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Is corn ethanol number one?

Posted: May 17, 2010 at 12:53 PM CST

We got an email today via the Web site that was short with some pointed questions.

“What in your opinion is the most efficient source of ethanol. In what ways will the spread of ethanol benefit people in the future? If ethanol is in your opinion the #1 source of renewable energy, why?”

People need to be reminded that “the most efficient source of ethanol” is regionally specific. Corn makes sense in the Midwest, which is called the Corn Belt for a reason. The climate and soils provide an ideal environment for corn. American farmers started the U.S. ethanol industry with the goal of providing a new market for their huge surpluses of corn that were not only keeping corn prices in the basement, but depressing all grain commodity prices. They succeeded. There no longer is a huge surplus of corn. Prices have stabilized at much higher levels than a decade ago. Farmers have responded by doing what they love to—grow more corn. Corn use for ethanol is just under a third of the crop now, while the other markets are being supplied as well.

In other places, other sources make sense. In the Southeast, Osage Bioenergy is about to bring its first barley-to-ethanol plant online. Winter barley might be a good fit in that region, providing a winter cover crop that brings in some cash to produce ethanol in a region that has a lot of cars, and providing a valuable feed product in a feed-deficient region.

There are other examples of the feedstock matching a region’s agricultural base. Canada’s ethanol industry uses corn in the eastern provinces, but turns to wheat in the prairie provinces. Brazil has developed a robust sugar cane industry. Southeast Asia looks at other starch/sugar crops such as cassava. And of course, the promise of cellulosic ethanol development is that it produces fuel from numerable feedstocks—waste streams of all descriptions, woody biomass and dedicated energy crops—opening up all sorts of possibilities for providing renewable energy in new regions.

What ultimately becomes the ethanol feedstock of choice in a particular region will evolve as multiple farmers make individual decisions based on their operation and the resources and opportunities at hand. Ethanol will succeed only where it works—as it has in the U.S. Corn Belt and Brazilian sugar cane fields. Introducing a fuel ethanol feedstock market adds diversity to the agricultural economy, regardless the feedstock. Diversity makes the local agriculture more resilient.

Will ethanol be the No. 1 source of renewable energy? No, it will be one of a number of sources. The whole point of renewable energy is that to be renewable, it has to fit the ecology of a specific place, and each place is very different. We need to be developing every idea that looks promising to power an energy-hungry economy and lifestyle. The whole point of tax credits, mandates and other incentives is to help new industries get a foothold and compete against well-established, well-oiled incumbants in the energy sector.

Are there unintended consequences to worry about? You bet. The folks worrying about the expansion of corn acres have legitimate concerns, and the pressure they bear keeps the corn ethanol industry on its toes. Those that worry about off-shore drilling have legitimate concerns, too. And the pressure the renewable energy industry bears on the fossil-fuel industry, we hope, keeps them aware they must act responsibly.

How would you reply?

-Susanne Retka Schill