Ethanol Goes to Court in Cali

  • California regulators want car fuels to come from sources that create fewer greenhouse gas emissions. That means corn-based ethanol will soon get a kind of penalty in California's fuel market. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

The US government is steadily
increasing the amount of ethanol
used in our gasoline supply.
But Shawn Allee reports
that effort’s hit a roadblock
in the country’s largest gasoline
market:

Transcript

The US government is steadily
increasing the amount of ethanol
used in our gasoline supply.
But Shawn Allee reports
that effort’s hit a roadblock
in the country’s largest gasoline
market:

California regulators want car fuels to come from sources that create fewer greenhouse gas emissions. That means corn-based ethanol will soon get a kind of penalty in California’s fuel market.

Environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council say ethanol should be at a disadvantage. The NRDC’s Roland Hwang says when we grow corn for fuel, farmers overseas plant more corn.

“Someone’s going to cut down a rain forest or convert pasture land or grass land to grow more food. Unfortunately, converting that land will lead to very dramatic increases in global warming pollution.”

Hwang wants the ethanol industry to stop using food crops for fuel.

Ethanol makers are not taking California’s rules sitting down, though; they’ve gone to court. They argue more lenient federal rules on ethanol should trump California’s.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Fewer Cars on the Road in 2009

  • Last year, there were four million fewer cars, but two million more drivers than in 2008. (Photo by Samara Freemark)

America’s love affair with the
car skidded a bit last year.
According to data from the
US Department of Transportation,
the number of cars in the
US dropped in 2009. Lester
Graham reports that’s the first
time that’s happened since
World War II:

Transcript

America’s love affair with the
car skidded a bit last year.
According to data from the
US Department of Transportation,
the number of cars in the
US dropped in 2009. Lester
Graham reports that’s the first
time that’s happened since
World War II:

Last year there were four million fewer cars, but two million more drivers than in 2008.

Lester Brown is with the Earth Policy Institute. His group reviewed the numbers. He says the market’s saturated.

“We have more licensed vehicles than we have licensed drivers. So, we couldn’t get all our cars on the road at once if we wanted to because we don’t have enough drivers. That’s one way to define saturation.”

The Earth Policy Institute also found more people have access to mass transit, people are concerned about the impact of foreign oil, gasoline prices, and young people socialize on the internet and cell phones more than driving around in the car with their friends.

Auto industry experts say the decline of cars on the road has more to do with tight credit for auto loans than anything else.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Study: Ethanol Sucking Up Water

  • It can take a lot of water to make ethanol. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

The ethanol industry and the government
want more ethanol to be produced. They
say the homegrown biofuel is a good way
to move away from foreign oil. But a new
government report says many ethanol
refineries are putting a strain on another
natural resource – water. Mark Brush has
more:

Transcript

The ethanol industry and the government
want more ethanol to be produced. They
say the homegrown biofuel is a good way
to move away from foreign oil. But a new
government report says many ethanol
refineries are putting a strain on another
natural resource – water. Mark Brush has
more:

When you fuel up at the pump, chances are you’re putting ethanol into your car. Nearly half of the gasoline in the U.S. is blended with ethanol. And that’s likely to increase as they build more refineries.

But the Government Accountability Office says these ethanol refineries should consider local water resources before they build. It can take a lot of water to make ethanol.

Anu Mittel follows water resource issues for the Government Accountability Office:

“Many of them are being built in areas where they are relying on groundwater aquifers for their water supply and that could have a devastating effect on the local community that is also relying on that same water source for all of its other needs.”

Refineries built in those areas often rely on irrigated corn to make ethanol. So it means drawing millions of gallons of water just to make the ethanol at the refinery.

And millions of gallons more to grown the corn.

For The Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Small Supply of Green Fuel

  • The smaller supply of cellulosic ethanol might mean the country uses less efficient ethanol from corn, or keeps using more gasoline. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Cellulosic ethanol is supposed to
be a green fuel for cars – greener
than conventional ethanol made from
corn. The government wanted industry
to create loads of cellulosic ethanol
next year. Shawn Allee reports
industry might provide just a trickle:

Transcript

Cellulosic ethanol is supposed to
be a green fuel for cars – greener
than conventional ethanol made from
corn. The government wanted industry
to create loads of cellulosic ethanol
next year. Shawn Allee reports
industry might provide just a trickle:

The fuel industry’s supposed to create 100 million gallons of cellulosic-ethanol next
year. But industry leaders say they might create just 12 million gallons.

Wes Bolsen is with Coskata. His company can create ethanol from wood chips and even
household trash. Bolsen says companies like his found some investment money – but the
financial crisis created delays.

