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Facts At A Glance

ETHANOL'S BOTTOMLESS WASHINGTON WELL

"All the PR fanfare, all the gloss, all the casting aside of independent scientific and economic studies cannot hide what the proposed RFS increase really is - a New Deal-style energy policy for the 21st Century. What once began as a federal aid program with good intentions has spiraled out of control to become the gift that keeps on giving to ethanol interests. Increasing the RFS would fail the economy, fail the environment, fail energy security and fail the American consumer."

Charles T. Drevna
Executive Vice President, National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA)
December 5, 2007

What Experts Say But RFS Proponents Ignore…

A "Boondoggle" Costing Taxpayers Billions and Resulting in Little Benefit, According to Cornell Ecology Professor David Pimental

  • "[I] it does require 30% more energy oil equivalents to produce a gallon of ethanol than you actually get out, and it causes a lot of severe environmental problems. It takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Corn causes more soil erosion than any other crop grown in the nation. It uses more insecticides, herbicides and N [nitrogen] fertilizer than any other crop grown in the nation." (Professor David Pimental, Speech to the Main Organic Farmers and Gardiners Association (MOFGA) and Cooperative Extension's Farmer to Farmer Conference, Bar Harbor, Maine, November 2005 [emphasis added])
  • "You and I are paying $3 billion in taxes now to support the ethanol industry. I chaired two studies for the Department of Energy. One report we put out indicated that it was a boondoggle." (Professor David Pimental, Speech to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardiners Association (MOFGA) and Cooperative Extension's Farmer to Farmer Conference, Bar Harbor, Maine, November 2005 [emphasis added])

"Far From Being An Even Vaguely Silver-coloured Bullet," Says Simon Upton, a Former New Zealand Environment Minister and Former Chairman of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development

  • "In the first place, it is highly unlikely that the planet can produce biofuels on the scale likely to be required by future projected demand for mobility. Biomass grown for conversion into liquid fuels is in competition with biomass grown for food and fibre. There is only so much of the planet we can appropriate without causing loss of species on a calamitous scale together with the degradation of the so-called 'ecosystem services' that flow from the biologican and geo-chemical processes that make this planet liveable and living." (Simon Upton, "Biofuels Are Not Even Vaguely A Silver-Coloured Bullet," ScienceAlert, December 4, 2007 [emphasis added])
  • "The point is that biofuels are so far from being an even vaguely silver-coloured bullet that they cannot be allowed to corner such fabulous resources without more thorough questions being asked." (Simon Upton, "Biofuels Are Not Even Vaguely A Silver-Coloured Bullet," ScienceAlert, December 4, 2007 [emphasis added])

Biofuels Cultivation "Produces Up to 70% More Greenhouse Effect Than … Fossil Fuels"

  • "A research team featuring Paul Crutzen, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on ozone depletion, recently showed that the intensive cultivation of biofuels in the U.S. and Europe produces up to 70% more greenhouse effect than the fossil fuels they displace (nitrous oxide, a byproduct of the fertilizers used, has nearly 300 times the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide)." (Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., "Cheap Shot at Toyota," The Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2007 [emphasis added])
  • "We have … shown that the replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels may not bring the intended climate cooling due to the accompanying emissions of N2O. There are also other factors to consider in connection with the introduction of biofuels. Here we concentrated on the climate effects due only to required N fertilization in biomass production and we have shown that, depending on N content, the use of several agricultural crops for energy production can readily lead to N2O emissions large enough to cause climate warming instead of cooling by 'saved fossil CO2'." (P. J. Crutzen, A. R. Mosier, K. A. Smith, and W. Winiwarter, "N2O Release from Agro-Biofuel Production Negates Global Warming Reduction by Replacing Fossil Fuels," Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, August 1, 2007 [emphasis added])

The "Depletion of Water Resources in Agricultural Regions of the U.S. Would be Greatly Exacerbated," Says a Coalition of Environmental Organizations

  • "Corn cultivation often involves intensive application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which pollutes water sources and already has contributed significantly to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It also results in the emissions of nitrous oxide, a highly potent greenhouse gas, as well causing soil erosion. In addition, as corn is processed into ethanol, the depletion of water resources in agricultural regions of the U.S. would be greatly exacerbated." (Letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the Borneo Project, Family Farm Defenders, Food & Water Watch, Food First, Friends of the Earth, Global Justice Ecology Project, Grassroots International, Institute for Social Ecology, International Forum on Globalization, Rainforest Action Network, Rising Tide North America, Student Trade Justice Campaign, October 9, 2007)