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of Bioethanol," she says a "team led by Daniel Kammen, professor of energy/energy and resource group (ERG) and Alex Farrell, assistant professor of energy/ERGfound that corn-based ethanol requires more natural gas and coal to produce than does gasoline, but that it generates slightly lower GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions. Meanwhile, cellulose-based ethanol requires significantly less fossil fuel-based energy and generates close to 90% lower GHG emissions" (Bryner 21).

In January, 2007, President Bush announced his goal for ethanol. It's called the "20 in 10" goal. The reason for its name is Bush wants a 20% decrease in gasoline demand in 10 years (Weirauch 9). This gave the search for technology to produce cellulosic ethanol a huge jumpstart considering cellulosic ethanol has much greater potential than corn-based. Some recent statistics state that in 2006, the U.S. produced 4.86 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol. The cost of production for the United States is $1.09 per gallon. It also states that gasoline's greenhouse gas emissions are 20.4 pounds per gallon, while corn-based ethanol is 16.2 pounds per gallon. This would make emissions from corn-based ethanol 22% less than that of gasoline. These statistics for emissions include production of the substance, not just the use. To support the notion that corn-based ethanol is actually less environmentally-friendly than cellulosic ethanol, a statistic states that greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol (both production and use) is 1.9 pounds per gallon. This would make it significantly less than the 16.2 pounds per gallon and 91% less than the emissions caused by gasoline (Bourne 57-59).
Some consumers wonder why America has not accepted and used cellulosic ethanol nationwide. The reason is the cellulose enzyme that is present. Due to this enzyme, the cellulosic ethanol is no better than corn-based without the proper refining. Because cellulosic ethanol has unused potential, scientists are trying to find a way to process it with the enzyme. To combat the cellulose enzyme, scientists are using different types of high-tech enzymes that break down lignin. Lignin is the substance that links cellulose molecules together; this linkage is what gives plants their stability (Bourne 41). This would obviously cause the cost to rise due to the difficulty of production.
Besides cellulosic ethanol, there is another type of ethanol that is promising and is more efficient than corn-based ethanol. This type would

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