Nothing new under the sun: Marketing corn ethanol in 1933. Photo: US Dept. of Energy
But, before you convert grandpa's backwoods still into a weapon against climate change, you might want to ask some questions: How much net energy do we get from moonshine motorfuel? What is the global warming impact of the ethanol industry? And will fermenting mountains of corn affect our food supply? Brown of Earth Policy Institute claims that a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture drastically underestimated the biofuel demand for corn. Brown calculated that the ethanol plants in operation, under construction, or being planned will devour "139 million tons, half the 2008 harvest projected by USDA," in the 12 months starting September 1, 2008.
That mountain of corn -- half the giant American crop -- would "yield nearly 15 billion gallons of ethanol, satisfying 6 percent of U.S. auto fuel needs," Brown continued (ethanol now supplies about 2 percent).
If the current subsidy for ethanol remains, 15 billion gallons of motoring moonshine will cost the U.S. Treasury $7.5 billion. More important, as Brown notes, grain prices will inevitably rise. "This unprecedented diversion of the world's leading grain crop to the production of fuel will affect food prices everywhere. As the world corn price rises, so too do those of wheat and rice, both because of consumer substitution among grains and because the crops compete for land." Indeed, in early February, the price of corn reached $3.23 per bushel in the United States, a 50 percent rise in a year, and reserves were at their lowest in 10 years.
