On Ethanol, Castro Is Right, Says The Economist
The Economist -- April 6, 2007 -- As a green fuel, ethanol is a good idea, but the sort that America produces is bad.PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Ethanol is not much used in Europe, but it is a fuel additive in America, and a growing number of cars can use either gasoline or ethanol. It accounted for only around 3.5% of American fuel consumption last year, but production is growing by 25% a year. That's because the government both subsidises domestic production and penalises imports. As a result, refineries are popping up like mushrooms all over the midwest, which now sees itself as the Texas of green fuel.
Why is the government so generous? Because ethanol is just about the only alternative-energy initiative that has broad political support. Farmers love it because it provides a new source of subsidy. Hawks love it because it offers the possibility that America may wean itself off Middle Eastern oil. The automotive industry loves it, because it reckons that switching to a green fuel will take the global-warming heat off cars. The oil industry loves it because the use of ethanol as a fuel additive means it is business as usual, at least for the time being. Politicians love it because by subsidising it they can please all those constituencies. Taxpayers seem not to have noticed that they are footing the bill.
Bad, good and best
But corn-based ethanol, the sort produced in America, is neither cheap nor green. It requires almost as much energy to produce (more, say some studies) as it releases when it is burned. And the subsidies on it cost taxpayers, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, somewhere between $5.5 billion and $7.3 billion a year.
Ethanol made from sugar cane, by contrast, is good. It produces far more energy than is needed to grow it, and Brazil--the main producer of sugar ethanol--has plenty of land available on which to grow sugar without necessarily reducing food production or encroaching on rainforests. Other developing countries with tropical climates, such as India, the Philippines and even Cuba, could prosper by producing sugar ethanol and selling it to rich Americans to fuel their cars.
There is a brighter prospect still out there: cellulosic ethanol. It is made from feedstocks rich in cellulose, such as wood, various grasses and shrubs, and agricultural wastes. Turning it into ethanol requires expensive enzymes, but much research is under way to make the process cheaper. Cellulosic ethanol would be even more energy-efficient to produce than sugar ethanol and would not impinge at all upon food production. Eventually, it might even allow countries with lots of trees and relatively few people, such as Sweden and New Zealand, to grow their own fuel rather than import oil.
That is still some way off. In the meantime, America should bin its silly policy. If it stopped taxing good ethanol and subsidising bad ethanol, the former would flourish, the latter would wither, the world would be greener and the American taxpayer would be richer.
Ethanol is not going to solve the world's energy problems on its own. But its proponents do not claim that it will. Ethanol is just one of a portfolio of new energy technologies that will be needed over the coming years. Good ethanol, that is--not the bad stuff America is so keen on.
Copyright © 2007 Economist Newspaper
Copyright notice
This is a news service of NewsEdge Corporation ©2007. This content is for your personal use only, subject to Terms and Conditions. No redistribution allowed
Editor's Picks from Recent eNews
Leading Food Industry Economist Jean Kinsey to Address Soyfoods2010
Genome Sequencing Shows Soybeans to Be Rich in Versatile Gene Families
Commodity Production, Trade and GM/Non-GMO Issues Top eNews Headlines of 2009
March 10-11. 2010
Anaheim, California
Copyright © 2000-2010 Soyatech, LLC. • P.O. Box 1307 • Southwest Harbor, ME 04679 • USA