Wallace's World December 23, 2010, 3:11PM EST

End the Ethanol Insanity: Ed Wallace

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One has to wonder whether Mueller understands that Secretary Chu was talking about the business and energy illogic of using food-based fuel for gasoline, not to mention that ethanol is just another farm subsidy program that the public is being told is our best chance to wean ourselves off Middle Eastern oil.

And with farm incomes already up 31 percent in 2010, according to a Dec. 1 article in The Wall Street Journal, why do we need to continue the ethanol foolishness at all?

If one is to believe all the business reporting on this subject, speculators have returned en masse to the commodities market (including oil); speculation has already boosted the price of corn by more than $2 a bushel since July. Then again, wheat prices showed similar gains from June to November. So it's fair to say that many food crop prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were dynamic. Corn prices will go up whether it's being diverted for fuel or not.

EPA's Built-In Escape Hatch

Just before this rash of political honesty, in October the Environmental Protection Agency released its own study concluding that vehicles built in 2007 and since could use gasoline with ethanol in a 15 percent blend without doing any noticeable damage. That seemingly was a green light for gas-station owners to pay for yet another tank and pump to handle this new blend of fuel.

For background, "the EPA's study" relied on testing by our Energy Dept., a situation that Representative Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) questioned because the EPA is quite capable of doing these tests on its own. This way, however, if a 15 percent blend of ethanol in the gas supply does not perform as expected and numerous vehicles suffer disabling damage as a consequence, the EPA theoretically could shift the blame onto the Energy Dept.'s tests. Yes, that's the same Energy Dept. whose head said in the last week of November that the future of transportation shouldn't involve ethanol.

Then, on Dec. 20 automobile manufacturers, boat manufacturers, and the makers of small gas engines filed that lawsuit against the EPA for approving this higher level of ethanol in the nation's fuel supplies.

When Is Enough Enough?

Meanwhile, the EPA said testing will continue to determine whether a 15 percent blend of ethanol can be used in vehicles older than 2007 models, but put off making the final ruling on those tests. At this point it should be noted the entire logic for forcing more ethanol on the public is the fact that a congressional mandate will increase the amount of ethanol we use to 13.95 billion gallons in 2011.

According to government estimates of total gasoline usage in the U.S., this means all gasoline in America would wind up with a 7.95 percent ethanol blend next year. But that's based on the assumption gasoline sales will continue to grow as the economy moves slowly toward full recovery, and that assumption may not be valid. In 2010 the low demand for gasoline and the mandate to use ethanol forced an 8.25 percent blend into the nation's gasoline supply.

An ill-thought-out mandate combines with the power of a political cycle, and no one seems to know when to say "Stop, that's enough."

It starts with a bad idea: Putting an energy-inefficient fuel filler into the nation's gas supply and calling that an energy policy. Quickly, engineers and scientists, such as UC-Berkeley's Tad Patzek, discovered that using corn as the base ingredient at best yields zero improvement; energy used to create the product just barely covers the energy the product delivers to the end users, meaning motorists. At worst it's a net energy loser. Yet Congress is not forced to reexamine its mandate based on scientific evidence.

Then too, the head of our Energy Dept. now admits ethanol is not viable as a fuel additive to improve our nation's energy situation. Another well-known retired politician admits the same—and distances himself from a previous position, saying his judgment was somehow clouded by his love for the American farmer.