Ethanol's Future In Doubt

Once touted as a key solution to America’s energy problems, ethanol’s future is very much in doubt. Pending regulation could make it more difficult to profit from ethanol fuel production which already faces many other challenges. To learn more see the following article, summarized by Mark Thoma from Economist’s View.

Does corn ethanol have a future? Let’s hope not:
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Ethanol could have another environmental impact. That is, by taking corn out of the global food supply, ethanol producers are indirectly inducing people in other places, such as the Amazon rainforest, to clear forests to plant more crops to replace the lost corn. …

Now the ethanol industry is saying oil-based gasoline has its own indirect effects in places like Canada’s oil sands, where oil companies burn through massive amounts of energy to extract and refine gunky oil.

In a recent report, the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol’s main industry trade group, argues that the corn-based fuel’s environmental credentials should be measured against gasoline made with that kind of oil, not with the lighter and more easily refined crude grades, which are becoming scarcer. That comparison makes ethanol look a lot greener. …

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