US ethanol policy must be based on science, not lobbying
The NY Times editorial board warns that, with respect to ethanol policy, “the issue here is the fate of the planet, not the fate of a particular industry.” This is a question that has come to the forefront in the past year due to concerns that ethanol may be causing more harm to the world than good.
The 2007 federal energy bill mandates that ethanol production should increase from around 7 billion gallons today to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Congress also directed that the ethanol must be cleaner than gasoline, and gave the job of making that calculation to the EPA.
Unfortunately, recent studies have indicated that ethanol derived from foodstuffs, like corn, may actually result in a net release of more CO2 than petroleum. This is substantially due to the fact that any acre of cropland taken out of the food supply chain to produce fuel, must be replaced by another acre of land added to the chain somewhere else. And this “somewhere else” often turns out to be former rainforest land in other countries.
If the ethanol lobby is not successful at influencing the federal government to continue with its misguided policies, the future of the industry may lay with cellulosic ethanol. This biofuel is derived from wood, grasses, or the non-edible parts of plants, and therefore has a much smaller effect on the global food supply chain and greenhouse gas emissions, than ethanol derived from the vegetable itself. Many scientists believe that this process may still be part of the solution.
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