Getting Our Fill of Ethanol

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Frederick R. Anderson

Wesley Clark is stumping for ethanol. The retired general is representing a coalition of ethanol producers asking the Environmental Protection Agency to increase the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. The industry is pushing for the increase, because it is starving for demand, as I wrote last month.

The support appears to be growing since the request was made to the EPA to grant a Clean Air Act waiver on Friday. Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack expressed his support for the move today.

Critics say the government should study the impact of burning more ethanol on the environment before granting a waiver. But there’s plenty of hard data to examine.

The Brazilians have been driving on rich ethanol blends for years. The country raised its mandatory blend from 22 percent to 25 percent in 2007.

Science and engineering aren’t holding us back, it’s politics. For example, oil producers have recently expressed their opposition to the change.

I’m no big fan of corn ethanol but I appreciate it as a bridge to lower-emissions, high-energy cellulosic ethanol, and other biofuel formations. By expanding demand for ethanol generally, we can create market opportunities for the more promising fuels to come.
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