In preparing to testify before the Illinois State Legislature subcommittee investigating gas price increases, Stephen Corrick and Monica Rix Paxson consulted with several specialists on ethanol production and distribution.
Ethanol is a form of liquid fuel produced from grains, wood or other vegetation.
In response to one of our queries, we had this interesting e-mail exchange with Ned Ford, who is the Vice Chair of Sierra Club's National Energy Committee. The environmental community is suspicious of ethanol as an alternative fuel on the grounds that ethanol from corn using current agricultural practices requires such an enormous amount of fossil fuel energy and fertilizer made from fossil fuel that it doesn't really amount to a sustainable fuel. I do not feel confident of the various quantifications I've seen of the energy requirement for ethanol, but am quite sure that this is an open discussion. Anyone hoping to address greenhouse gas emissions must rely on efficiency for the next fifteen years. There isn't enough natural gas, and it seems to have priced itself out of the market long before it comes close to achieving what potential there is at the present time.