We know we're belaboring this, but we feel we have to. Ethanol from food crops, such as corn, has been "pushed" as a viable alternative to petroleum and coal-based liquid fuels. But, it just isn't. It is unsound in terms of the economy, and the environment.
Now, when an institution of higher learning that's widely purported to be a bastion of liberal thinking and public consciousness tells you that a major tenet of green fuel philosophy is fatally flawed, shouldn't you listen?
The excerpts:
"Berkeley - Using ethanol as a gasoline additive will do more harm than good to the environment, (conclude) ... researchers at the University of California, Berkeley."
"""We're embarking on one of the most misguided public policy decisions to be made in recent history," said Tad W. Patzek, professor of geoengineering at UC Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "We are burning the same amount of fuel twice to drive a car once," said Patzek, who conducted the study with undergraduate students in his civil engineering course."
""When you first consider ethanol, it feels like you're being progressive and environmentally friendly," said Jason Lee, an undergraduate at UC Berkeley who helped author the paper. "But, if you dig underneath, you find that it's really misleading. The amount of fuel and oil needed to use ethanol is greater than the value of energy ethanol provides. It's ridiculous to think it would decrease our dependence on oil.""
"Patzek and his students found that by the time ethanol is burned as a gasoline additive in our vehicles, the net energy lost is 65 percent, a figure that factors in the energy spent growing the corn and converting it into ethanol."
"Patzek and his students found that by the time ethanol is burned as a gasoline additive in our vehicles, the net energy lost is 65 percent, a figure that factors in the energy spent growing the corn and converting it into ethanol."
"... In other words, the energy input of 4.93 gallons of gasoline equivalent leads to an energy output of 1.74 gallons of gasoline equivalent, or a net energy loss of 65 percent."
Pretty much sums it up - especially when you consider that, in Iowa, where they make a lot of our ethanol, they're burning coal to get the power to drive the process. Coal's still King - by a TKO.