Despite recent findings, political interests in Washington are working to extend corn ethanol subsidies set to expire at the end of this year.(Photo courtesy of AmandaLeighPanda CC-2.0)
For a long time, corn growers and the corn ethanol industry have claimed their fuel is low carbon. That is, it’s lower in the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. A second study is out which disputes that claim.Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
For a long time, corn growers and the corn ethanol industry have claimed their fuel is low carbon. That is, it’s lower in the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Lester Graham reports… a second study is out which disputes that claim.
This study published in the journal BioScience also found corn is being used for ethanol instead of exported to other countries. Those other countries are plowing up grasslands and rainforests to plant corn for food. Less rainforest means less CO2 is being taken up by plants.
Thomas Hertel is a researcher at Purdue and lead author of the new study.
He finds ethanol from corn is not a low-carbon fuel when you include that indirect effect.
“It results in a figure which [is] not significantly lower than emissions associated with gasoline.”
But, political interests in Washington are working to extend corn ethanol subsidies which are set to expire at the end of this year.
For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.