What Big Oil doesn’t want you to know about corn ethanol could hurt you
Myth: Ethanol producers are dependent on government subsidies.
Facts:
•
•
•
Corn ethanol production is not subsidized. 1
Previously enacted ethanol subsidies expired in 2011 and those subsidies went to
blenders and oil companies, not to growers or ethanol producers. 2
On the other hand, Big Oil continues to receive $4 billion in taxpayer support despite
continued record profits.
Myth: It takes more energy to produce ethanol than the finished product provides.
Facts:
•
•
According to the USDA, ethanol is more energy efficient to produce than gasoline.
For every 1 Btu of energy used to make ethanol, ethanol provides a 2.6 Btu return. 3
Myth: Using corn for ethanol drives up corn prices and makes food more expensive.
Facts:
•
•
•
Farmers produce more than enough corn to meet both food and fuel needs, and new corn
that’s grown for ethanol wasn’t grown at all prior to the Renewable Fuel Standard. 4
The biggest factors in food costs are transportation costs – including fuel, processing and
packaging. Just 11.6 cents of every dollar in food costs can be attributed to the cost of the
raw food itself. 5
Spikes in grain prices in 2012 were caused by record droughts, not by ethanol
production. 6
Myth: Making ethanol uses up corn that should be used for food.
Facts:
•
•
1
The corn used to make ethanol isn’t the same as sweet corn that you eat. 7
One-third of every bushel of corn used to make ethanol is turned into nutritious animal
feed that goes back into the food chain. 8
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/business/energy-environment/after-three-decades-federal-tax-credit-forethanol-expires.html
2
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/laws/law/US/399
3
www.usda.gov/oce/reports/index.htm
4
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/data/10339
5
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err114/
6
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/09/27/rising-food-costs-how-the-drought-will-increaseyour-grocery-bill/
7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVlIZ_VYEU
Myth: Gasoline blended with ethanol will damage your car’s engine.
Facts:
•
•
•
•
•
Ethanol is the most extensively tested fuel ever brought to market and consumers have
been using blended ethanol fuels for decades.
The EPA approved E15 fuel for use in all cars made since 2001. 9 This is based on more
than 6 million miles of testing on 86 engines.
In contrast, Big Oil and the auto companies paid for a flawed study to justify their claims
that tested just 8 engines, many of which were known to have mechanical issues. 10
NASCAR has run nearly 5 million miles of races on E15 fuel. 11
Ethanol has an octane rating of 113, making it the highest performing fuel on the
market. 12
Myth: Growing corn for ethanol damages the environment by causing land to be deforested
and increasing use of farm chemicals.
Facts:
•
•
Thanks to modern technology, today’s corn growers are producing more corn on less land
and with fewer resources per bushel than ever before. 13
According to the Fertilizer Institute, in 2010, farmers grew nearly twice as much corn
using half as much fertilizer per bushel compared to 1980. 14
Myth: Ethanol doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions.
Facts:
•
•
8
Using corn ethanol decreases greenhouse gas emissions by 34 percent compared to
gasoline. 15
In 2012, the 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol produced reduced greenhouse gas emissions
from on-road vehicles by 33.4 million tons. 16
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/pages/ethanol-facts-agriculture
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/additive/e15/e15-faq.htm
10
http://energy.gov/articles/getting-it-right-accurate-testing-and-assessments-critical-deploying-next-generationauto
11
http://green.nascar.com/biofuel-powers-nascar
12
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/pages/ethanol-facts-engine-performance
13
USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service
14
http://www.tfi.org/statistics/fertilizer-use
15
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/7/4/045905/
16
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/pages/ethanol-facts-environment#sthash.Yh2Spwjf.dpuf
9