Big
Ethanol finally loses
The
political fuel is losing support as its costs and harm grow
The
Wall Street Journal carried an interesting article on ethanol on 17th November
2013. Copyright acknowledged."After
35 years of exaggerations about the benefits of renewable fuels, the industry
has lost credibility" See
other NEWS items on ethanol motor fuel. More
Posted: 131119
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Nic
Houslip spotted an interesting piece in a recent
issue of the Wall Street Journal
It's not often that the ethanol lobby suffers a
policy setback in Washington, but it got its head
handed to it Friday. The Environmental Protection
Agency announced that for the first
time it is lowering the federal mandate that dictates
how much ethanol must be blended into the nation's
gasoline. It's about time. It's been about time
from the moment the ethanol mandate came to life
in the 1970s.
The 16% reduction is a modest pullback, which the
EPA says will hold ethanol blends in gasoline at
the standard 10% (E10). But we hope this is a precedent-setting
victory. After 35 years of exaggerations about the
benefits of renewable fuels, the industry has lost
credibility. For
years the biofuels lobby has boasted that its product
was a green alternative to emissions from oil and
gas. But a growing body of scientific evidence is
showing that ethanol consumes so much energy and
fertilizer, and requires planting so much marginal
cropland, that the impact on air quality is at best
neutral and on water quality may be negative.
A report released earlier this year by the National
Research Council concluded: "Although it may
seem obvious that subsidizing biofuels should reduce
CO2 emissions because they rely on renewable resources
rather than fossil fuels, many studies we reviewed
found the opposite." Environmental outfits
such as the Environmental Working Group and the
Sierra Club now oppose ethanol subsidies.
The EPA reduction is a small win for consumers.
Since 1978 when the first "gasohol" subsidies
were enacted, renewable fuel production tax credits
have drained the US Treasury of almost US$40 billion.
The tax subsidies expired recently, but consumers
have still been forced to dole out billions at the
pump because of the renewable fuel standards.
About 40% of corn production is now used not for
food or livestock feed, but for fuel. This has raised
the price of corn, and a 2009 study by the Congressional
Budget Office found that in some years ethanol has
raised retail food prices by 5% to 10% for everything
from cornflakes to ground beef.
Wall Street Journal copyright
acknowledged |
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