No Corn in our Ethanol
Kate Galbraith’s recent article, “In Gas-Powered World, Ethanol Stirs Complaints,” reports on the frightening misperception about ethanol among American consumers. And frightening it is! Consider the following: Ms. Galbraith actually found gas stations seeking to attract customers with banners that read “No corn in our gas.”
While we hope it’s not working, we’re concerned that, in the current environment, it just might. If people are so passionate about the issue of food-for-fuel to chose their gas station over it, however, perhaps there’s a silver lining: once cellulosic ethanol comes online, we can start putting up banners that read “no corn in our ethanol”. Next generation ethanol will use cellulose from biomass and non-food crops as an energy source. Biomass can be processed using enzymes that efficiently break down cellulose into sugars necessary for ethanol production through fermentation.
And what about climate change? Cellulose produced for fuel production is not only renewable and non-toxic, it also takes CO2 out of the atmosphere; pumping oil from the ground only releases CO2 sequestered hundreds of millions of years ago. If you care about your carbon footprint, ethanol is the strong winner over fossil fuel.
By decreasing carbon emissions, the cost of fuel and dependence on foreign oil, ethanol could go a long way towards providing the U.S. with an alternative transportation fuel. Unfortunately, misperceptions are at work to impede this future.
