Essay:The Ethics of Ethanol

This essay is an original work by CogitoErgoSum. Please comment only on the talk page.

A few years ago, ethanol was lauded as a wonderful new fuel for the future. Having now been experimented with all over the nation, it seems that (pardon my grammar) it "juss ain't so".

Ethanol uses corn to produce fuel, in lieu of using fossil fuel. The stated advantage is that it does not introduce new CO2 into the air, and does not create refinery wastes, and can be produced right here in North America rather than being imported from some radical "raghead republic" (as Mrs. Coulter would say).

However, there were several disadvantages apparent from the beginning. First of all, vehicles cannot run on pure ethanol. A great deal of petrol fuel (gasoline) must be mixed in, in order for the engine to work properly. Most cars require 90% petro-gasoline and 10% ethanol fuel. Therefore, ethanol can never provide energy sustainability and self-sufficiency in transportation, no matter how much is produced. Even if we made a billion barrels of ethanol, we would need nine billion barrels of unleaded regular to make it useful. Thus ethanol cannot reduce petroleum dependency by any more than 10%, unless every engine was replaced with a flex-fuel engine.

Furthermore, ethanol fuel requires corn to manufacture. This has caused an artificial corn shortage and has led to the increased planting of corn. If this were to continue, it would not only limit the food supply, but cause the clearing of wild areas as space demands increase. Many CRP lands would be plowed under for corn as soon as the term is up, rather than being renewed in the conservation programs. Thus, the ethanol economy would actually cause more harm to the environment than benefit. It would also create a need for food crop imports from other nations, thus negating any possible benefits to national economic self-sufficiency, or chu-che as the Koreans call it.

Fortunately, however, ethanol is not the only bio-fuel available. Biodiesel holds great promise, and especially the kind which can be produced by growing algae in lakes, canals, and shallow ponds. It produces more energy than corn, ten to twenty times over, and at least five times more than biodiesel derived from waste vegetable oil (soybean-derived) or sunseed oil.

So it appears, after looking at petroleum, corn, sunflowers, and soy as fuel sources, it may well turn out to be pond scum that saves the day.

Oh, for Heaven's sakes, whodathunkit?