Uncovering The Gas Roots of Contemporary Ethanol Opposition

by Marc J. Rauch (The Auto Channel) ... Faced with some actual governmental actions that were detrimental to gasoline/diesel dominance, instead of the virtual carte blanche pro-petroleum fuel policies that they usually receive from the government, the petroleum oil industry is facing serious challenges to its primacy. For the time being, at least, methanol has receded in importance as the solution to gasoline and petroleum diesel, and ethanol has taken center stage. Ethanol's importance is being aided by the potential of ubiquitous availability and next-generation vehicle engine development, which will require increasingly higher proportions of ethanol in every ethanol-gasoline blended fuel in order to meet performance and emissions requirements.

The petroleum oil industry has responded by opening its coffers to pay for any and all attacks on ethanol and other alternative fuels. Ironically, the oil industry even originally included its own by-products, compressed natural gas and propane gas, as targets of these attacks, although they have since backed off on CNG and they now ignore propane as an engine fuel. The only "alt fuel" to be spared has been electric, and that's because the oil industry knows that electric-powered passenger vehicles will not be a serious contender for years to come, if ever. So in the meantime, Big Oil uses electric as a diversion to pretend they have an altruistic conscience. READ MORE/ MORE / MORE

Excerpt from Unmasking the Gas Roots of Contemporary Ethanol Opposition: Your editorial bemoans the loss of so much of the beautiful natural American grassland. You wrote: "When prairie is plowed under to grow corn it becomes a barren landscape."

Actually, the bleak word picture you've created is quite wrong. When prairie is plowed under to grow corn this is the true picture:

Now, let me juxtapose the picture of what happens when prairie is plowed under to grow corn with this picture of what happens when America's natural landscape is used to lift petroleum oil out of the ground:

Without doubt, corn fields are not barren landscapes, but oil fields most definitely are. How much wildlife do you think can be supported in these oil killing fields, Bill?

Bill, I'd also like to point out to you and the Organic Consumers Association that there are a wide number of reasons why prairie is being lost. In Indiana, for example, they lose about 200,000 acres of farmland per year to urban growth. If you're not a fan of shopping centers and new housing communities I guess you could call it a "barren landscape," but the only way you could blame that on corn is to complain about the popcorn they sell at the new movie theaters. However, for they or you, or anyone serious about this subject I would recommend you read "Vanishing Open Spaces" by Leon Kolankiewicz, Roy Beck and Anne Manetas. Their study provides a rather excellent break down of the loss of open space and the problem of urban sprawl and population growth, and they don't seem to have an oil industry sponsored agenda to blame it on corn. In fact, in the entire study, which covers about 100 pages of text, charts, and tables, they only mention the word "corn" one time.

The title of your article refers to an "ethanol mandate," and you imply that there is also a mandate to make the ethanol from corn. However, there is no ethanol mandate; there is a renewable fuel mandate. It so happens that ethanol is the best and most affordable renewable fuel to use, therefore ethanol is used. There is also no mandate that corn be used to make the ethanol. READ MORE