Is ethanol better for the environment than gasoline? By C.FordRunge Ethanol is worse for climate change than gasoline, new report says - Axios Cellulosic ethanol -- considered by many to be the ultimate biofuel is fuel generated from a plant's non-edible parts. Corn Ethanol: Bad for Farmers, Consumers and the Environment, Major USDA conservation program must change to prioritize climate stewardship, How to make climate change a priority in the next farm bill, Dogs still not safe from toxic algae blooms in 2022, How the White House can make digital assets more energy efficient. Most biofuel supporters admit the corn ethanol solution is far from ideal. Biofuels and the environment - Energy Information Administration By encouraging farmers to plow up wetlands and grasslands, the mandate is causing more carbon to be released into the atmosphere, consuming more water to irrigate crops, causing more fertilizer to wash off farm fields and destroying more habitat that supports wildlife and millions of jobs. These forever chemicals pollute water, dont break down, and remain in the environment and people for decades. Over the past two decades, the demand for renewable fuels including corn-based ethanol has helped drive a strong domestic market for corn, and supported rural America by generating jobs (PDF, 1.5 MB). How corn is produced on farms and how refineries operate can also have a large impact on greenhouse gases, from the changes in soil carbon and the emissions associated with growing crops, to the GHG emissions from producing the fuel. The Environmental Working Groups Emily Cassidy has written that moving from E10 to E30 would mean more carbon emissions, more toxic pollutants into drinking water, more toxic algae blooms, and higher water bills for Midwestern residents. A preview of the role of ethanol in the climate debate occurred during the California Air Resources Boards 2009 assessment of the full climate impact of ethanol, one of the first assessments to consider the indirect land-use effects of expanded crops and deforestation to meet biofuel demand. With it affecting land use, food production, and the environment, production of ethanol fuel leaves a larger footprint as compared to production of other fossil-fuel sources of energy. The biomass in the ethanol adds fermentation, a system that breaks down any chemicals or other substance in any liquid. Can be used by all vehicles that use gasoline in the United States at concentrations of up to 10% ethanol. Thank you from the home state of the Paxton Syphon. The Distillation Process is Not Good For the Environment. Economically, cellulosic ethanol is not yet ready for prime time its too expensive but industry is pushing ahead and in many cases with government support. Shrouded in the political fumes and corrosive influence of special interests, the economic fundamentals of ethanol are clear in the light of day. Carbon that is released to the atmosphere from combusting biofuels is carbon that was photosynthetically produced in the first place. While any amount of ethanol blended below the 15-billion-gallon intention of the RFS is detrimental to American corn farmers, as well as the environment, there were a few bright spots coming from Washington today. Corn fields in the United States heartland. 1250 I Street NW But this alcohol-based fuel struggled to find a toehold in Americas fossil-fuel dominated energy budget. Without question, hydrocarbon fuels have negative health impacts. It is a completely renewable resource. Ethanol Made From Corn Could Be Worse For The Environment Than Petrol, Study Claims. That led to widespread changes in land use, including the tilling of cropland that would otherwise have been retired or enrolled in conservation programs and the planting of existing cropland with more corn, the study found. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. These results, the study noted, reinforce recent evidence that increased demand for corn in biofuel production has intensified threats to natural habitats in corn-growing regions.. Not until 1978, in the wake of the 1970s energy crisis, did Congress provide a tax exemption for ethanol-blended gasoline. Assuming engine designs can be innovated and E30 can be made widely available, it may be possible to overcome the concentrated resistance to ethanol among consumer groups and the auto industry in the words of a Mercedes-Benz engineer, to make the dog like the dog food. To date, however, the dogs appetite for ethanol has been weak. Ethanol is better for the environment, helps keep fuel dollars here at home and it supports rural communities because that's where most ethanol Skip to content info@wicorn.org 262-372-3289 N77W24707 Century Court Growers Join | Member Benefits It's Final -- Corn Ethanol Is Of No Use - Forbes America and Corn Cob Ethanol: The Beginning of a New Love Affair? Yet even though a portion of the corn product distilled into ethanol can be recovered for animal feed, this does not mean that corn directly available for feed has not been reduced by allocating close to 30 to 40 percent to ethanol. EWG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, EIN 52-2148600. Ethanol proponents underscore emissions savings, cost stability (ethanol is distilled from domestically grown corn) and reduced reliance on (foreign) oil as benefits of more drivers filling up their tanks with E85 instead of gas. COUNTERPOINT The Case for More Ethanol:Why Green Critics Are Wrong. 