Ethanol More Mean Than Green

How biofuel steals from the hungry and hurts the environment
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Jul 31, 2007 2:54 PM CDT
Ethanol More Mean Than Green
This photo provided by Enterprise Rental Car shows Enterprise Senior Vice President Matthew Darrah speaking at a Ethanol Gas Station in Washington, Thursday June 28, 2007. The company has acquired 41.000 of the cars system wide that can run on Ethanol E85 and regular gasoline. Enterprise established...   (Associated Press)

Far from the solution to America’s energy crisis, corn ethanol is “one if the great political boondoggles of our time,” Rolling Stone says in a scathing broadside. The “dangerous” and “delusional” hype over the corn biofuel raises the price of food for the needy because it puts corn to work powering SUVs. And on top of that, ethanol isn’t even environmentally efficient.

Creating ethanol requires a major power input for relatively little payback. But politics and panic over dwindling oil supplies have transformed corn into a bulwark in the War on Terror. The piece argues that “energy crops,” including ethanols produced from wood and grasses, are the real answer to shaking off the yoke of oil and global warming, but warns nonetheless against "blind faith that technology will solve all our problems." (More ethanol stories.)

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