Corn Growers Push Ethanol Use

April 27, 2001

The nation's corn growers not surprisingly want ethanol to take a leading role in emerging national energy policy, because it delivers energy security, promotes environmental stewardship and revitalizes rural communities. Lake Preston, SD, farmer Lynn Jensen, chairman of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), testified before the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Rural Development and Research.

Jensen noted that given the uncertainty about this nation's energy supplies, the arguments promoting ethanol are compelling. He said the current cost of producing ethanol lies in the range of $0.95-1.10 per gallon, and research shows that for every 100 BTUs of energy used to produce ethanol, 135 BTUs of ethanol are produced.

"Ethanol facilities are not only cost effective, they are energy efficient..Therefore, the myth that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than is contained in the ethanol itself is just that: a myth," Jensen noted.

Citing research conducted by the Argonne National Laboratory, Jensen testified that ethanol produces 32% fewer emissions of greenhouse gasses than gasoline for the same distance traveled.

"Last year, ethanol production set a new record, utilizing more than 600 million bushels of corn, or about 6.5% of the crop to produce 1.63 billion gallons of fuel ethanol," Jensen said. "Corn demand created by ethanol kept valuable farmland resources in production, adding as much as $3 billion to the income of our corn farmers."

The effectiveness of the ethanol industry hinges in large part on government policy, he said. "Given the uncertainty regarding how the administration will respond to California's request for a waiver from the federal reformulated gasoline program (RFG), growers' investments in new ethanol plans are on hold."

Jensen suggested a two-track approach that develops a comprehensive energy strategy that includes a renewable fuels requirement complementing the current oxygen requirement in the RFG program and a comprehensive reauthorization of the Clean Air Act where new developments in fuel and vehicle technology "can be considered through the critical lens of analysis that our environmental policy demands."

That would provide the renewable fuels industry the necessary signals needed to attract additional investment while maintaining the environmental benefits of current law that has provided millions of Americans with cleaner air."