11 Important Ethanol Pros and Cons You Need to Know - Green Coast Cellulosic ethanol could be produced from any potential living plant organism, including algae or grass . EPA plans to propose 2023 requirements in May. Why biofuels are better for the environment - MSU Extension The EPA proposed the denial of 65 pending RFS refinery waiver petitions which is good news for the ethanol industry. "corn-based" ethanol, instead of producing a 20% savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years. Corn Ethanol: Bad for Farmers, Consumers and the Environment Please be respectful of copyright. Enter the Tea Party First used in 1826 to power internal combustion engines, ethyl alcohol, as it was then called, gained a foothold in Europe in the early 20th century. 2. The Pros of Corn Ethanol. The Science study concluded that ethanol releases "modestly lower total emissions" than gasoline but only if people are eating less; not if growing and harvesting more corn is required to feed them. The latest science on E15 clarifies the fuel's damaging impacts on the environment, public health, and consumers. However, when it comes to GHGs, the evidence demonstrates that corn ethanol is a net positive compared with gasolineand there is room for continued improvement. Is Ethanol Better or Worse for the Environment? The technology exists to reduce N2O emissions to zero with fertilizer application technology developed in Exactrix Laboratories. Advocates of E30 argue that such inefficiencies can be overcome if high-compression engines are tuned to use the fuel and are certified under EPA rules, making such engines more akin to racecars. The study, titled " The greenhouse gas benefits of . This means it also helps farms and manufacturing economies. Additionally, it is added distillation, the action of purifying the process of heating and cooling. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, annual spending by the Department of Agriculture on farm Digital assets that rely upon a process known as proof of work use a lot of electricity. . But it isnt just land use change that influences the GHG balance of ethanol. Ethanol, on the other hand, makes up about 10% of U.S. gasoline supply, and ethanols share of gasoline is slowly increasing. These evaporative emissions contribute to the formation of harmful, ground-level ozone and smog. Consider its response to research confirming corn ethanol's damage to the environment. For example, ethanol-fueled vehicles produce lower carbon dioxide emissions . Brazil has almost 100% ethanol cars. Most drivers are already using ethanol-blended fuels. Ethanol has had its highs and lows. If passed, the victory would likely be Pyrrhic: with the renewable fuels standard regulations intact and corn ethanol being the only game in town, its unlikely that corn-ethanol producers will suffer very much. All rights reserved. The Senate voted to cut off the industrys $6 billion annual subsidy; and three Congressmen have reportedly reached a compromise with the industry that would eliminate the subsidy but divert $668 million of it to biofuels research and the installation of ethanol-friendly pumps at gas stations (and use $1.33 billion of the savings for federal deficit reductions). https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/b378858ac325, Land-use change and greenhouse gas emissions from corn and cellulosic ethanol Overall, ethanol is considered to be better for the environment than traditional gasoline. http://ethanolproducer.com/articles/11524/argonne-lowers-land-use-chang, Review and Evaluation of Studies on the Use of E15 in Light-Duty Vehicles The corn ethanol lobby is desperate to dodge the blame for the polluted water, soil degradation and destruction of wildlife habitat driven by this massive land use change. Ultimately, because biofuels and food both require land to grow, decoupling the two is difficult. New study: Corn's environmental impact varies greatly across the U.S. If ethanol was really economically viable you wouldn't need to pass laws to make people buy it. The Pros and Cons of Ethanol Fuel - Treehugger . The Case Against More Ethanol: It's Simply Bad for Environment The revisionist effort to increase the percentage of ethanol blended with U.S. gasoline continues to ignore the major environmental impacts of growing corn for fuel and how it inevitably leads to higher prices for this staple food crop. The study's title is Environmental Outcomes of the US Renewable Fuel Standard. This article is more than 8 years old.. Nearly one-third of all U.S. cropland is used for corn but it's not all the type you eat off the cob. Its use of corn for fuel instead of food has fed other concerns, such as possible food shortages and volatility, price shocks