While corn-based biofuel, particularly corn-based ethanol, has been touted to be the most viable alternative to petroleum and other fossil fuels, the production of such grain-based alternative has sparked many a debate as to its supposed environmental sustainability. Food crop displacement is just one of the trade-offs in the burgeoning ethanol industry.
Nowhere is the debate more raging than in the US where corn-based ethanol has become a huge industry. The federal government and Obama administration give full support to the industry as they regard it as ‘a low-carbon renewable fuel.’
On the other end of the debate spectrum is the state of California that issued a ‘declaration last summer that the biofuel’s carbon footprint was too big to help the state mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.’
Douglas Fischer in The Daily Climate writes that ‘regulators and policy experts insist there’s no conflict: Both rules match the science; it’s simply a matter of what year you start counting emissions. Indeed, timing is everything. California looked at current emissions associated with corn-based ethanol and concluded they were too steep.’ On the other hand, the White House, gearing ‘to triple annual production to 36 billion gallons a year in 12 years, based its decision on projections for 2022. It assumed higher crop yields, production efficiencies and other breakthroughs would mitigate emissions.’
However, researchers doubt the calculations made by the federal government as to ‘federal claims that ethanol’s advances would be sufficient enough to counter emissions associated with food-crop displacement.’
In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a matter of methodologies in producing ethanol or looking for carbon savings from corn ethanol. As with the mistakes in petroleum and all other energy sources, the crux of the problem is consumption. This is the part of human culture that has to be tamed with better methodologies, so to speak. Finding ways to trick the shortages brought about by unbridled and relentless consumption is simply a case of the blind leading the blind.
Environment
