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A New Day For Ethanol In Lousiana: Ethanol Grows Up
By Mr Ethanol | November 1, 2007
The Daily Advertiser:
We made ethanol with sugarcane molasses — 32 million gallons worth — and mixed it to make 319 million gallons of “gasohol,” more than any year before. The state was expected to lead the nation’s budding ethanol industry.
Burned by the world oil crunch in the 1970s, the United States gave tax breaks to an ethanol industry in its infancy, hoping to eliminate the country’s reliance on foreign oil. Farmers considered it a saving grace, and six plants across the state were planned to turn corn and cane into fuel. Up to 18 more were expected within the decade.
But that was then.
In the long run, Louisiana and the nation began backing away from the promise of renewable fuels as soon as oil got cheaper — and let a wobbly-kneed ethanol industry fall before it could find its legs. Louisiana erased its subsidies in 1989 that convinced investors to roll the dice, and the state’s ethanol future was gone.
Now, the U.S. is back to square one, importing 65 percent of its oil from foreign sources, a supply that grows more expensive each day. Meanwhile, Brazil, which stuck to its 1970s plan to create an ethanol industry, no longer needs foreign oil.
Led by the success of Midwestern corn farmers, the U.S. is moving toward ethanol again.
Louisiana, too, sees the possibility of restarting a biofuels industry, but the state must avoid mistakes of the past.
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