For years, there has been much to-do about Ethanol as a liquid bio-fuel to supplement or eventually replace gasoline as our liquid fuel of choice for our car loving culture. After all, if we want to prepare for Peak Oil (which is coming to us whether we prepare or not), and if we will not compromise our lifestyle (which will change whether we embrace it or fight it all the way), and we are truly concerned about climate change (are we?), then we need to replace liquid auto fuels with something else. Right? Because less driving is not an option. Right?
But is growing ethanol really a viable option? Many (including me) think not, and the reasons are varied.
There is a good analysis in George Monbiot’s new book, Heat, which I am half way through reading. Those that have the book at hand can refer to pages 157 through 161.
But a concise summary of the reasons why ethanol is a non-starter was recently sent to me by Green Assassin Brigade in a comment to my post on the decline of Mexico’s Cantarell Oil Field. It summarizes the real costs of corn ethanol.
For those proponents of ethanol as that holy grail of responses to either Peak Oil or Climate Change or both…
Sorry to burst your bubble.
Update: February 21, 2007
The Green Party is now behind ethanol production as a biofuel via non-food crop (cellulosic) ethanol in order to avoid the justified objections of rising food prices as we have competition between growing food and growing liquid fuel. So long as we stick to what would otherwise be waste product, or land that would otherwise not be used for agriculture, then growing crops for cellulosic ethanol does have some merit. The technical objections that you normally hear are addressed quite nicely in a Toront Star article by Tyler Hamilton, published just the other day.
My remaining objection to ethanol, then, remains that we cannot view it as a silver bullet. We will never grow enough crop for ethanol to sustain our lifestyle of dependence on personal mobility and the associated liquid fuels, so we must be sure to see ethanol for what it is, a small piece of a larger puzzle.
