A quiet invasion is under way near my home in
Colorado. Inconspicuous black stickers are appearing on gas pumps
to announce the arrival of a new molecule looking to occupy gas
tanks. It goes by the name of C2H5OH – ethanol.
Typically, my consumption of ethanol is strictly oral, in the form
of alcoholic beverages. But I was forced recently to consume
ethanol through an avenue much less entertaining or appetizing – my
gas tank.
It was a crisp Saturday morning, and I was
driving with a friend to a workshop in Boulder. All was going well
until suddenly my Prius notified me that it was getting ready to
run out of gas. If you own an ecologically fashionable Prius, you
know that in this vehicle, the illumination of the gas light is
more than just a warning; it’s the start of an emergency that could
end up in a trip to the Toyota dealer.
But when the dread
light came on, I was five miles from the nearest gas station. I
started coasting down hills and taking corners like my brakes were
out, well aware that my weekend would be blown if I sucked the tank
dry. At last, the Prius and I made it to the tiny town of Nederland
and what appeared to be the only gas station around. That’s when I
saw a little black sticker informing me that the gasoline from this
pump was supplemented with ethanol. For many reasons, being forced
to gas up with ethanol was not as happy an occasion as cracking a
Colorado microbrew.
Economic and environmental studies
consistently criticize corn-based ethanol because increased demand
for the fuel can push up prices for food with corn ingredients and
because its production is so energy-intensive. According to
Scientific American, the energy balance for corn
ethanol is at most 1.3-to-1, meaning that its output of energy is
only 30 percent greater than the energy it took to produce and ship
it. Since ethanol can bond with condensed water in pipelines, it
must be shipped by diesel trucks or trains. Meanwhile, gasoline’s
energy balance is 5-to-1.
Ethanol production is so
energy-intensive that the United States would have to increase its
imports of natural gas to meet mandates for this “domestic” fuel.
What’s more, thanks to ethanol’s lower energy density, your vehicle
is 33 percent less efficient when it burns ethanol, so you’ll be
paying more to fill up more often. Energy experts such as Jan
Kreider of the University of Colorado find that burning ethanol
produces more carbon dioxide, a major component of global warming,
than just burning gasoline.
It appears that politics
drives the production of the new fuel more than any benefits to the
environment. Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, one of the
world’s largest corn-processing firms and the country’s leading
ethanol producer, has contributed $3.7 million to elected officials
since 2000. Those politicians, in turn, handed out corn subsidies
totaling $51 billion between 1995 and 2005. Congress has also
subsidized ethanol itself at $1.38 per gallon, and mandated huge
increases in ethanol production. All told, the ethanol hoopla seems
more like a cynical and misleading marketing campaign than an
ecological fix to what’s ailing our atmosphere.
And that
is why I bought only $10 of ethanol-supplemented gasoline at that
pump in Nederland. At a time when it is crucial that we do
everything in our power to curb global warming, the ethanol boom
seems a distracting waste of precious time and tax dollars.
Ever since then, in my own small way, I have been
fighting the invasion of the black stickers. I gas up only where
they are not. But most people probably don’t even notice them. They
don’t care that there’s booze in their fuel, or worst of all, they
think they’re doing their part to fight global warming by buying
ethanol-supplemented gasoline.
I invite you to join my
boycott of the black stickers. Spread the word and help prevent the
hijacking of the environmental movement by fat cats who could care
less about saving the planet so long as they get paid.
Dustin Heron Urban is a recent college graduate who lives
and writes in Buena Vista, Colorado.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A bad idea hits the gas pumps.
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