Ethanol Fuel Barely a Couple Term Paper

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In addition, large quantities of natural gas are required to produce fertilizers which are needed for growing corn. It is estimated that an average of 135 pounds of nitrogen (a potent-greenhouse-gas) per acre is used in growing corn in most U.S. farms. Besides, research by the U.S. Department for Agriculture (USDA) shows that tilled soil releases carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere in proportion to the volume of soil loosened (Kenny).

Most of all, it is erroneous to assume that ethanol is likely to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. It has been estimated that the current ethanol production in the United States that has triggered such massive increase in grain and food prices around the world barely satisfies less than 3% of U.S. gasoline needs; and if the entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into ethanol, it would satisfy scarcely 18% of the country's automotive fuel need (Brown.). Furthermore, even if the highly ambitious target of producing 36 billion gallons envisaged by the Renewable Fuels Standard (RSA) law signed into law by President Bush in 2007 is achieved by 2022, it would scarcely replace a paltry 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, which is just seven percent of current U.S.

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oil needs. It is, therefore, pertinent to ask whether the effort to produce ethanol from corn is at all worthwhile? It certainly does not seem so when we consider the World Bank's estimate that "the grain required to fill the tank of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) with ethanol...could feed one person for a year." ("World Development Report" 71)

Conclusion

As we saw in this essay, bio-ethanol, especially the type produced from corn in the United States, is not such a good idea as was assumed just a few years ago. The several fold increase in its production over the last two years has triggered an unprecedented hike in global food prices that threatens the poorest sections of the third world with the clear and present danger of hunger. The indirect effects of converting corn into ethanol have also eroded the apparent environment friendliness of such fuel. In short, producing corn-based ethanol is simply not worth the human suffering and environmental damage it can cause.

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