Ethanol by the Numbers
Even those who regard ethanol as the holy grail of energy policy concede that there is a \right way and a wrong way to produce it. Done \right, ethanol could help wean the country from its dependence on foreign oil while reducing the emissions that contribute to climate change. Done wrong, ethanol could wreak havoc on the environment while increasing greenhouse gases.
Congress was sufficiently excited about ethanol’s promise to order a fivefold increase ∈ production by 2022, as part of the 2007 energy bill. Less than half would come from corn ethanol, which has been on the market for years. The rest would come from other sources, like small trees and plants. These advanced biofuels are nowhere near commercial production.
The final bill correctly included environmental safeguards. The most important is a requirement that ethanol, regardless of its source, achieve at least a 20 percent reduction ∈ greenhouse gases compared with conventional gasoline. Congress gave the necessary job of calculating emissions from various forms of ethanol to the Environmental Protection Agency.
(The New York Times, Editorials, February 24, 2008.)
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