As Ethanol Booms, Critics Warn of Environmental Effect

Scrambling to find a silver lining to the dark cloud of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, ethanol advocacy groups are pressing for more government support for the biofuel industry, with advertising campaigns targeted at lawmakers in Washington.
One group, Growth Energy, has blanketed the Metro subway station closest to the U.S. Capitol with ads that send a pointed message: “No beaches have been closed due to ethanol spills,” they read, calling ethanol “America’s clean fuel.”

But is it?

There has been hot debate about whether carbon emissions from ethanol production and use are lower than those from oil and whether the 33 percent of the U.S. corn crop diverted to ethanol drives up the price of food. Local effects of ethanol production, however, including water pollution and consumption, have received less scrutiny.

Encouraged by legislative measures, including notably the 2007 Energy Security and Independence Act, which mandated the use of 36 billion gallons, or 136 billion liters, of biofuels annually by 2022, the U.S. ethanol industry has boomed in the last few years. There are now at least 200 ethanol plants in at least 27 states, almost all using corn as a feedstock.

Nearly all the gasoline sold in the United States today is mixed with 10 percent ethanol, known as E10.

Refineries that blend ethanol into gasoline receive a tax credit of 45 cents per gallon, making the market for ethanol more viable. The credit is set to expire at the end of 2010, but ethanol groups are advocating its extension.

Corn farming is the biggest source of pollution associated with ethanol production. Corn requires vastly more fertilizer and pesticides than soybeans or other potential biofuel feedstocks, such as perennial grasses, according to a 2007 report from the National Academy of Sciences.

Reflecting environmental concerns over the expansion of biofuel crops, the 2007 energy bill called for 20 billion gallons of biofuel to be made from “advanced” feedstocks, such as cellulosic ethanol or algae, which are believed to have a lighter environmental footprint.

But there are no commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol or algae plants operating in the United States, mainly because they are not yet competitive on costs. U.S.D.A. projections this year show corn as the primary feedstock for U.S. ethanol production through 2020.

Nevertheless, the industry views the 2007 target as a launching pad, not an end goal. “We think biofuels can contribute much larger volumes in the long term,” Mr. Cooper said. Both his organization and Growth Energy want the government to require car manufacturers to make vehicles that could run on higher ethanol blends and to help pay for filling station infrastructure. Yet even with increasing corn yields, there are doubts about whether U.S. land and water resources can support the projected production.

Courtesy of Erics Geis of the New York Times.  Please click here to read the full article.