" For every evil under the sun there is a remedy ...
May 21 2008 08:46 PM Cynthia Rosenberry
I fear I may be putting my neck on the chopping block for asking as so many in Tennessee are backing ethanol as if it were our salvation yet the Democrats with their Clean Edge 2020 and now with certain cowardly Republicans fearing for their jobs and now joining the chorus, I fear the politicians are pushing us to commit more and more resources towards something they'll eventually just have to admit was another costly mistake. Although I'm glad to see some farmers finally making a profit, I'm coming across a lot of outweighing cons from some highly reputable sources from the Washington Post to the Harvard Political Review and plenty of average Joes in between complaining about how their quality of life is worsening and they're mad because they say:
1.Ethanol is driving up the cost of living and doing business across the board. The oil industry has said publicly that the shift toward ethanol caused them to hold off on investing in expansions that would be necessary to meet the demand. This drives up the short-term demand and cost of oil. Higher gas prices mean we get passed higher prices on everything that requires transportation. Meanwhile, the value of the dollar is weakening due to inflation. We're slowly being robbed of our income. It's happening gradually, like a frog that doesn't realize it's being cooked...the cook knows not to turn the heat up so intensely that we'll clue in and hop out of the kettle.
2.Instead of our tax money going for things that could improve our quality of life, we're paying for subsidies and startup costs for the ethanol industry with tax dollars and without these subsidies, the industry would completely collapse from economic failure. A study found that ethanol subsidies amount to as much as $1.38 per gallon, about half of ethanol's wholesale market price. Somebody's profiting but it sure ain't the average consumer. Like Senator John McCain said back in 2003, “Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality.” What's in it for us? Meanwhile, our infrastructure is taking a back seat...and social programs? Get over it.
3.Ethanol raising the price of corn benefits fuel corn growers but simultaneously hurts livestock and dairy farmers that use corn as feed requiring even more subsidies to keep them afloat so we can still have affordable U.S.-produced food. They say we won't have to choose between the two because the corn waste is used to make feed but if desperate farmers are jumping from food to fuel and prime farmland is sucked up to meet the fuel demand, we will eventually have to choose.
4.Opponents say that switching from gas to ethanol would actually worsen our climate and energy problems. If we replaced gas with ethanol, factoring in the energy required to convert land usage, over a 30 year period it would increase greenhouse gases by 93 percent, whereas switchgrass would increase it by a mere 50%. Neither qualifies as a “green solution.”
5.It costs 40% more fossil energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than you get out of ethanol itself.
6.Ethanol's energy density is one-third less than gasoline...gotta burn more of it to get the same amount of power.
7.In the wash (accounting the by-products plus all the handling and processing), it's far dirtier than gas. Short-term, greenhouse gas emissions would increase by as much as 30%. Air pollution deaths would increase by 200 persons per year.
8.Naturally, we can assume that pesticide and fertilizer usage and runoff will dramatically increase, AND
9.water usage will dramatically increase tapping our resources (of special concern in areas that have been dealing with drought)...which leads to the inevitable question, what if there's a drought? No fuel? (I'm guessing the answer will be genetically engineered drought-resistant feedstocks.)
10.If it's corn they're using, the best land for growing corn will be required for the optimal yield and it will quickly be exhausted by soil mineral depletion and...
11.genetically modified ethanol corn will cross-pollinate with our food supply. These are just basic facts of genetics and farming. Bear in mind, they're already doing weird things like crossing corn with cow stomach genes so the unneeded parts will consume themselves, poof. Anything to increase their profit margin, evidently. Of course they need to increase their profit margin because ethanol is extremely UNPROFITABLE, without government subsidies, that is.
12.What if farmers want to grow a special variety of corn? Or maybe even organic corn? Agriculture is changing because big corporations are coming in and bringing their lawyers and patents suits. Farmers risk going to jail now for saving seed from one year to the next or for NOT planting GMO corn when your neighbor does (if it's been cross-pollinated). Just because you paid for it doesn't mean you own the seed.And they have the power and money to make their point. They can crush small farmers like bugs.
13.Ethanol is wasteful. There's all the startup costs. Can't ship ethanol via existing pipelines due to its tendency to absorb water so it can't be transported in existing pipelines and must be distributed by truck or rail, which increases emissions and fuel consumption. Need special tanks for cars. Special flex fuel engines. Need new pumps too. And of course, since it's basically, nothing more than denatured alchohol, some of the product will simply evaporate before it ever reaches gas tanks.
14.Increased gas prices hurt tourism. We're a service-based economy and tourism is one of Tennessee's top industries. Out-of-state tourists can't afford the gas required to travel and when they do come, they have less money to spend.
15.Tennessee government is in debt. Since ethanol is a financial loss for the indefinite future, will pushing ethanol help anything but get someone elected for another election cycle by folks who still buy the Democrat salespitch that it's a “green fuel”? We can't afford to spend money on it even if it's federal money, there is obviously not an infinite supply of government money and at this point, we're robbing Peter to pay Paul.
16.U.S. corn prices and NAFTA are ruining the already poor Mexican economy, leading to an increase in immigration problems due to an influx of economic refugees fleeing from Mexico.
17.What if we need the land to grow food? Will land use suddenly become a national security issue subject to eminent domain seizure?
18.Replacing fifty percent of our current gasoline consumption with cellulosic ethanol would consume thirteen percent of the land in the United States - about seven times the land currently utilized for corn production.
19.We used to have a surplus that could have been used to feed the world's poor but many corn growers have switched from food to fuel corn. The amount of corn used to fuel one SUV tank with ethanol is enough to feed one human for an entire year. U.S. subsidies are adversely impacting the world food supply and market from Mexico to China.
20.Environmentalists that seriously think we're running out of oil must realize that ethanol will prolong the usage of oil as a fuel and fuels in general. These assumptions are going to divert funds and attention away from worthier, long-term zero-emissions goals.
Seems to me, we have enough existing problems in government, with the environment, and with our economy without going way, way out of our way to create brand new problems.We'd be better off focusing long-term on serious solutions instead of short-sighted political boondoggles that hurt.
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