Water Education Foundation
This is just one post in the Energy & Water Category
Click here to view all posts

Government report looks at ethanol’s use of water

Posted by: Maven on December 10, 2009 at 10:49 pm

From the Oakland Tribune:

“A new government report examining whether increased biofuels use could pinch the nation’s water resources says farmers in the Northern Plains use considerably more water to produce a gallon of corn ethanol than growers in other parts of the country.

An ethanol industry group says the report offers little new insight and the vast majority of ethanol is produced from rain-fed corn.

The November study from the Government Accountability Office quotes Argonne National Laboratory data saying that farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas use, on average, 323.6 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol from corn, with all but 3 of those gallons used for irrigation.

The GAO said that’s 20 to 30 times the amount of water used in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s two other main corn producing regions, where rainfall is more plentiful. … “

Read more from the Oakland Tribune by clicking here.

December 10, 2009 · Filed Under Energy & Water

Comments

Leave a Reply