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Ethanol and Water

Posted by: Maven on December 18, 2008 at 2:05 pm

From Robert Glennon of the Huffington Post:

If I could offer our soon-to-be Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack one piece of advice, it would be this: “We’re already running low on water. Don’t make matters worse.”

I would offer my advice with hope, but out of fear. My fear is that in Des Monies and in his short-lived presidential campaign, Mr. Vilsack was an ardent supporter of ethanol, so has been President-elect Obama. Once he becomes agriculture’s advocate in the new administration, it will mean more and more ethanol plants for America.

Mr. Vilsack is in for an unpleasant surprise.

That’s because while many of ethanol’s problems (energy inputs, land use, food prices and more) have been thoroughly discussed, we have oddly (or maybe purposely) overlooked its true Achilles heel: water. And if we stick to our current plans to massively boost ethanol, an ethanol-fueled water crisis will come fast and furious.

Producing ethanol requires enormous amounts of water. Water America does not now have. That’s true for corn ethanol and its supposedly more efficient and environmental cousin, cellulosic ethanol made from husks, wood chips, and other waste. The most efficient ethanol plants need 4 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol fuel. That doesn’t account for the feedstock, and in the case of corn, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to grow enough corn to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. That’s right, 2,500 gallons.

Read more from the Huffington Post by clicking here.

December 18, 2008 · Filed Under Energy & Water

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