“We’re building refineries – 300, 400 million dollar assets and that’s a lot of money
to come together. We’re two years delayed, the whole industry. We can’t open them
in 2010. Facilities will start opening in 2012.”

The federal government might have to shift mandates for cellulosic ethanol into the
future.

That could mean the country uses less efficient ethanol from corn, or keeps using more
gasoline.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Twenty-Tens Hit the Streets

  • The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. (Photo courtesy of Ford)

New car models are hitting the
dealers’ showroom floors. Lester
Graham reports not as many fuel
efficient cars are selling in the
wake of the government’s Cash-
for-Clunkers program:

Transcript

New car models are hitting the
dealers’ showroom floors. Lester
Graham reports not as many fuel
efficient cars are selling in the
wake of the government’s Cash-
for-Clunkers program:

It’s hard to miss the ads for new models.

(montage of car advertisements)

But in September, fuel-efficient cars didn’t sell that well.

Mark Gillies is the Executive Editor for Car and Driver magazine. He says vehicles that get good gas mileage probably won’t start selling until gasoline prices go up – just like last year.


“That’s when you saw a big move to buying more fuel efficient vehicles. And I think the obvious thing about oil prices is that long term the trend is that they’re going to go up and they’re going to stay that way.”

Fuel-efficient models did sell in August because of Cash-for Clunkers, but Gillies says people bought low-end models this time because they were cheap – not necessarily because they were fuel-efficient.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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The Attractiveness of Ethanol

  • The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:

Transcript

Cheap oil makes switching to alternative
fuels such as ethanol less attractive.
Lester Graham reports that could affect
an upcoming decision about using more
ethanol:

Crude oil prices spiked a little because of Iran’s long-range missile testing and revelations of a secret nuclear facility.

But analysts think for the next several months we’ll actually see oil prices go down – maybe to around $30 a barrel, less than half of what it is now.

And that could hurt demand for fuels such as ethanol.

But the government has mandated the nation produce more ethanol.

Dan Flynn is an analyst with the trading firm, Alaron.

“Obviously the government definitely wants to push this through. However, the price of crude oil and gasoline, if that goes down, generally people look not to look for alternative sources of energy.”

One way to use more ethanol is to mix higher amounts with gasoline.

The government will soon decide whether to allow increasing the mix from the current 10% blend to as high as a 15% blend.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.

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Sampling a New Crop: Sugar Corn

  • Todd Krone researches corn for Targeted Growth, a bio-energy company. Targeted Growth is tweaking corn genetics to produce 'Sugarcorn,' a variety with high amounts of sugar and biomass. The hope is the plants can be converted into ethanol cheaply. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:

Transcript

The federal government wants more
and more ethanol in our fuel supplies,
but it worries about how its made.
Most American ethanol is made from
corn kernels. That’s inefficient
and it makes the ethanol and food
industries compete for corn. The
government’s mandating we start making
ethanol out of things other than corn
kernels. Shawn Allee looks
at one effort to meet that mandate:

I’m just outside an ethanol plant in central Indiana and its pretty much like most ethanol
plants. There’re a lot of semi-trucks going by and they’re loaded with yellow corn kernels.


Most ethanol plants grind corn kernels for starch, they let that starch turn into sugar, then
they brew the sugary juice into ethanol. Now, this whole process would be easier and
cheaper if we could make ethanol directly from sugary plants instead of starchy grain
kernels like corn.


Pretty quick here, I’m gonna meet a guy who’s trying to make corn a plant that’s easy to
grow in the Midwest but produces sweet juice – not starchy corn kernels.

“If you walk over here, these are our sugar corn hybrids.”

I’m with Todd Krone. He’s a researcher with a company called Targeted Growth. He walks me
through a test plot of a plant nicknamed ‘Sugarcorn.’ He pulls off a ear of corn and pulls back the
leaves.

(sound of leaves being pulled back)

The ear is almost bare.

Allee: “There’re just a few stray kernels developing, very few.”

Krone: “Yep. A few got through.”

Krone says this plant avoids making corn kernels. Instead, it puts energy and sugar into the
stalk. He can prove it with a taste test – right here in field.

He snips a piece of stalk.

(sound of snipping)

And pulls out a little press.

Krone: “You squeeze some of the juice to see how much sugar’s there. It’s up to you, if
you like, you could put on on your finger and taste. Is there sweetness?”

Allee: “Yeah, it’s definitely sweet. It’s definitely got a sweet tinge to it.”

Krone: “It might be a bit sweeter than pop might be.”

Krone says tests show Sugarcorn juice is as sweet as juice from sugar cane. He says this means
America could have a new plant that boosts ethanol production – but doesn’t compete with food,
and uses equipment farmers already have.

Krone: “For the farmer, not much changes until harvest when some logistics still need to
be worked out.”