and political instability. Tony Radich Corn ethanol is a colorless liquid that is made through the fermentation of starches and sugars found in corn. Corn, Incorporated: The Ethanol Scam - Organic Consumers Association First is that a reevaluation of a 30-percent ethanol blend, or E30, is timely in light of the EPAs current fuel economy standards review, because its efficiency in high-performance engines may be an improvement over the losses in miles per gallon with a 10-percent ethanol blend, or E10. Most methanol in North America is produced from natural gas, while most ethanol in North America is produced from corn. COP27: What are they saying at the climate summit? Corn for Biofuel Production - Farm Energy - Extension Fermentation. Ethanol and ethanol-gasoline mixtures burn cleaner and have higher octane levels than gasoline that does not contain ethanol, but they also have higher evaporative emissions from fuel tanks and dispensing equipment. Hill said the study confirms long-held suspicions about corn ethanol's environmental impact and could affect how the EPA decides to move forward with biofuel blending requirements. Most biofuel supporters admit the corn ethanol solution is far from ideal. But because virtually all ethanol generated for Americas automobiles is corn-based that is, produced by fermenting the sugars contained in corn kernels the subsidies have been a boon to the corn industry [pdf]. Production of ethanol increases the formation of greenhouse gases. Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol trade lobby, called the study "completely fictional and erroneous," arguing the authors used "worst-case assumptions [and] cherry-picked data.". This is a very welcome authoritative study that 'once again' states that the production and use of corn ethanol is a cleaner, safer, and economically viable alternative to the poison fuels that come from petroleum oil. It is also represents an environmental hazard, threatens nutritional balance by raising the cost of key . Any form of energy production has social and environmental costs. Instead, its production may have made things worse. Helps Reduce Global warming. Ethanol - Wisconsin Corn New research is confirming that corn ethanol also has more greenhouse gas benefits than previously thought. Ethanol, which seemed like a good idea when huge federal subsidies and mandates were put in place a decade ago, now seems like a very poor idea indeed. 11 Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethanol - Vittana.org A recent study found that declines in bee populations are greatest in areas of intense agriculture in the Midwest corn belt and Californias Central Valley, both of which have few of the flowering species, such as goldenrod, that are so important to bee survival. Despite recent weakness, corn prices remain nearly double their level of 2005 when the major elements of ethanol subsidies and mandates began to be put in place. Instead, its production may have made things worse. A 2015 study published in the Annual Review of Resource Economics showed that although higher corn prices gave an incentive to farmers to grow more corn, farmers responded with increases in double-cropping and planting in fields that were fallow, and reducing temporary pasture to increase corn productionand far less land use change than originally predicted. Corn ethanol is uniquely positioned to play a larger role in the future of transportation fuels. If producers mix corn ethanol with switchgrass or sugarcane, the environmental benefits improve to reduce our impact on the atmosphere even further. On the bright side, America's farming and ethanol communities have heroically risen to a great challenge and defeated all the naysayers. In addition, the study found that some corn ethanol, depending on how it's made, can achieve up to a 61% reduction in GHG emissions. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10473289.1999.10463846. In 2010, the agency published a 1,100-page document that . PREVIOUS STUDIES: Understanding E15: the dangers of more ethanol for consumers and the Combined with efficiency improvements in refineries, such as switching to biomass as a process fuel, these improvements could result in a 70 percent lower GHG emission profile for ethanol over gasoline by 2022. Corn ethanol brings nothing to the table in terms of either energy security or helping the environment. Whats more, burning corn ethanol in gasoline releases more benzene, a known carcinogen, and other toxic air pollutants that have been linked to asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. Last week the Energy Department announced a $105 million loan guarantee to a company proposing to make ethanol from corn cobs. Oil isn't America's only fuel addiction. Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by David Gregorio. Ethanol demand for corn has also contributed to major withdrawals of acres from the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which were taken out of production precisely because they were highly vulnerable to erosion. Corn ethanol is energy efficient, as indicated by an energy ratio of 1.34; that is, for every Btu dedicated to producing ethanol there is a 34-percent energy gain. No matter how you look at it, thats progress towards a cleaner energy future. Creators of Skin Deep Database Tapwater Database EWG Verified Search. Even as corn ethanol spread into more and more filling stations, scientists and watchdog groups questioned its environmental benefits, noting that carbon emissions are not necessary lower than those of gasoline alone and pointing out the significant amount of water and land required for corn ethanol production. All this research aside, there are certainly environmental tradeoffs involved in ethanol production. 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Under the RFS, Congress set blending requirements through 2022, but not beyond, giving the EPA authority to impose reforms. Is ethanol fuel good for . Is More Ethanol Good or Bad? - The New York Times - Wheels Blog Ethanol - National Corn Growers Association By using small-scale traditional farming or permaculture-style growing food, there is less impact on the environment. Corn Ethanol - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics Corn-Based Ethanol May Be Worse For the Climate Than Gasoline, a New Overall, ethanol is considered to be better for the environment than traditional gasoline. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Corn ethanol - Wikipedia All rights reserved. As it turns out, the data show that the last decade was a time of great innovation and productivity improvement in both corn production and ethanol refinery technologies. The process to harvest and produce corn-based ethanol creates more harmful emissions than normal gasoline, according to a new report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. I don't know why we stopped pushing for flex fuel cars . 19 Major Pros and Cons of Corn Ethanol - ConnectUS Which way is it headed now? They have been using it for over 20 years. More than a third of U.S. corn is used for animal . See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Making biofuels from corn cobs slated for livestock feed will affect food supplies as well as land use and greenhouse gas emissions. Biden Administration Unveils Policies Impacting U.S. Ethanol Industry Third, proponents of E30 blends submit that corn used for ethanol now about 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is no longer a threat to food prices due to increases in agricultural productivity and that, anyway, U.S. corn is fed mainly to livestock. Difficult to Vaporize. Innovation is Driving Down Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Corn-based Ethanol One main reason we use corn ethanol . Sign up for the E360 Newsletter . More recent research shows that, while there has been some conversion and reallocation of land, things did not end up playing out the way these earlier projections anticipated. Some studies (here and here) suggest that biofuel production leads to forest-clearing to grow more crops and thus increased greenhouse gas emissions. 1. Unfortunately, in their never ending greedy mission to force more of their poison down our throats, the oil industry keeps trying new ways to present their same old lies against ethanol and therefore keeps having their shills pretend like they've found new evidence against ethanol. Corn-based Ethanol Fuel: Is it Doing More Harm than Good? At present, though, fewer than 2 percent of filling stations in the U.S. sell higher than 10 percent ethanol blends. It would be great if the oil industry stopped the nonsense on their own, but they probably won't so we should expect more deaths, illnesses, and wars caused by their actions. This could, in turn, lessen the impact of global warming. Many supporters and detractors alike claim its just a stopgap for cellulosic ethanol, the ultimate biofuel fuel generated from a plants non-edible parts. Ethanol in the United States is dominated by corn. Biofuels have long been touted as a potential tool in the fight against carbon emissions. Corn ethanol LCA in US (Far more per capita land and other resources) and sugar cane based ethanol are not comparable. Build the strongest argument relying on authoritative content, attorney-editor expertise, and industry defining technology. Independent of our study, another recent analysis titled, Land management change greatly impacts biofuels greenhouse gas emissions, and published in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy in 2018 found that when corn farmers adopt practices that increase soil organic carbon, such as using manure and cover crops, the lifecycle GHG emissions for ethanol are about 40 percent lower than gasoline. Using the current corn-to-ethanol conversion of 2.8 gallons of ethanol from a bushel of corn, total U.S. corn production could result in approximately 37 billion gallons of ethanol, which would provide approximately 26% of . Second, the higher the price of oil, the more economically ethanol can be blended with gasoline. The criticism of ethanol by environmentalists is misguided and just plain wrong, write Timothy Wirth and C. Boyden Gray. The Case Against More Ethanol: It's Simply Bad for Environment In the face of these tribulations, the revisionist ethanol narrative makes a number of shaky assumptions. They will continue to innovate, increase crop yields and ethanol output, and add in other crops and materials to further expand ethanol output as consumer demand increases (and as higher ethanol-gasoline blends are made available at the pump). The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act set a new bar of 9 billion gallons for 2008 to be increased annually toward a 36 billion gallon goal by 2022 with up to 15 billion gallons coming from corn ethanol. Corn ethanol creates usable byproducts for additional revenues. