Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax by Larry Bell

Author:Larry Bell [Bell, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group LLC
Published: 2011-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Biofuels: Field of Dreams

Can we grow our way out of an energy deficit? Federal legislation with such titles as the Renewable Fuels Act (2005) and the Biofuels Security Act (2006) are both misleading with regard to ethanol, the primary biofuel. First, it really isn’t renewable when you consider that nearly as much fossil fuel–generated energy is required to produce it as it actually yields. Alternatively, if all the energy used to plant, fertilize, harvest, and process the biofuel came from the ethanol produced, it would displace a gasoline consumption equivalent to only about 3.5 percent. This is about the same amount that the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates might be saved by inflating tires properly.6

Regarding energy security, biofuels suffer from some very serious reliability and capacity limitations. Corn crops, the plant stock for US ethanol, are vulnerable to periodic drought conditions. On average, a crop yield decline of nearly one-third occurs about 1 year out of 20 due to insufficient rainfall. And even during good years, the total offset on gasoline consumption will be very small, regardless of any mandates established by federal and state governments.

Ethanol refiners (actually wood alcohol “distillers”) cite energy independence as a compelling argument for the massive subsidies they receive. Imported oil continues to provide about 60 percent of all petroleum fuel we use, and exposes the United States to large economic risks and massive trade imbalances that ethanol will not alleviate.7

But if we were to produce enough ethanol to replace gasoline altogether, it would require that about 71 percent of all US farmland be dedicated for energy crops.8 By way of illustration, let’s just think about distilling all of our present US corn production into that 180-proof grain alcohol—ethanol. That would only displace, at most, about 14 percent of the gasoline we currently guzzle. In 2007, ethanol consumed approximately one-fourth of all US corn production. In 2008, that amount grew to about one-third, and the percent will continue to rise. The 2007 amount was estimated to have offset US gasoline consumption by 3.5 percent while corn costs had doubled over a 2-year period.9

Assuming that it is possible for the United States to produce a mandated 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, it won’t really make a big difference. That would replace only about 1.5 billion barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil, amounting to only about 7 percent of our needs; that is, providing we hold consumption to current levels.10

Because US farmland is scarce and expensive, each additional acre of corn used to produce ethanol is one less that is available for other crops such as soybeans and wheat, which have seen price increases of more than 240 percent since 2006. This, in turn, produces a ripple effect that raises the costs of meat, milk, eggs, and other foods with international export consequences. Since US farmers provide about 70 percent of all global corn exports, even small diversions for ethanol production have produced high inflation levels in America and food riots abroad.11

Two professors at the University of Minnesota’s Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy, C.

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