The myth of putting corn in your tank.

crossposted from left on 49

This past February the world community of scientists published a report on global warming under the umbrella of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That report concluded that global warming is “unequivocal” and human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.

While the rest of the world moves on and is rapidly trying to find solutions for this global environmental crisis, a few republicans pretend nothing is going on. One of them, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), even thinks global warming is caused by farting.

So with most people being worried about global warming, except for a few republicans who also still believe that Earth is flat, folks are looking for solutions to be a little more earth and climate friendly. A lot of them seem to think that one solution for environmentally friendly fuel is corn. They couldn't be more wrong.

Let's look at a few common misconceptions about corn-based ethanol:

1. There's plenty of corn around
If every vehicle in the United States were powered by ethanol, only one out of eight would be drivable. Already, 20 percent of the nation's corn goes to ethanol production. Replacing just one-eighth of U.S. gasoline consumption would require the country's entire corn crop. Even if we planted every single acre of farmland in the US full of corn for ethanol, we still wouldn't have enough to provide all the fuel we use in the USA.

2. Corn fuel reduces greenhouse emissions
Corn-based ethanol's contribution to fighting global warming is marginal at best. Corn-based Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline, but its production relies heavily on diesel tractors and fertilizers made from petroleum, to the tune of some 140 gallons of oil per acre. Once you have produced the corn it is also very energy intensive to distill the ethanol out of it. A recent survey by the University of California at Berkeley found that corn-based ethanol cuts greenhouse-gas emissions by, at best, 13 percent over gasoline.

3. Corn fuel boosts your engine's performance
Ethanol does boost octane, and thereby engine performance, but supplies less energy per gallon than gasoline. While it is somewhat less expensive than gas, its lower energy content means you get fewer miles per gallon. Until the price of E85 drops to about 72 percent of gas, consumers won't see any savings.

Ethanol fuel can be part of a solution, but not when it's corn based. Ethanol distilled out of sugarcane and switchgrass for example is preferable because it takes much less energy to distill and you don't need to use a mountain of pesticides to grow it. Ethanol distilled from switchgrass and plant waste is know as "cellulosic ethanol". Unfortunately a lot of research remains to be done before cellulosic ethanol will be ready for prime time.

If you really want to help the environment and curb global warming (and you should), it is much better to first of all try using your car less and look into buying a hybrid car or at least a car that gets high mileage. Until we have completely clean cars of course.

The local spin on this story:

On May 9th 2006, Robin Hayes held a press conference at a gas station outside of his district in Charlotte, NC and filled his SUV with E85 (= corn-based ethanol) while at the same time announcing he would introduce a bill to offer tax incentives for businesses that develop facilities to sell E85. Hayes was obviously oblivious to the fact that corn based-ethanol is not the solution to our environmental problems nor is it a sustainable solution for energy independence. As with most of the bills Robin introduces (and anything else he does) it went nowhere and the bill never became law.