A recent study by Mark Johnson of Stanford University states that ethanol may do more harm than good, as it may actually put out more smog.
"It's not green in terms of air pollution," said study author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University civil and environmental engineering professor. "If you want to use ethanol, fine, but don't do it based on health grounds. It's no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse."
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ateixeira says:
08:28 AM, 04/18/07
I think supporters include the good done by the plant crops in the overall picture, i.e. the corn plants eat up CO2 and release fresh oxygen, and they take that into consideration.
carlisimo says:
09:34 AM, 04/18/07
Don't forget, anything that stores CO2 releases it when burned, so that doesn't count as a benefit (the oxygen production does though).
We're growing the corn on land that would be growing crops, so I'm not sure we're gaining anything from an environmental standpoint. Corn's not even good for soil.
Hopefully someone will give us a detailed breakdown of gasoline vs. ethanol emissions for a few engines. There are usually varying gains and losses in emissions of different substances.
mirth says:
09:38 AM, 04/18/07
Based on this one study, I think we should totally throw out the idea of using ethanol...
...until the next study comes out and says it's great. Then I'll change my mind again.
I'm waiting for the next anti-diesel, anti-hybrid, or anti-electric study. Heaven forbid we make actual progress towards reducing our gas imports.
estreka says:
10:30 AM, 04/18/07
I still support ethanol production for political reasons. The sooner we get out of there, the better.
bbechtel16 says:
05:09 PM, 04/19/07
Not trying to be smart, but define "good for soil." The purpose of soil is to grow things, right? And plants do this by extracting nutrients from the soil. So if corn removes lots of nutrients from the soil, isn't that kind of a good thing?
Hmmm....I guess I just made a self-refuting argument. Replace soil with crude oil and plants with automobiles.
Nothing to see here, move on. :-)
flicmod says:
10:43 AM, 04/20/07
Haha ::points to comment above::