GoodFuels

Anti-ethanol campaign reported

Delta Farm Press posted an interesting article yesterday on the anti-ethanol campaign spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group and Grocery Manufacturers of America.

The Washington-based Environmental Working Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association seem to be intent on destroying the ethanol industry at a time when the country needs to be reducing rather than increasing its dependence on foreign oil, National Corn Growers Association officials say.

The story goes on to cite the University of Nebraska study we told you about last week.

While the EWG and the Grocery Manufacturers extolled the virtues of solar and wind power, they failed to mention the soaring costs of those alternative energy systems. A single wind turbine can cost $3 million to install and solar panel costs have been on the rise because of the energy required to fabricate them.

The NCGA and the Renewable Fuels Association cited a new study by the University of Nebraska that shows increased environmental and economic benefits of ethanol, including:

• Ethanol production and use is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 59 percent compared to gasoline.

The production and use of 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2007 displaced 228 million barrels of imported oil valued at $16 billion. Ethanol experts expect those numbers to all increase in 2008.

The Renewable Fuels Association is also quoted:

“It is intentionally misleading to deny the concrete strides American farmers and ethanol producers are making to improve our energy security, mitigate the climate impacts of increasing petroleum consumption these groups seem to advocate, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic opportunity.”

Read the entire article here.