Ethanol has the advantage of burning more completely and hence lowers emissions. It also lowers mileage and increases wear and tear on engines.
More importantly, research is now showing that the fuel and emissions costs of producing ethanol outweigh the environmental benefits of the lower emissions. Perhaps the only true benefit is the ability for this country to wean itself from foreign oil and increase our use of a renewable energy source.
But what is really happening is that we're driving around burning up our food supply while using more energy in the process. This food-for-miles swap is a concept that, if enacted in any lesser developed area of the globe (or perhaps much earlier in history), would soon spell disaster--even collapse of the natural order of things.
Are we just deluding ourselves to think that we can free ourselves from the tyranny of foreign oil merchants at the expense of higher food costs which inevitably result from putting our corn crops into our cars? Does it matter if gas costs go down when food costs go up a corresponding amount?
Is the villain here really foreign oil? Or is the villain our lack of a comprehensive energy policy? Is it the failure of our own auto industry to manufacture cars with better gas mileage? Is it the failure of our government to create and sustain workable public transit systems and simultaneously fail to provide pedestrian access and bike lanes?
For now, we have no choice in this matter and the 2007 federal energy bill increases the mandated amounts of renewable energy that must make up the American energy picture.
It does provide food for thought, if not food for our plates.
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