Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, Illinois
     Saturday, January 27, 2007
  

EXPENSIVE,  WASTEFUL  ETHANOL  CAN'T  SOLVE  OUR  PROBLEMS

BY JERRY TAYLOR AND PETER VAN DOREN

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush spoke a lot
about energy independence and alternative energy sources like ethanol.
According to the president, ethanol is the magical elixir that will solve
virtually every economic, environmental and foreign policy problem on the
horizon. In reality, it's enormously expensive and wasteful.

Lie No. 1: Ethanol will lead to energy independence. If all the corn
produced in America last year were dedicated to ethanol production (and only
14.3 percent of it was), U.S. gasoline consumption would drop by only 12
percent. For corn ethanol to displace gasoline in this country, we would
need to appropriate all cropland, turn it over to corn-ethanol production,
and then find 20 percent more land on top of that for cultivation. The U.S.
Energy Information Administration believes that the practical limit for
domestic ethanol production is about 700,000 barrels a day -- a figure they
don't think is realistic until 2030.

Read more at   http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/231613,CST-EDT-REF27B.article<http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/231613,CST-EDT-REF27B.article>

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