Which best characterizes your view on corn-based ethanol?
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Any fuel that creates power by burning some carbon-based fuel is bad for the environment. Corn-based ethanol has additional problems as its carbon-costs in production are high. We need to think about improving fuel-efficiency and about generating power without burning carbon-based fuel. 
As long as agriculture-based ethanol production continues to be subsidized by government, the true costs (both financial and environmental)remain hidden, and potentially better alternatives will remain undeveloped. Furthermore, in using food for fuel, we are already seeing the devastating effects of consequent food price escalation.
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There do seem to be a lot of better options out there. Who knows, though, maybe they'll all gradually turn out to be more expensive and bad for the environment than we think now! Or maybe we'll figure out more efficient ways to get the corn-based ethanol and it will be a good option again. I vote for more research.
Posted by Barbara | August 26, 2008 11:24 AM