The rush to ethanol may have hit a roadblock. The San Francisco Chronicle reports today on a study that suggests burning ethanol as a vehicle fuel could produce more, not less, smog-forming ozone than gasoline. That's bad news for people with respiratory diseases such as asthma.
The study was done by Mark Z. Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford. He said "our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage." The study was published in today's online edition of Environmental Science & Technology, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
David Pimentel, an ecology professor emeritus at Cornell University, told the Chronicle that "The burning of ethanol releases large quantities of ozone, a serious air pollutant. In addition, the use of ethanol as a fuel releases formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, plus benzene and butadiene. All of these are carcinogens and are a threat to public health."
It's never easy.
Corn ethanol was never going to be the answer. It seemed to be driven more by farming interests than by energy or environmental concerns. Cellulose ethanol seemed much more promising, so it's dissappointing to see that it may have significant environmental impacts.
Of course, the best thing to do to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and our impact on the environment is to reduce the amount of fuel we consume period. It's ridiculous that the Bush administration is resisting efforts to increase fuel economy standards, while at the same time pushing for more oil drilling and alternative fuels. Why go through so much effort to find more fuel just so we can squander it?
the corn ethanol phenominum happened with a kind of manhatten project urgency....over 100 plants built, 100 more soon on line,...when congress is flooded with money,read;archerdanielsmidland,..marvelous things can happen, even stupid visions.
interesting Mike D. "So much effort" and "squandering" seem to be a common tag team approach in the Bush admin.
John's comment made me think of Pacific Ethanol's move from Fresno to Sacramento recently. Although their operations are here in the Valley, it is apparently more important in the corn ethanol business to be close to the centers of political power.