Ethanol Takes Energy to Produce

With regard to “Emphasize Ethanol,” letter, May 4: Producing ethanol from corn is a net energy loser. The amount of energy needed to produce a gallon of ethanol--fuel for mechanized equipment to plant and harvest the corn, and subsequent fermentation and distillation--is more than the energy obtained from the ethanol produced. The energy to produce the ethanol is obtained from oil. Thus, increased reliance on ethanol does not decrease our dependence on oil, it increases it. If only 10% of U.S. fuel needed to be ethanol, the necessary corn would have to be grown on 500 million acres of land, more than the total arable land area of the U.S.

Ethanol producers have long been aware of these facts and have largely abandoned this “alternate fuel” approach to their pork barrel. Instead, they are promoting it as a clean-air additive, however unnecessary that may be.

Richard J. Kolodziej

Simi Valley