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. For environmental purposes, ethanol is less harmful than unblended petrol. Washington, DC 20005. For this and a host of other reasons, the push to substantially boost the use of corn-based ethanol to power our cars is extremely ill advised. Today, Teflon-like compounds called PFAS are found in the blood of almost all Americans. Refinery efficiency improvements can have benefits beyond reducing GHG emissions as well, such as producing co-products like corn oil. Brian Wright, an agricultural economist at the University of California at Berkeley has noted that real corn prices have nearly doubled since the ethanol mandates of 2005-2007. Tilling fields releases carbon stored in soil, while other farming activities, like applying nitrogen fertilizers, also produce emissions. But ethanol is no exception. While ethanol fermented and distilled from corn is considered a renewable fuel because corn growth, which removes carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis, offsets carbon dioxide. Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law enacted in 2005, the nation's oil refiners are required to mix some 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol into the nation's gasoline annually. carbon dioxide. By driving up the price of food and gas and causing costly engine damage, corn ethanol has been bad news for consumers. Increasing our reliance on corn ethanol in the coming decades is doubling down on a poor bet. To date, ethanol has been antithetical to fuel economy. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the nation's biofuel policy, is considering changes to the program. Lastly, water pollution due to ethanol is escalating. You used the term methanol in the text of your question but linked to a USDA blog post on ethanol. 3) It's better for the environment. If growing biofuel has more earning power, land meant for growing food will likely be diverted for biofuels. So, before jumping on the corn cob bandwagon, perhaps we should think more carefully. The Corn Ethanol Juggernaut. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts previous research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showing ethanol and other biofuels to be relatively green. Spike in Food Prices. Screen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. Ethanol is the second-largest customer for U.S. corn. Corn Ethanol : Good Or Bad? - 2129 Words | Bartleby With few alterations, vehicles can be converted to E85 concentration of ethanol. Thanks to new fuel efficiency standards, the rationale for the corn ethanol mandate created in 2005, and expanded in 2007, has evaporated. In support, they cite studies related to the impacts of aromatic hydrocarbons from gasoline additives used to boost octane, which lead in turn to secondary particulates with impacts on human health. Rare photos show chimps treating their wounds with insects, Pumpkin pollution is a problemhere's what you can do. The Energy Policy Act mandated that by 2012, 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended annually into gasoline. The corn lobbys got lots of clout, and it cant hurt that the path to the presidency begins in Iowa (rumor has it that Republican hopeful Jon Huntsman will bypass the caucuses because of his support to end ethanol subsidies). It remains a bad idea whose time has passed. Corn ethanol cannot be made without huge fossil-fuel inputs, and the damage that industrial, monoculture corn farming causes to the land and the pollution that results from the runoff of the ag chemicals are both huge negatives. The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion. So why is Congress continuing to force consumers to use a fuel that increases food and gas prices and is bad for the environment and public health? Corn can be grown every . For corn, that's the stover (e.g., the leaves, husks, stalk, and cobs). Corn cultivation appears to be responsible for ethanol's less-than-ideal environmental impact, according to new research by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 2. Ethanol is proving terrible for the environment. Particularly misleading is the Renewable Fuels Association's assertion that federal . Corn ethanol Archives - Cerulogy The Environmental Risks Of Corn Production | Here & Now - WBUR
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