Research shows ethanol isn't worth the energy
Study: Production doesn't aid security, agriculture, economy, environment
By MARK JOHNSON
Associated Press
Updated: 4:20 p.m. ET July 17, 2005
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--ethanolstudy0717jul17,0,3308167.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
ALBANY, N.Y. - Farmers, businesses and state officials including many in
Nebraska are investing millions of dollars in ethanol and biofuel plants
as renewable energy sources, but a new study says the alternative fuels
burn more energy than they produce.
Supporters of ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than
fossil fuels, reduce U.S. dependence on oil and give farmers another market
to sell their produce.
But researchers at Cornell University and the University of
California-Berkeley say it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn
into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. For switch
grass, a warm weather perennial grass found in the Great Plains and eastern
North America United States, it takes 45 percent more energy and for wood,
57 percent.
It takes 27 percent more energy to turn soybeans into biodiesel fuel and
more than double the energy produced is needed to do the same to sunflower
plants, the study found.
"Ethanol production in the United States does not benefit the nation's
energy security, its agriculture, the economy, or the environment,"
according to the study by Cornell's David Pimentel and Berkeley's Tad
Patzek. They conclude the country would be better off investing in solar,
wind and hydrogen energy.
The researchers included such factors as the energy used in producing the
crop, costs that were not used in other studies that supported ethanol
production, said Pimentel.
The study also omitted $3 billion in state and federal government subsidies
that go toward ethanol production in the United States each year, payments
that mask the true costs, Pimentel said.
Ethanol is an additive blended with gasoline to reduce auto emissions and
increase gas' octane levels. Its use has grown rapidly since 2004, when the
federal government banned the use of the additive MTBE to enhance the
cleaner burning of fuel. About 3.6 billion gallons of ethanol were produced
last year in the United States, according to the Renewable Fuels
Association, an ethanol trade group.
This year, Nebraska's 11 ethanol plants are expected to produce more than
500 million gallons of ethanol.
The ethanol industry claims that using 8 billion gallons of ethanol a year
will allow refiners to use 2 billion fewer barrels of oil. The oil industry
disputes that, saying the ethanol mandate would have negligible impact on
oil imports.
Ethanol producers dispute Pimentel and Patzek's findings, saying the data
is outdated and doesn't take into account profits that offset costs.
Michael Brower, director of community and government relations at SUNY's
College of Environmental Science and Forestry, points to reports by the
Energy and Agriculture departments that have shown the ethanol produced
delivers at least 60 percent more energy the amount used in production. The
college has worked extensively on producing ethanol from hardwood trees.
Biodiesel can be used in any diesel engine with few or no modifications. It
is often blended with petroleum diesel to reduce the propensity to gel in
cold weather.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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