If We’re Going to Use Ethanol, Do It Wisely
Wired:
Brazil is increasing its sugar cane crops and exports of ethanol, but critics say the expansion does more harm than good to the environment. If we’re going to use ethanol we have to use the most energy efficent domestic solutions.
Clearing forests in the Amazon and other parts of Brazil to grow sugar cane for fuel is seen as a negative because of the reduction in using forests as CO2 sinks. Cuban President Fidel Castro repeated his opposition to Brazil’s expansion of sugar cane crops to fuel autos, and conservation groups also are concerned about the affect of ethanol expansion on climate change.
Sugar cane has the advantage of being much more energy efficient than corn, producing seven times as much energy as it requires. But here in the U.S. we continue to push corn as the short term solution for ethanol, when we could be growing more sugar cane in the South. Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Bob Odom spoke this week about the opportunities in his state for growing sugar cane when the state is expanding growing more corn instead.
With gasoline prices skyrocketing, sugar cane is becoming more financially viable as an ethanol crop here in the U.S. We should take the most effective method of producing the biofuel, and sugar cane should be part of the mix. There’s enough demand to keep corn and cane farmers happy, and we shouldn’t pass on our need for ethanol to Brazil if domestic solutions exist.
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