It is pretty obvious that we need to reduce our dependency on petroleum.  With a single barrel going for $110 to $115 dollars, suddenly there is room to economically develop numerous substitute fuels.  In the best government tradition of ready, fire, aim…we have done exactly that.  What should we replace our gasoline with?  Why ethanol of course, and let’s make it out of corn because we know how to grow it, it burns well, and we can grow it right here in the good old US of A.

In theory corn based ethanol will decrease our need for OPEC produced petroleum.  But let’s take a moment and see what we are really accomplishing.  In the US we are really not tooled up to produce ethanol in the kinds of quantities that are required for the motor fuel business.  That means we have had to build high volume processing plants to even begin to make ethanol in the kind of volumes we will need. 

Suddenly we need to feed those processing plants.  That new demand in the market place drives up the price farmers can ask for corn.  They like that.  In fact they like it so much, that they plant corn instead of other crops like wheat and soy beans.  Just one season later, when there is less wheat and soy available, the price of these products go up as well.  Did I mention that some of that corn crop was traditionally used to feed cattle and other livestock?  In America, we are seeing and will see increased prices on virtually all farm and ranch products as a result of the use of corn based ethanol as a motor fuel.

I do not like increased fuel prices, but I suppose I could live with them to help cut our dependency on OPEC.  But there are other more disturbing ramifications.  While I can pay a bit more for corn, people in other parts of the world, like Mexico where corn is a real staple in their diet do not have this luxury.  When farmers sell their corn for higher prices to people who are going to make ethanol instead of to the local markets, people will starve.  Starving people to feed cars I find morally unacceptable.

The problem does not end in Mexico either.  In the Amazon basin, rain forest is being destroyed every single day.  The increase of the price of corn means more land will be cleared faster so that farms can expand to produce more ethanol.  We may end up reducing our dependence on OPEC and accelerating the decline of the rain forest at the same time.

Another thing: Ethanol has only about 80% of the energy density of gasoline.  You have to burn more of it, and it is also a very energy intensive process to plant, raise, and harvest corn.  Then it needs to be transported to a processing plant where it is converted by an energy intensive process into ethanol.  At the end of the day, it takes nearly as much energy (typically provided by either petroleum or coal) to produce corn based ethanol as it ultimately returns to the system!

 

Ethanol is not a bad fuel…the problem is that we should not be using corn as a fuel stock.  Ultimately, ethanol produce from the inedible, cellulose parts of plants will make better economic and moral sense, but we cannot do it today.  We should keep working on developing this capability.  Ethanol will have a place in the fuel mix of the future.  But it is not the solution. 

Our challenge is to develop a much broader and more integrated strategy incorporating alternative energy sources, distribution and alternative fuel vehicles before we go too far.

-Bob Austin