New Study Finds That Even the Good Kind of Ethanol is Terrible

The United States has spent
much of the last 30 years subsidizing ethanol production under the
pretense that it’s more environmentally friendly than gasoline. I
say “pretense” because for years it’s been completely obvious that
corn ethanol is actually worse for the environment, that the
overall production cycle stokes global warming even more than
typical fuel, and that, in addition, it drives up world food
prices, contributing to global hunger problems in the process.
Also, it makes your gasoline less efficient. And yet this is
something that we’ve repeatedly mandated and paid for. 

A new form of biofuel, cellosic ethanol, which relies on the
detritus from the corn farming and production process, was supposed
to fix some of these problems. It doesn’t. A new study funded by
the federal government and published in the journal Nature
Climate Change finds that cellosic biofuels actually release
more greenhouse gases than regular gasoline during an initial
five-year timeframe.
Via the Associated Press (AP):

Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are
worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study
shows, challenging the Obama administration’s conclusions that they
are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate
change.

A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released
Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes
that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more
greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional
gasoline.

The good news:
The $1.01 per-gallon cellulosic biofuel credit expired at the
end of December, 2013.

The bad news: The last time that happened, at the end of 2012,
it was reinstated retroactively a little while later.

The predictable news: A tax extenders bill that
includes a cellulosic biofuel credit just passed the Senate
Finance Committee. Prior to the vote, Finance Committee members

voted to stop an amendment that would have eliminated the
biofuel and renewables tax credits included in the bill. 

Lots more from Reason on the madness of ethanol
subsidies here.