Unfortunately, corn-based ethanol does not offer that alternative, according to facts reported in recent editorials in the Wall Street Journal and The Chicago Tribune and on the Web site referred to in Mr. Ferrell's letter.
Ethanol as a commodity is trading at $4 a gallon, probably because Congress has mandated a doubling of ethanol use as an additive to gasoline. It takes 1.29 gallons of fossil fuel to produce one gallon of corn-based ethanol.
Ethanol emissions do not reduce smog and, further, contain acetalehydes not found in gasoline exhaust. Ethanol produces 25 percent less miles per gallon than gasoline. Corn-based ethanol is subsidized twice by the government, once by a subsidy to the farmer and again by a 51 cents per gallon granted to the ethanol producer.
These two subsidies increase the federal deficit. They do not decrease it.
Sugar-based ethanol offers more as an alternative fuel because it requires only one-eighth of the energy to produce as does the corn-based ethanol. But high tariffs on sugar act as a restraint.
Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from non-food plant matter -- wood chips, switch grass, corn cobs and stalks -- via a more complex and expensive chemical process. Some experts believe this type of ethanol can be competitive with oil at $70 or more a barrel.
Gene Jacobs
Pinehurst
