Peace and Environment News* June 1995
|
Peace and Environment News * June 1995 |
The article "Alternatives to Fueling Our Decline" in the May 1995 issue of the PEN states, "Unfortunately ethanol production also requires energy: up to one third the energy available in the final fuel."
Terry Boland, a propagandist for the corn-ethanol lobby in Ontario, claimed in the London Free Press of April 16, 1994 that something closer to half the combustible energy was used in production.
Both figures may be "factual" within their own limited terms of reference (which are never specified), but realistic consideration of total inputs is something else entirely—and something quite foreign to greenwashers seeking $70 million in government loan guarantees.
Jacques Ellul on page 236 of The Technological Bluff cites the following figures from J-C Lavigne: "...in 1940 in the United States 150 kilocalories of corn per hectare required 124 kilocalories of energy, but in 1970, 526 kilocalories of energy were required to produce 250 kilocalories of corn per hectare." And this is before we use our latest "efficient" process to turn the corn into ethanol.
Corn production in Ontario is no doubt as energy intensive as in the US, and since 1970 energy intensification has generally accelerated in all sectors.
Even Lavigne's study does not go far enough in assessing the real energy toll that our industrial agriculture demands.
Certainly ethanol could be a greener fuel, but the net result of increasing its availability for automobiles within the present agribusiness context can only be to increase petroleum consumption. We should not be surprised if we were to find that for every litre of ethanol produced, the equivalent of five or six in petroleum will be consumed running all the trucks, tractors, chemical plants, pollution abatement equipment and hospitals entailed in the process.
Philip Fleischer, Powell River, BC
Converted July 7, 2000 - Lg
To follow up on this article, contact the author or the organizations/individuals mentioned; do not contact the Peace and Environment Resource Centre - we cannot provide follow up or contact information. This article is an archival copy of the printed one in the Peace and Environment News (PEN). Viewpoints expressed should not be taken to represent the opinions of the Peace and Environment Resource Centre, the PEN, or our supporters.
