Ethanol bill would help Midwest, cost everyone else

Ethanol bill would help Midwest, cost everyone else

By Kinston, Freedom Communications, May 01, 2002 12:00 AM


Raise your hand if you want to see gasoline prices jump 10 percent. That's what is predicted to happen if the Senate version of a federal energy bill becomes law.

The bill would mandate tripling ethanol use in the whole country to 5 billion gallons by 2012, according to a report by Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The bill mainly would benefit the Midwestern states, where 98 percent of ethanol is produced, at the expense of everybody else. One company, agribusiness leader Archer Daniels Midland, would receive 41 percent of the business.

Ethanol is believed to mitigate air pollution by reducing carbon monoxide, but it can also harm the environment.

Ethanol increases the production of "hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions," according to Charlie Peters, president of the Clean Air Performance Professionals.

In a newspaper interview, he pointed out that oxygenates such as ethanol "cause a degradation of the fuel process in cars," which "increases the volume of fuel you need." He said official estimates put the reduction in gas mileage at 1 percent to 3 percent; he estimated ethanol will increase fuel consumption up to 10 percent.

He also said cars aren't engineered to run ethanol, which is hydroscopic, meaning it has an "extreme ability to absorb moisture." So cars will wear out faster. And when the anti-pollution parts of a car such as the oxygen sensor wear out, the car starts polluting more.

The best way to reduce pollution is to make it as easy as possible to buy new cars with high emissions standards and to repair or junk older cars that are polluters. Increasing the cost of driving means people will have less money for new cars and repairs.

The House of Representatives' version of the energy bill doesn't include the ethanol mandate. The matter soon will be resolved in a conference committee between the House and the Senate.

The president should make sure that this unneeded and costly ethanol mandate is not made law.


http://www.kinston.com/articles/ethanol-36718-cars-percent.html

CAPP contact: Charlie Peters (510) 537-1796 cappcharlie [at] earthlink.net