with conventional petroleum. There is a solution that Congress is ignoring. We have hundreds of years in coal reserves and proven technologies to turn it into useable fuels. Synthetic coal fuel produces no more pollution than ethanol, doesn’t drive up the cost of food, and will not force us to convert forests into cornfields. While three acres of corn (130,680 sq. ft.) will keep one SUV going for one year, one square foot of the Powder River coal fields will provide 10 barrels of synthetic petroleum (assuming a seam thickness of 80 feet). That 10 barrels will provide 215 gallons of gasoline, 64 gallons of distillate fuel, and 53 gallons of jet fuel. If American politicians are truly committed to clean, domestic sources of energy, coal makes much more sense than ethanol. At least we won’t wake up with an ecological hangover ten years from now.