A requiem for ethanol?

The Greenwash Brigade

Representatives attending the recent American Banker’s Association’s Agricultural Bankers Conference predict over 40 ethanol companies will fail by 2009. On the heels of bankruptcy by industry giant Vera Sun and 24 of its subsidiaries, Mark Lakers of the Agribusiness and Food Association predicts industry consolidation.

The specter of consolidation sounds just like (guess who?) banking and automobile manufacturing — except ethanol producers, farmers and their corpulent intermediary Archer Daniels Midland don’t have to beg for help because they are celebrating their 30 year anniversary of government largesse.

I’m not convinced this is a requiem for ethanol, a fuel born as a commodity for drunks (it was a prohibited grain alcohol before it became a fuel) that has enjoyed a long history of tax subsidies, tariffs, loans and other love, starting with President Carter in the 1970s.

Even if we devoted our entire corn crop to ethanol, it would still only replace 15% of our annual fuel demand.

Corn-based ethanol, made from corn starch as opposed to the plant’s fiber or perennial grasses such as switch grass, carries a doozie of an environmental punch:

Pollutes surface and groundwater with pesticides and fertilizers.
Exacerbates the Gulf of Mexico Dead zone.
The most energy-intensive crop grown. Period.
Rapidly depletes topsoil and promotes topsoil erosion.

And while it’s not completely responsible, ethanol is part of the fuel vs. food quandary that’s doubled prices on wheat, soybean and corn in the last year, leading to food riots in Mexico, Pakistan, Italy, and Indonesia. In China, a marked increase in cooking oil prices led to a store riot killing three.

The ethanol industry is already drunk with excessive taxpayer-supported subsidies and bi-partisan support in Congress but now it’s facing opposition from a fascinating consortium of revolters ranging from The National Turkey Federation, National Cattleman’s Beef Association and (the very conservative) Grocery Manufacturer’s Association to the Environmental Working Group, Food for All and Earth Policy Institute.

In a mano-o-mano wrestling match, we can pair up Emeril and Rachael Ray against Dick Durbin, with an apartment sized E-85 vehicle and a Le Creuset French Oven as door prizes. For a light touch, check out the film King Corn and yet another fun You Tube explanation of the dangerous delusion called ethanol.

November 22, 2008 by Heidi Siegelbaum
3 comments

tags: ethanol

Comments (3)

Caden | Respond
November 24, 2008 4:41 PM PT

There's so much wrong in this commentary it's hard to know where to start...but this seems like a good place: "And while it's not completely responsible, ethanol is part of the fuel vs. food quandary that's doubled prices on wheat, soybean and corn in the last year, leading to food riots in Mexico, Pakistan, Italy, and Indonesia."

Really? Those grain prices are at historic lows despite increased ethanol production. You should ask the multinational food processors why they don't lower their prices instead of blaming a fuel that actually helps the environment.

Hepcat | Respond
November 25, 2008 4:37 PM PT

I have a vehicle that will run on e-85 and avoided it for awhile until I started looking into the "facts". If you have time, check out www.alcoholcanbeagas.com. There are many sources of information that completely contradict the talking points in the commentary. I got suspicious when they all said the same thing, used the same statistics and sounded like fox news. It looks to me as if the sources of the info are oil industry funded studies,labs,etc.
Corn for ethanol is feed corn and is not "used up" making ethanol. It converts the starches into ethanol and leaves the protein becoming an enhanced animal feed worth as much or more than the original form. Many Ethanol proponents recommend using waste type biomass such as kelp to make ethanol. The future of fuel isn't probably ethanol but it can be made in your back yard from waste materials, produces more energy that it takes to make it (contrary to the sources like in the commentary). Don't count it out yet.

Allen | Respond
December 21, 2008 12:42 AM PT

Hepcat, what ethanol is grown from doesn't matter. Feed corn is used to feed animals most of us eat. And while the industry likes to toot its horn over its leftovers having all sorts of protein, it's a moot point. It diminishes the amount of food grown for direct human consumption. And ethanol takes out most all the calories (aka energy). If it didn't, it wouldn't make your car go at all. And animals, like humans, can't live on vitamin pills alone; they need calories.

Don't forget that burning ethanol in cars has some tailpipe reductions in CO2 but replaces that with NO2 which, IIRC, leads to low level ground ozone. Breathing ozone is a bit like sun burn for your lungs.

But really, the main problem with ethanol is that for decades its backers have said "well, ya, it really doesn't work today but just keep giving us money. We're just a few years away from something big." Decades later ethanol proponents still claim they're on the verge of something great, complain any science not in their favor ain't right and still come around begging for handouts.

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Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

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