Allee: “Obviously if you’re selling a lot of this corn, you’d be making a good deal of profit,
hopefully, what’s in it for the rest of us in terms of the success or failure of this, for drivers
and everybody else?”

Krone: “I would say, hopefully, it results in cheaper ethanol that can compete with cheap
oil. And then meeting that mandate to get more and more ethanol produced.”

Well, that’s the idea, but Targeted Growth would have to change more than just corn plants to
succeed. They’de have to change how at least some ethanol companies do business. And some
ethanol companies have some tough questions about it.

“How could you handle sugarcorn? How would you store it?”

This is Jeff Harts. He works at Central Indiana Ethanol. Harts says he likes the idea of using
sweet corn juice to make ethanol – it could be efficient. But he worries about getting enough to
run an expensive operation like his. He has no problem finding corn kernels.

“It’s a consistent flow of corn and we need that consistent flow to keep going. That’s why
we have storage, the farmers have storage. That’s why we have a local grain elevator
network to ship corn to us to keep that flow steady 12 months out of the year.”

Harts’ company might be a bit reluctant to change right away, but ethanol producers will have
find alternatives to the corn kernel. The government is capping how much ethanol can come
from corn starch.

As those requirements phase in, alternatives like Sugarcorn might look sweeter than they do
now.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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Not Just Tailpipes and Smokestacks

  • 42% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the US are related to everything that goes into creating the food and products we use, and then throw away. (Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute)

More than 100 world leaders are
in New York today talking about
climate change at The United Nations.
A new report from the U-S Environmental
Protection agency says a big chunk of
greenhouse gas emissions can be pinned
on how we use land and resources.
Tamara Keith has more:

Transcript

More than 100 world leaders are
in New York today talking about
climate change at The United Nations.
A new report from the U-S Environmental
Protection agency says a big chunk of
greenhouse gas emissions can be pinned
on how we use land and resources.
Tamara Keith has more:

Some EPA scientists say greenhouse gas emissions are not just about tailpipes and smokestacks. They say you have to look at the big picture.

42% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the US are related to everything that goes into creating the food and products we use, and then throw away. So, they say more reduce, reuse and recycle. And, a lot of emissions are caused by urban sprawl. We have to drive everywhere.

Brigit Lowery is with the EPA. She says there are ways to reduce those emissions too.

“Encouraging compact development, such as promoting smart growth. But also reducing development pressures on green space, such as redeveloping formerly contaminated properties.”

Lowery said she knew going into it that land use and resource management contributed to climate change. But she was surprised by how much.

For The Environment Report, I’m Tamara Keith.

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Parks in Parking Spaces

  • Every other day of the year, this little green oasis in Brooklyn is a parking space. (Photo by Norah Flaherty)

On September 18th, thousands of
people around the world will spend
the day sitting in parking spaces –
without their cars – as part of an
annual event called “Parking Day.”
The idea is to spark a conversation
about how we’re using our public spaces.
Nora Flaherty attended
last year’s Parking Day, and here’s
what she found:

Transcript

On September 18th, thousands of
people around the world will spend
the day sitting in parking spaces –
without their cars – as part of an
annual event called “Parking Day.”
The idea is to spark a conversation
about how we’re using our public spaces.
Nora Flaherty attended
last year’s Parking Day, and here’s
what she found:

(sound of park)

Last year at about this time, this little park on a busy Brooklyn
corner was packed. Packed with people like freelance writer Karen
Sherman. She was sitting cross-legged in the grass and just
beaming.

“Amazing! And the sun’s out and it’s this beautiful fall day and I
wish we could do it every day.”

But she couldn’t have done it every day— that little park was
temporary. Every other day of the year it’s a parking space.

In New York City last year, there were more than 50 parking day
parks – some with grass and fences, some with tents and lawn
chairs. And they didn’t just spring up overnight – as much as it
might have looked that way.

A few days before last year’s parking day, planning was underway
at a Brooklyn coffee house.

“So how long do we think it’s going to take to set up?”

Sod needed transporting, city permits needed confirming, and—
because of New York City’s unusual parking regulations—the
parking place had to be staked out at 3 am.

Anne Pope is the director of Sustainable Flatbush – the
organization that put together the parking-spot park in Brooklyn.
She says although Flatbush is one of the greenest neighborhoods in
Brooklyn, there aren’t a lot of public, green places where people
can just go and hang out.

“If you walk around the neighborhood you’ll say, ‘wow there’s so
much greenery and green space,’ but if it doesn’t happen to be
attached to a house you own you can’t access it.”

(sound of child fingerpainting)

So on Parking Day last year, parking spaces did become a place to
hang out, for adults, and for kids like brother and sister Quinn
Isreal and Yusuf Francis.

