Free-range fuel? (updated)

By Jerome J. Schmitt

Now that the environmental lobby has coerced congress into mandating a six-fold increase in use of ethanol as motor-fuel, will they now decry the increase in acreage devoted to the corn-crop as well as the use of fertilizer and pesticides? Or will they now advocate "organic" corn farming?

Update Roderick Evans writes:

And what about the water? This will increase the usage demands on the ground water resources where rain fall levels are insufficient to support corn crops.

In addition to water needed to raise the corn, ethanol processing will also consume enormous quantities of water. The Ogallala aquifer is already experiencing irrigation usage in excess of recharge in many areas. The solution has been to redo the wells to deeper settings. This cannot go on forever (west Texas has areas where the ground water has essentially been pumped dry).

The prices paid to the corn producers will never compensate for this loss of the water resources.

The question becomes: fuel or food and water?

A complete life cycle usage projection, by area, and cost study, needs to be accomplished to reveal the true future impact.