Ethanol 'Myths' Countered

August 8, 2001

Two "myths" that have been showing up lately – "ethanol is going to raise gas prices fifty cents a gallon" and "ethanol actually makes pollution worse" – are being countered by the National Corn Growers Association.

David Kolsrud is a corn grower from Luverne, MN, and a member of the NCGA. He is also a co-op manager at the ethanol plant in Luverne, a plant he and his fellow Rock County growers worked to have financed and built. Kolsrud is bullish on ethanol and wants to debunk the "myths of ethanol" with the benefits the renewable fuel offers for national energy security, the environment, consumers and U.S. agriculture.

"I attended an ethanol plant meeting years ago," recalled Kolsrud, "and I wasn't sure about it at first. I didn't think (producing ethanol) would be enough to sustain and raise a family. In 1995, I took another look at ethanol and had a change of heart."

Kolsrud and other area corn growers began to raise funds for the building and operation of an ethanol plant. He said it's been an interesting journey. "It's been a pretty exciting transition from growing corn to processing it for ethanol at your own plant," he said. "The relationship you build with each other, your neighbors as well as growers from across the nation, is just as important as the money the plant makes. The problems we have here are the problems faced by farmers all over the country. You feel that bond with your fellow growers. It's been a wonderful experience."

A farmer for more than 28 years, Kolsrud said ethanol provides a myriad of benefits for the nation's corn growers. "It's an opportunity to market corn for a better return," he said. "(Rock County, MN) went down from a population of 12,000 to 8,000, and this plant has been a great means of economic development by creating new jobs."

Ethanol is the third largest market for U.S. corn, using more than 600 million bushels and boosting farm income as much as $3 billion in 2000, or 30 to 35 cents per bushel. In addition, producing value-added ethanol has sparked new capital investment and economic development in rural America, where thousands of farmers are owner-investors in cooperative ethanol production facilities.

Not only is ethanol a new avenue of sales to the corn grower, it's also environmentally friendly, a claim that MTBE, another oxygenate, can't make. The petroleum-based fuel additive has been found to pollute groundwater and has caused cancer in lab rats. Legislation is on the books for 11 states to ban the additive, in addition to the states that have already passed bills to ban MTBE, the most recent being Illinois.

Another fact Kolsrud mentioned is how ethanol also makes gasoline burn cleaner. That's why the Clean Air Act requires the use of oxygenated gasoline to improve air quality in the nation's most polluted cities.

In response to the ever-increasing number of myths about the negative aspects of ethanol, Kolsrud said, "Ethanol has been a positive influence in the Midwest and the argument that it will raise gas prices is completely fictitious. It lessens our dependence on foreign oil and creates more volume."

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates ethanol production for 2000 exceeded 1.6 billion gallons. Industry insiders say production of 2 billion gallons is possible in 2001. At this rate of growth, U.S. ethanol production could meet the market needs resulting from an MTBE phase-out in California by 2002 and nationally by 2003.