Matthew's Journal

Ethanol Scam: Ethanol Hurts the Environment And Is One of America's Biggest Political Boondoggles [Rolling Stone - July 2007]
This is a well researched article taking a look at the push for ethanol as a new fuel source and the trouble that could bring.

From the article:
The most seductive myth about ethanol is that it will free us from our dependence on foreign oil. But even if ethanol producers manage to hit the mandate of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, that will replace a paltry 1.5 million barrels of oil per day -- only seven percent of current oil needs. Even if the entire U.S. corn crop were used to make ethanol, the fuel would replace only twelve percent of current gasoline use.

Another misconception is that ethanol is green. In fact, corn production depends on huge amounts of fossil fuel -- not just the diesel needed to plow fields and transport crops, but also the vast quantities of natural gas used to produce fertilizers. Runoff from industrial-scale cornfields also silts up the Mississippi River and creates a vast dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico every summer. What's more, when corn ethanol is burned in vehicles, it is as dirty as conventional gasoline and does little to solve global warming: E85 reduces carbon dioxide emissions by a modest fifteen percent at best, while fueling the destruction of tropical forests.

I've been saying for a while now that ethanol is a bad idea for gasoline replacement. Ethanol still pollutes and it's very energy inefficient to produce. It would take more farmland than there is in the US to replace current foreign oil sources. Let me know that they rest of you think!