Bad news for the Corn Belt
In the US the have been pushing their into idea quite hard in the corn belt. Putting it forward as a means of reducing tailpipe emissions and as a way to reduce reliance on foreign oil. In ’s neocons are starting to do the same thing, allocating $2B CDN in the last budget for turning surplus grain crops into ethanol. Alas for both it seems that ethanol is no cleaner at the tailpipe than gasoline according to an unreleased Canadian government report.
“Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn’t much difference between ethanol and gasoline,” said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada’s toxic emissions research.
“Our results seemed to indicate that with today’s vehicles, there’s not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions.”
The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel.
Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions.
Factor in the amount of emissions that go into producing the crops, then the ethanol, and I wouldn’t be surprised to discover it is worse than using straight petroleum.
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