The lesson of corn ethanol

Faced with increasing oil prices, the US government decided a few years ago to encourage an increase in the production of ethanol. Now ethanol can be made from all manner of plant material, and even from green algae. So what did the US government do? It decided to subsidize ethanol from corn, a food crop which takes intensive mechanized cultivation, a great deal of fertilizer (made from oil, of course) and very good soil. In fact, as several studies have now shown, when one factors in the fertilizer and energy used for intensive cultivation, making ethanol from corn requires about 29% more energy (from oil) than the ethanol yields, and the process wastes enormous amounts of water besides. In fact, even the most efficient ethanol feedstock crops (switchgrass and soybeans) still require more energy input than one gets out of the ethanol.

Did any of this scientific evidence make any difference to the government? Of course not, because the corn belt states have a lot of votes, so in 2006 the government handed out $7 billion (yes, billion) in ethanol subsidies (about $1.50 per gallon of ethanol produced), and the subsidies are set to increase in the next few years. Nor can one blame the Bush administration or the Republicans for this -- members of Congress from both parties have been had a part in shaping the farm and energy bills that provide these subsidies.

What can one learn from this? Perhaps that even in our “advanced” first-world nation, politics and ideology still trumps science and common sense. Perhaps that politicians in general are either woefully ignorant of science, or simply unwilling to believe inconvenient evidence. Perhaps that, despite their pious promises to serve the nation, politicians really only care about getting re-elected. Those who still favor government action to solve our nation’s serious problems might ponder this lesson.