is ethanol a rathole?

From the Chester Sun Times:

Expanding on his commitment to Illinois’ emerging biofuel industry, Gov. Rod Blagojevich today announced nearly $1 million in Opportunity Returns funding for upgrades at the National Corn-To-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville campus.

Everybody wants ethanol to emerge as alternative to fossil fuels. Environmentalists, farmers, agri-business and people that want to reduce reliance on foreign oil (especially from the Middle East) all want ethanol to work.

But just wanting something for Christmas doesn't mean that Santa's gonna bring it.

This is from page 51 of an analysis of ethanol by Tadeusz W. Patchek (pdf) at University of California Berkeley (2003).

So What Have We Achieved?

We have
* Burned more fossil fuels than the energy content of the ethanol from corn
* Degraded and eroded the soil on millions of acres
* Polluted surface and groundwater with nitrates, herbicides, pesticides and ethanol waste
* Polluted air with CO, NOx, SO2, VOC, etc.
* Wasted $ billions of taxpayers’ money
* Devised a terrible solution to air quality problems

The feds are still giving matching money ($2 million to match $1 million by the state), but at some point we need to be realistic and acknowledge ethanol is not going to solve the world's energy problems.