Quinn: “Whoa, Yusuf, you’re pushing me.”

Yusuf: “Whoopsie, sorry.”

Quinn: “It’s okay.”
They had just moved here from Georgia, and Quinn said this park,
with its soft grass, was a nice change from New York’s mostly
concrete playgrounds.

“‘Cause usually in parks when you fall you hurt yourself, but in
this park you don’t hurt yourself if you fall down, you’re going to
fall down on the grass.”

Now, finding a parking space on any day in New York City is
competitive.

Matt Shafer is with the Trust for Public Land – they were one of
the major sponsors of last year’s Parking Day. He says that not
everyone is thrilled to find they can’t find a place to put their car
because people are hanging out in parking spaces.

“Some people don’t quite grasp the concept of parking day; that’s
perfectly fine. In most cases it’s, ‘why are you taking up our
parking space?’”

For some people, though, the biggest disappointment is that the
little parking space park is gone the next day. Keka Marzigal is
with Sustainable Flatbush.

“A kid came by after school and he said, ‘this is so fun, we can
come here tomorrow and do our homework!’ and it really got me!”

There was no tomorrow for that little park. But, that kid might just
find another one this year as more people convert parking spaces
into parks for a day.

For The Environment Report, I’m Nora Flaherty.

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Recycling Your Ride

  • Bassam Jody of Argonne National Laboratory is helping develop novel ways of sorting and cleaning shredder residue left over from cars, construction debris, and major household appliances. (Photo by Shawn Allee)

We’ve all heard over and over again
about that government program ‘Cash
for Clunkers.’ It’s got drivers
thinking about what exactly happens
to dead cars, regardless of how they
die. Shawn Allee looks at
how car recycling works and who’s
trying to improve it:

Transcript

We’ve all heard over and over again about that government program ‘Cash for Clunkers.’ It’s got drivers thinking about what exactly happens to dead cars, regardless of how they die. Shawn Allee looks at how car recycling works and who’s trying to improve it:

You might not think about it this way, but your car just might be the biggest thing you own that gets recycled.

I mean, someday you’re going to junk it, or maybe some future owner will. Anyway, I’m out in front of a car shop in my neighborhood, and with the health of cars in mind, I thought I’d ask some people around here, percentage-wise, just how much of a junked car gets recycled?

“I would say maybe, like, 5% of the car.”

“I’ll say, 20% – 30% probably, of a car.”

“I guess the recycled one could be 30% of the car.”

“I guess, like, 50%.”

“About 70%.”
++

In my little unscientific survey here, it turns out that most people are giving a pretty low estimate of how much of a junked car ends up being recycled.

The auto industry and the federal environmental protection agency say about 80% of the junked car gets recycled. The rest heads to landfills. That sounds pretty good, but that means we bury about five million tons of junked car pieces each year.

To understand why they can’t recycle even more of the car, I’m going to talk with Jim Watson.

He runs ABC Auto Wreckers in a suburb just south of Chicago.

“We don’t want to landfill anything. The objective is to take the vehicle, process it and have all the parts be used.”

Watson shows me his shop where he pulls parts for the used market. A dozen workers lift hoods, twist tires, and pull out stuff I don’t even recognize. It’s like an assembly line in reverse.

“They do an analysis and inventory each of the parts of the car that have a probability of sale and then they harvest or pull those parts off the car.”

Watson and some of the bigger auto wreckers have parts-scrapping down to a science, but it’s expensive to keep pulling parts and keep space open for scrap yards.

Eventually, Watson’s pulls off everything usefull and he’ll send it to a car shredder.

“A machine that beats it apart and shreds the car into small fist-sized or hand-sized components.”

Recyclers can pull out big shreds of steel and aluminum, but about 20% of the car is left-over. This shredder residue gets tossed into landfills. But scientists are thinking about how to recycle this shredded mess.

One works at a lab at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.

“This is what shredder residue looks like.”

Dr. Bassam Jody reaches into a cardboard box and scoops a jumble of car seat foam, metal cable, wood, and shards of plastic.

Jody says shredder residue is a recycler’s nightmare.

“Maybe there are more than twenty different kinds of plastics. I tell you, plastics are generally incompatible, they don’t like each other and they don’t work together very well.”

Jody is developing machines to safely clean and separate all this stuff. It’s tough science.

Jody: “The more things you have in the mixture, the harder it is to separate. The trick is, you have to do it economically, and to produce materials that can be used in value-added products.”

Allee: “What can you make out of them?”

Jody: “Car parts. For example, this is a seating column cover.”

Jody says he gets a kick out of his work. He might just squeeze a bit more good out of our cars.

For The Environment Report, I’m Shawn Allee.

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