Posted on: January 14, 2013 in E15, Ethanol, Energy, EPA, Food

To the Editor:

The late Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, a native of Tulsa, famously said we’re all entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts. In his column, “Ethanol Scam Driving Up Food Prices,” (Tulsa World, January 11), Andrew P. Morriss presents his own opinions and his own facts.  

Contrary to Mr. Morriss, ethanol production doesn’t “drive up food prices.” Food inflation rates have averaged 2.95 percent per year since 2005, the year Congress first adopted the Renewable Fuel Standard encouraging the use of ethanol. Annual food inflation was 3.47 percent from 1980 through 2004.

In fact, only 14 percent of the average household’s food bill pays for raw agricultural ingredients such as corn. Eighty-six percent of their food bill pays for energy, transportation, processing, packaging, marketing and other supply chain costs.

Moreover, it’s misleading to say “40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is now used for ethanol rather than food.” Ethanol production doesn’t use sweet corn (which is intended for human consumption). And one-third of every bushel of grain processed into ethanol is enhanced for use as animal feed for cattle, poultry and pigs.

Nor does ethanol production require “roughly as much energy as the ethanol contains.” In fact, for every one unit of energy invested in producing ethanol, 1.9 to 2.3 units of energy are created.

“Vastly inferior to gasoline”? “Harm[s] the environment”? The Environmental Protection Agency has approved 15 percent ethanol blends for cars, light-duty trucks and SUVs built in 2001 or later. Ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 60 percent compared to gasoline, and because ethanol contains 35 percent oxygen, it causes more complete fuel combustion, reducing harmful tailpipe pollution. Further, ethanol is the cheapest, cleanest source of octane available to gasoline refiners today.

And, yes, ethanol does enhance national security. From 2000 through 2012, as ethanol increased from 1 percent to 10 percent of gasoline supply, U.S. dependence on foreign crude oil and products fell from 60 percent to 41 percent. That makes our nation less reliant on imported oil from hostile or unstable countries.

Bash biofuels with fabricated “facts” — that’s the real “ethanol scam.”

Bob Dinneen

President and CEO, Renewable Fuels Association

(The Renewable Fuels Association is the trade association of the U.S. ethanol industry.)

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