CARBON CLOUDS GREEN FUEL

Late last year in Goldfield, Iowa, according to the Christian Science
Monitor, a refinery began pumping out a stream of ethanol, which supporters
call the clean, renewable fuel of the future.  However, the plant is burning
300 tons of coal a day to turn corn into ethanol - the first US plant of its
kind to use coal instead of cleaner natural gas.  An hour south of
Goldfield, another coal-fired ethanol plant is under construction in Nevada.
At least three other such refineries are being built in Montana, North
Dakota, and Minnesota.

The trend away from natural gas to coal as fuel, which is expected to
continue because of soaring natural gas prices, is troublesome.  Should coal
become a standard for 30 to 40 ethanol plants under construction - and 150
others on the drawing boards - it would undermine the environmental
reasoning for switching to ethanol in the first place.  "If the biofuels
industry is going to depend on coal, and these conversion plants release
their CO2 to the air, it could undo the global warming benefits of using
ethanol," according to David Hawkins, climate director for the Natural
Resources Defense Council in Washington.  For the complete article, visit
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0323/p01s01-sten.html
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