Feb 16 2009
On the heels of a new report from Sandia National Laboratories that the U.S. could produce 90 billion gallons of ethanol from biomass by 2030, the Environmental Working Group and others associated with the coordinated PR campaign to abolish America's ethanol industry are seeking to throw cold water on the progress of America’s renewable fuels industry and relegate this nation to increased foreign oil dependence.
In response, the Renewable Fuels Association released the following statement:
“America’s ethanol industry is evolving at a rate that ethanol critics either cannot or refuse to acknowledge. Next generation technologies are deploying today, making the production of ethanol from grain as well as cellulosic material even more sustainable. In addition, forward looking public policy included in the Renewable Fuels Standard requires that biofuels meet or exceed very strict greenhouse gas emissions reduction compared to gasoline, a point often forgotten or intentionally left out by ethanol naysayers.
“Failing to account for the rapid innovation of this industry and the current public policy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from motor fuels exposes a huge blind spot in the energy priorities of those seeking to halt the progress of America’s renewable fuels industry. It is intentionally misleading to deny the concrete strides American farmers and ethanol producers are making to improve our energy security, mitigate the climate impacts of increasing petroleum consumption these groups seem to advocate, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic opportunity.
“This is simply another effort to repackage the same stale and unfounded rhetoric that the Environmental Working Group and its cohorts in the big food and meat processing industries have been espousing for months. Instead of working with America’s renewable energy industries to expand the amount of investment in these technologies, this anti-ethanol coalition would rather attempt to drive a wedge between renewable technologies than take a stand against imported oil.
“It is puzzling that these organizations prefer to attack ethanol, but say little or nothing about federal subsidies to oil, coal and nuclear power. It is surprising that these groups implicitly endorse continuing our reliance on costly imported oil rather than expanding the production of renewable domestic biofuels. As Neal St. Anthony of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune points out, “The dirtiest and most expensive fuel, particularly when you add in related defense spending, is oil, two-thirds of which we import at a cost of something like $400 billion annually. The money goes to mostly government-owned monopolies, and some of those countries are hostile to the United States.”
“Recently, Dr. Cole Gustafson of North Dakota State University warned that America is in danger of falling behind nations like Brazil and Mexico in the development of advanced biofuels such as ethanol derived from cellulosic material. Today, the Environmental Working Group and others involved in the orchestrated campaign to derail America’s renewable fuels industry are trying to ensure the very scenario Dr. Gustafson warns about comes to pass.
“To solve this energy crisis for future generations, we will need all the technologies we can imagine, including renewable fuels. Advocating taking any potential part of the solution off the table is not just short-sighted, but irresponsible.”
Some key facts about the benefits of American ethanol production:
- Ethanol production and use today reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline by up to 59%.
- The production and use of 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2007 displaced 228 million barrels of imported oil valued at $16 billion. The use of 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008 will have displaced an even larger volume and created more impressive savings.
- During that same year, ethanol production helped support more than 260,000 jobs across the economy. With ethanol production expanding to 9 billion gallons in 2008, the job creation benefits of ethanol will no doubt have grown.
- The production of ethanol yields 1.5 units of energy for every unit of energy used in the production of corn and ethanol.
- Since 2001, the ethanol industry has reduced water use by 26% and overall energy use while increasing ethanol yields per bushel.
- Since 1978, America’s ethanol industry has added more than $34 billion of new revenue for the federal government and reduced America’s foreign oil tab by nearly $100 billion. All told, the return on investment in America’s ethanol industry since 1978 is an astonishing 5 to 1.