Study: Ethanol Will Not Meet Energy Needs

A new report released Wednesday by Food & Water Watch, the Network for New Energy Choices, and the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy and the Environment says that the production of ethanol will not do much to meet the nation's energy needs and would have negative economic and environmental consequences.

There are proposed ethanol subsidy guarantees included in the 2007 Farm Bill.

A large share of the nation's annual corn crop would have to be shifted away from producing food for domestic consumption and for exports to make the alternative form of gasoline.

The Senate is considering a bill that would add more "incentives" to a law already in place which subsidizes farmers at the rate of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol produced while placing a 54 cent tariff on all imported ethanol, which we can buy substantially cheaper from such overseas producers as Brazil, where the infrastructure to refine and transport ethanol is already well-established and where the consequences for food prices and availability are not nearly as dire as they would be here.

In the short run, and in fact in the long run, ethanol cannot do much to reduce the nation's need to import vast amounts of oil, say critics outside of those who conducted the research. Corn farmers and ethanol refiners are understandably going wild over the "ethanol boom", which is being further driven by a federal government mandate that within five years at least 5% of all gasoline used in the U.S. be ethanol.

The farmers who would sell much of their corn crop to make ethanol are happy to collect their artificial windfall, as is to be expected. But, say the critics, ethanol is already turning into an expensive and dangerous experiment for everyone else.

The Bush administration, trying to meet growing demands of people who are screaming for "green" fuels and less oil dependence, has set an objective of having 15% of all American gasoline be ethanol or biodiesel (both made from corn) within 10 years. The problem is, meeting that objective, based on current technology, would require all of the U.S. corn crop.

The U.S. currently provides 40% of the entire world's corn.