| NRDC:
Move Over, Gasoline: Here Come Biofuels Ethanol: Good idea or just sweet talk? Editorial by Henry Curtis, Haleakala Times, May 23, 2006 Out of gas: Ethanol’s promises have been big. Has it failed to deliver? by Joan Conrow. Honolulu Weekly June 28, 2006. Will we end our tragic affair with oil, terminate our unsavory liaisons with bloody Middle East wars, ravaged landscapes, ozone depletion, global warming? Will we take up with ethanol and live happily ever after, amid green fields with high biomass content, instead? Ethanol's Growing List of Enemies: As demand for the alternative fuel drives corn prices up, an unlikely assortment of groups are uniting with the hopes of cutting government support. by Moira Herbst. Business Week Special Report March 19, 2007 Hawaii to meet E10 mandate with imported ethanol (Ethanol Producer Magazine, April 2006) In April 2005, EPM reported that proposed [Hawaii] ethanol plants might be delayed due to permitting issues. It also reported that four projects were on track to start production in early 2006. One year later, all six proposed plants are delayed for reasons including permitting, financing and construction planning. Bringing Biofuels to the Pump: An Aggressive Plan for Ending America's Oil Dependence, Nathanael Greene, Yerina Mugica, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) 2005 Grist (06 Dec 2006): Give Green, Go Yellow: How cash and corporate pressure pushed ethanol to the fore. By Tom Philpott ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... |
|
|
| Ethanol Subsidies The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) launched the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) in December 2005 to put a spotlight on subsidies—transfers of public money to private interests—and how they undermine efforts to put the world economy on a path toward sustainable development. Subsidies are powerful instruments. They can play a legitimate role in securing public goods that would otherwise remain beyond reach. But they can also be easily subverted. “Biofuels: At What Cost? — Government Support for Ethanol and Biodiesel in the United States” | ||
| Study
suggests ethanol vehicles could
pose a risk to human health Posted
by Giles Clark, London. Environmental Science &
Technology (ES&T). Wednesday, 18
April 2007 Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of respiratory-related deaths and hospitalizations would likely increase, according to a new study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson. His findings are published in the April 18 online edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T). ''Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,'' said Jacobson, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. ''But 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.'' more |
||
| Hybrid Electric Vehicles - Better Than Ethanol Mario Osava Inter Press Service News Agency (http://ipsnews.net/) RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 17 (IPS) - Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are the best way to achieve a drastic reduction in greenhouse gases produced by vehicle exhaust fumes, until hydrogen-powered models become viable. They are even more environmentally-friendly than the use of biofuels. Powered by an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, HEVs are becoming an attractive alternative in the light of the most recent reports by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which recommend urgent measures to curb global warming, say Brazilian experts. more | ||
| Ethanol:
Good idea or just sweet
talk? State rushing towards ethanol economy without looking at health or environment Editorial by Henry Curtis, Haleakala Times, May 23, 2006 Ethanol has become the new buzz word. Hawaii is now mandated to use a 10 percent ethanol mix in the gas for our cars, but what exactly is ethanol? Ethanol is a hydrocarbon created from agricultural crops, such as corn and sugar, and used as a substitute for gasoline. Its counterpart is biodiesel, a heavier product containing more carbon atoms per molecule. It is also created from agricultural crops as well as waste oil and is used as a substitute for diesel. Agricultural products used for ethanol and biodiesel can be crops grown specifically for fuel, co-products of various agricultural processes and recovered products from waste material. Maui Biodiesel converts used cooking oil and grease trap oil into useable biodiesel. This reuse decreases both the need to import oil and the need to landfill waste oil. Currently Maui Biodiesel produces around 200,000 gallons a year. Maui Ethanol LLC is planning to build an ethanol plant at Pu‘unene. If approved, this plant is designed to produce 12 million gallons of ethanol a year. State law mandates the use of ethanol in our gas tanks, ostensibly to reduce oil imports, but Hawaii does not currently grow crops for ethanol. So now we are importing fossil fuel and molasses to make ethanol, while we are rapidly taking land out of agriculture to grow more houses. Hawaii needs to carefully examine all the issues and impacts surrounding ethanol – and there are many – before going full-speed ahead. Hawaii’s aggressive ethanol campaigns Both the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) and the state Legislature are pushing forward with aggressive pro-ethanol campaigns. The 2006 Legislature passed SB 2957 CD1 which mandates that the state Dept. of Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) spend $200,000 “to conduct a statewide multi-fuel biofuels production assessment of potential feedstocks and technologies, the economics of the various renewable fuels pathways, and the potential for ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable hydrogen production to contribute to Hawaii’s near-, mid-and long-term energy needs.’’ The legislation also mandates that the Hawaii Department of Agriculture spend $150,000 ‘“to provide assistance to the agricultural community interested in developing energy projects, especially for the production of biodiesel from energy crops and cellulosic ethanol from agricultural waste streams, and to seek funding that may be available from the United States Departments of Agriculture and Energy.’’ Neither of these studies, nor any other study funded by the 2006 Legislature, is required to look at environmental and health impacts surrounding these issues. For Maui, growing crops for energy will have two very visible environmental impacts – land kept in agriculture and water diverted from streams for these crops — as well as health impacts caused by the burning of the energy crops in the ethanol process. Land and water = food versus energy Converting land currently used for food production to energy production might increase energy self-sufficiency at the expense of agricultural self-sufficiency. Pitting two sectors of the economy against each other could have disastrous and unintended consequences for Hawaii, the most isolated archipelago on the planet. An alternative approach would be to use surplus agricultural lands for energy-producing crops. In either case, ethanol crops would provide a way to keep central Maui green. Land that would otherwise be available for residential developments and shopping centers would remain green. Maui is faced with competing demands for its existing water supply. These include agriculture, urban developments, hotels and time-share condos, and in-stream flow standards to support local ecosystems. A significant increase in water demand for energy crops could heighten these already tense struggles over water use. There are numerous impacts which are not being analyzed as Hawaii races towards an ethanol economy. Growing new crops will increase agricultural runoff containing inorganic nutrients, herbicides and insecticides, which significantly impact streams and coastal waters. Air pollution, global warming and GMOs Ethanol and gasoline both generate air toxins in their production and in their use. Ethanol has higher levels of certain pollutants, and produces its own unique chemical compounds. Crop production and ethanol manufacturing produce emissions which affect global warming. Monocropping and pesticide spraying negatively impacts our local flora and fauna, depletes soil quality, and decreases biodiversity. Currently the biotech industry is evaluating ways of genetically engineering crops to increase their energy yields. Regulation of genetically engineered food crops is practically non-existent now and regulation of genetically engineered energy crops is even less, even though it may involve the same crop, such as corn. Many proponents of ethanol are focusing on a futuristic technology. An oversimplification of plants is that they are composed of three parts: 1) Cellulose – The plant cells are made of cellulose. 2) Lignin – Lignin is a glue-like material that binds the cells together and provides structure, enabling plants to grow tall without having bones. Together, cellulose and lignin are called lignocellulosic material. This material represents the major land-based biomaterial of the planet. 3) Starches – The third part of plants are the starches, which provide the energy plants need to grow. Starches are currently used to create ethanol. The dream of agricultural and genetic engineering scientists is to find a way of using lignocellulosic material to produce cellulosic ethanol. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a proponent of using switch grass (panic grass) to generate cellulosic ethanol, supports spending billions of dollars to jumpstart the ethanol industry. According to NRDC, if several technological roadblocks are solved simultaneously, then the cellulosic ethanol industry should be able to break-even in 2015. Ethanol represents one possible future technology. |
||
