Leo's Articles - The Writings and Ideas of Leo Crocker Rogers

Topic: Dailies

Environmental Irony

Leo Crocker Rogers

Corn oil [ethanol] can make for cleaner exhausts when used as a fuel, (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline = E-85) in cars.

"E85, the blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, promises to reduce pollution [in Arizona] and lessen our dependence on foreign oil - and it soon could be coming to a gas station near you." Source: AZ Department of Weights and Measures.

What is the objective here? If it is to lower obnoxious emissions to the atmosphere, one might wish to look deeper into the chain of effort to get the corn oil fuel to the car’s engine.

Let us say that we compare the corn oil fuel to the use of gasoline to fuel a car.

Starting with manufacturing the ethanol from the corn oil.

Plow the field – use gasoline.

Buy seed which has been transported to field – use gasoline

Plant crop – use gasoline.

Manufacture fertilizer – gasoline for heat.

Transport fertilizer to field – gasoline

Fertilize crop – gasoline.

Manufacture pesticides – gasoline for heat.

Transport pesticides – gasoline.

Harvest crop – gasoline.

Transport the corn to processing plant – gasoline.

Ferment crushed corn – gasoline for heat.

Distill the corn oil – gasoline for heat.

Transport ethanol to gas station – gasoline or ethanol.

Transport for ethanol is often limited to rail or trucks as ethanol is corrosive and eats low cost pipeline delivery.

Repair of fields to avoid soil erosion – gasoline.

Fertilizer contributes to the eutrophication of rivers and lakes and kills certain fish – clean up gasoline for machines and pumps.

Same with pesticides – gasoline clean up.

Use of water for crop growing – lowers water table and requires deeper wells – gasoline.

Use of water requires pumping – gasoline.

Side effects of ethanol production:

Growing corn for ethanol reduces corn for food stuff. The UN says 1/3 of total US maize went to ethanol. Result, maize price is rising. Corn for foodstuff is becoming more expensive and more expensive for ethanol too.

Higher corn prices increase prices of beef, poultry, etc.

There are 2 billion poor people that rely on corn for food. Move the corn to ethanol and 2 billion people are going to suffer.

Unfettered economics could even out the proper use of corn for fuel and food. But there is a problem. Countries, including the USA, subsidize corn crops. There goes the economic solution of balance.

Now to oil for gasoline.

Exploration – gasoline

Move rigs to site – gasoline.

Drill – gasoline.

Move oil to refinery – gasoline.

Distillation – gasoline heat.

Move gasoline to gas stations – pipe-line gasoline

Likely, the pollution from gasoline burned to get the ethanol to the car is more than the pollution caused by the direct use of gasoline in the car. However ...

Problem. There are also governmental subsidies for oil production.

Bottom line, and this is almost indisputable. The fewer the steps to get something done the less pollution and the lower the costs.

Scientists, politicians, and you and I need to think about holistic ecology, not just new ways to do old things in the name of ecology. There are, in fact, dangers when flash and bang ideas catch on without due consideration.

Right now, there is a possibility that the entire ethanol industry, while allowing for less pollution from the cars’ tail pipes is actually contributing more, not less, pollution to the earth. Why is this possible? Because at each of the 20 or more steps of getting the ethanol to the car, someone is making money [new ethanol plant planned in city of Maricopa] so they want the process to happen -- happen at the possible prospect of adding more pollution to our environment while declaring they are an essential part of reducing the very pollution they are creating.

Environment Irony.