Corn Ethanol

Corn ethanol has been enticing to Upstate New York, with its declining industries and abundant farms. Companies have positioned the plants as an economic life raft and thrown them to a region struggling to stay afloat: They’ll provide much-needed jobs and drum up business for corn farmers.

But they won’t last. Already, the vast amounts of corn needed to produce even a small quantity of ethanol have doubled the price of corn – pitting the desires of a few special-interest groups against the interests of those who, well, eat – without significantly offsetting demand for oil.
Current ethanol policy was shaped largely by the influence of agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland. When ADM found its corn syrup couldn’t compete, it turned to its lobbyists and procured limits on imported sugar, thereby gaining a price advantage. When it ran into similar problems with ethanol, it lobbied for subsidies and was rewarded with an astounding 51 cents per gallon – which didn’t make it any more of a realistic energy solution, but deflated the price to make it market-competitive.

Even as President Bush challenged us to reduce our dependence on oil, he slapped Brazilian ethanol – efficiently derived from, of all things, sugar – with a prohibitive 54-cent tariff. So for now, it’s profitable for companies to make ethanol from corn, but for one reason: According to the libertarian Cato Institute, every dollar of profit ADM makes on ethanol comes at a cost of $30 to taxpayers – not including the bevy of grants and tax breaks New York state has bestowed upon producers.

Because a significant amount of oil is consumed in fertilizing, harvesting, transporting and converting corn, corn ethanol doesn’t eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels or the effects they have on the environment, even though ethanol burns slightly cleaner than gasoline. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, corn ethanol has a net energy benefit of about 30 percent, meaning it isn’t a replacement for petrol, but rather – after an expensive and lengthy process – makes a gallon go a little further.

The costs of the process aren’t just monetary: Environmental groups say increased use of fertilizer to meet ethanol’s insatiable appetite for corn is causing ecological harm.

The Post-Standard