Today in Biofuels Opinion: “E15 ethanol: Yes or No”
E15 NO: Andrew P. Morriss, University of Illinois: “Corn-based ethanol, the type used in the United States, is a terrible transportation fuel whose production has serious environmental consequences and raises food prices for the world’s poor while delivering few net environmental benefits.Requiring higher blends of it to be put into engines not designed to handle those levels of the corrosive, water-attracting fuel without adequate testing is a gamble on a grand scale.
“E15 is not a blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline. Rather, according to Underwriters Laboratories, it’s a blend of roughly 15 percent ethanol, with everything from 12-17 percent ethanol or more, depending on storage conditions. That percentage of ethanol matters because cars in existence today — except for the few certified as “flex-fuel” — were not designed to handle blends above 15 percent.”
E15 YES: Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation: “Clean, renewable, domestic energy…bolsters our nation’s security, shields our economy from dependence on foreign energy sources, achieves long-term economic growth and creates a cleaner environment. Raising the fuel blend rate for home-grown ethanol from 10 percent to 15 percent is a positive step toward achieving these goals…gasoline would have cost five to 10 cents more per gallon if it had not been blended with ethanol. Increased ethanol blend rates can further reduce the price of gasoline and ensure the availability of fuel to keep America moving.”
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Joelle Brink | Nov 9, 2009 | Reply
It’s deja vu all over again. That golden oldie about corrosive and water attracting ethanol always seems to come out of the closet whenever higher blends are proposed. But while it’s true that ethanol might not be the best choice for your outboard motor, most of the world seems to get along with E15 in motor vehicles just fine.
Brazil, which wrote to endorse the US proposal for an E15 mandate, cited its positive experience with its own E15 mandate since 1979. Most cars used in Brazil are unmodified US or European imports, so unless there’s some special magic in the southern hemisphere, their US counterparts should be able to run on E15 equally well.
As for corn, most corn in the US is used for animal feed. When corn is used as an ethanol feedstock its byproduct is also an animal feed, distillers grains.
The US exports corn at a significant loss. In most rice and wheat-eating countries, US corn is used primarily as an animal feed or distillery feedstock.
Lastly, poverty in the world today is chiefly caused by bad government, including lack of regulation and supervision of land use, and lack of land rights and fair wages for the poor. To imagine hat we can change this simply by discouraging corn ethanol is magical thinking at its worst.