Ethanol Bad 4 the Climate

Nice OP-Ed in the Buffalo News today. Ethanol is worse for climate change than gasoline.

Thanks for the update.

After all, first it requires farmers to grow the corn and they usually do that with chemical pesticides and fertilizers that contaminate the water supply. And these wonderful modern marvels are sprayed on the ground with farm tractors that spew large amounts of exhaust. (Read pollution.)

And let's remember – the gasoline, oil, and chemical pesticides all come from oil wells and gas wells that also contaminate the atmosphere (and surrounding land and water).

Add to that the very fuel inefficient combines that harvest the corn and then the diesel trucks that transport the corn to market. I still don't buy the “clean diesel” argument. Low sulfur is one thing. There's still that exhaust problem.

And then the processing of the ethanol. Look for a smokestack or two.

Finally we have the ethanol made up and mixed up. The only way to get the ethanol to market is by … wait for it … tractor trailer. It can't be sent by pipeline. Not that we need any of those hazards in our backyards. Look at what happened in Michigan, Arkansas, and the ever infamous Alaska pipeline. My brother worked on the pipeline. We ask if he ever saw any spills. Because of his employer, he can't say. But he chuckles about it. Read what you want into that.

We were sold a bill of goods with ethanol. President (sick) GW Bush was looking for the mid west farm vote and ethanol was an easy sell. It raised the price of corn and helped them make ends meet for a short bit. Then the corn glut hit and they lost money. Add to that the mid west drought and you have a ton of people in a pickle.

To top it off, environmental groups jumped in on the charade thinking that this would help with climate change. It did help. It sped it up. All those extra carbon emissions sure helped the cause and caused them to look like fools.

One more thing – all that corn is subsidized by our taxes. So there is a hidden cost that I am still looking to see how much it raises the price of ethanol by. After all, this was sold to us as a way to reduce the price of fuel and here we have this hidden cost. How much does the subsidy raise the cost compared to straight up gasoline?

To boot: Most of the cars on the road at the time were not made to run on ethanol. So we had crappier gas mileage. That made us fill up more.

Add to this all the damage caused to engines that were running on ethanol. Yes, I have heard countless mechanics talking about all the engine problems that are caused by cars running on ethanol when they were made to run on gas. As a “for instance” I have had to clean the carburetor on my lawn mower every year because of the “crappy gas.” There are now gas stations selling real gas and it runs so much better. And my snow thrower runs better on real gas too.

We have all these costs associated with ethanol – the climate damage as well as the damage to our wallets. 

And we are still using this product because … ?

An answer please. 

Inquiring minds want to know.