THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 14, January 22, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE ETHANOL DEBACLE
By Alan Caruba
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM & THE USE OF ETHANOL, OR GRAIN ALCOHOL, AS A MOTOR FUEL: POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THEIR ALLIES IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SEEK ENACTMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION
CREATING ARTIFICIAL MARKETS FOR & MANDATING USE OF ETHANOL AS A MOTOR FUEL -- HOW SUCH LEGISLATION, IF
ENACTED, WILL WREAK HAVOC ON THE AMERICAN ECONOMY -- SEVEN IMPORTANT REASONS WHY ETHANOL IS NOT THE
ANSWER TO AMERICA'S TRANSPORTATION ENERGY NEEDS -- WHY CONGRESS SHOULD NOT PANDER TO THE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS' OPPOSITION TO CONTINUED U.S. RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUELS AS ENERGY SOURCES
FULL STORY:
Hating with a passion fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, the environmentalists have perpetrated every
deception possible and, among them, is the notion that Americans can avoid destroying the Earth if they just fill up the
tanks of their automobiles with ethanol.
As I have pointed out in the past, the world is not running out of oil and, here in the United States of America, we have
enough reserves of coal to provide electricity and other needs for centuries to come. So, who has the new Democratic
Party majority in Congress declared persona non grata? The oil industry. Their proposed “answer” to our transportation
energy needs is ethanol.
Instead of pandering to the environmentalist’s obsession over fossil fuels, Congress should be making areas in and
around the United States more accessible to exploration and extraction of known oil and natural gas supplies. That is the
true definition of “energy independence.”
This has not occurred because most of America’s onshore energy is in the West and Alaska, where more than half the
land is under federal control. As regards energy sources in the West and Alaska, we are talking about estimates,
according to the U.S. Interior Department, of 187 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 21 billion barrels of oil, representing
76 percent of onshore federal oil and gas resources.
That’s enough natural gas to supply all of America’s households for the next 39 years. In terms of oil, it is comparable to
more than 30 years of current imports from Saudi Arabia. Currently, Congress permits access to just three percent of
onshore federal oil and 13 percent of onshore federal gas under standard lease terms.
While the Democrats in Congress proceed toward anointing ethanol as the “answer” to our transportation energy needs,
5l percent of the oil and 27 percent of the natural gas known reserves are completely off-limits to use.
On January 10, 2007, the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee convened to discuss two proposed bills, the “American Fuels
Act” and the “BioFuels Security Act.” They are aimed at creating artificial markets for ethanol and biodiesel. Their
advocates will tout them as providing “energy independence.” What they won’t tell you is that they will wreak havoc on
the economy, needlessly raising the cost of food.
One of the great ironies of the ethanol bandwagon is that a leading environmentalist, Lester R. Brown, President of the
Earth Policy Institute, understands better than most how bad an idea pushing ethanol as a motor fuel is. Brown recently
called for a moratorium on the building of ethanol plants in the United States “so we can catch our breath and determine
how much we want to harvest our corn for ethanol.”
Brown finds himself sharing the same pew as Tom Tanton, Vice President of the Institute for Energy Research and host of
www.factsonEnergy.org. There are many reasons why ethanol is not the answer to our need for gasoline to fuel
our automobiles. Here are just a few:
Ethanol provides about 34 percent less energy output than gasoline. Thus the miles traveled per gallon on ethanol are
greatly reduced.
Ethanol increases the price per gallon by 20 to 80 cents and, at the same time, requires more stops to refuel.
Ethanol is so corrosive it must be transported by truck or rail because it will damage pipelines. The January 29, 2007, issue
of Business Week reports, “Auto fuel that contains more than 10% ethanol is too corrosive to use in existing gas
station pumps.” Imagine what it does to the engine of your automobile?
Ethanol, when transportation, refining, and farming costs are factored into its production for fuel, provides negligible
energy gains.
Ethanol receives a fifty-one cent-per-gallon tax credit and mandates for its use have driven the price of corn to 10-year
highs. This increases the cost to feedlot owners who feed corn to cattle and pigs, forcing the cost of these food stocks
to rise.
Ethanol production has doubled from 2001 to 2005 and could double again by the 2008 harvest season, providing fifteen
billion gallons or approximately six percent of U.S. auto fuel needs. Let me repeat that, six percent! And all the time this is
occurring, the price of everything else that involves corn production goes up with no appreciable increase in energy
value.
Finally, as Brown points out, since U.S. corn accounts for one-fourth of all grain exports, a rise in the price “could create
food riots in low-income areas around the world.”
There is, based solely on these facts, no good reason to build a single new plant for the production of ethanol, nor for any
further congressional mandates to force every driver to fill their tank with a mixture of ethanol and gasoline.
It is an energy debacle of enormous proportions and it exists because global warming doomsayers in Congress have
imposed the worst possible “answer” on everyone and are likely to compound that mistake, knowing that most Americans
haven’t a clue about the true facts.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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