Many environmental and right wing political groups are hailing ethanol as a better alternative to gasoline, but is ethanol really an environmentally sound alternative?

Firstly, ethanol is dirtier than gasoline. While it may produce less CO2 than gasoline when burned, that advantage is offset by the large amounts of energy used to create the ethanol. The power for the ethanol refineries comes mainly from coal power plants, which are definitely not good for the environment. Also, all types of ethanol have a negative energy balance. Corn takes 29% more energy to produce than is released upon the burning of the fuel. Switch-grass and wood are even worse, taking 50% and 57% more energy respectively.

Secondly, ethanol has a very low energy yield in relation to the land needed to grow it. The US devoted 70.3 million acres of land to corn last year, and 20% of that corn was devoted to ethanol. While that might sound like a lot of fuel, it offset only 1% of the US oil market.

Thirdly, corn is very hard on the soil. To grow corn requires large amounts of water, a valuable resource the Midwest seems to lack at the moment. Also, an acre of corn needs to be dusted with 58 pounds of nitrogen. To produce 4 pounds of nitrogen, it takes 1 gallon of gasoline. With 70.3 million acres of land devoted to corn, the making of fertilizer alone required 1,019,350,000 gallons of gasoline. The growing of corn is also not sustainable, as crowing corn quickly depletes the soil, even when farmers employ crop rotation.

In addition, if all this corn is being used for fuel, what happens to the corn we eat? Well, the answer is simple; we have less corn to eat. The price of corn goes up, and in places where people survive on less than a dollar a day, the increase in corn prices is devastating. Recently, the price of corn went from $2 a bushel to around $5.65 a bushel. This means that people that can ill afford food already must often go hungry. The result of this lack of supply can already be seen in places like Haiti, where food riots are breaking out. These riots can destabilize already fragile governments. Not just raw corn is becoming more expensive; products that use corn are also becoming more expensive. The prices of many common foods that we in the US buy have gone up recently, products such as Easy Mac, Rice Krispies, and Quaker Oatmeal Bars, which contain corn syrup.

The bottom line: Ethanol is not a solution to our oil addiction. If we truly want to save the environment, and our children, we must find another solution.

Learn more about this author, Alex Sax.
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