Ethanol Saves Money, Reduces Greenhouse Gases

Two reports out this week on ethanol show the economic and environmental benefits of ethanol.

The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council released a study done by John Urbanchuk with the economic consulting service LECG that finds drivers in Missouri can expect to save an average of 9.8 cents per gallon this year due to the 10 percent ethanol standard that went into effect Jan. 1, 2008. That works out to $73 for every motorist in the state.

“With petroleum industry profits of $123 billion and fuel prices spiking 40 percent in the last four months, the pain at the pump is getting intense,” said Jayne Glosemeyer, Missouri Corn Merchandising Council chairwoman and farmer from Marthasville, Mo. “The implementation of the Missouri Renewable Fuel Standard, blending the state’s gasoline with 10 percent ethanol, is the one thing helping to ease the pain. It is keeping money in consumers’ pockets and keeping dollars here at home.”

A pdf file of the study report is available here.

On the environmental side, the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council celebrated Earth Day by informing consumers that if every car in America would use a ten percent blend of ethanol for one week, the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the U.S. would be reduced by nearly 1.3 billion pounds.

According to calculations done by researcher Nathan Danielson, president of BioCognito, filling up with E10 can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 9.5 pounds per tank.

“Ethanol is just a very good fuel for reducing overall carbon foot print,� Danielson said. “The story gets better if we go to E85. If we get to E85, all the sudden you are sitting at about 90 pounds of carbon dioxide that you’ve removed from the atmosphere by using ethanol instead of gasoline.� Everyone filling their tanks with E85, he says, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 12.4 billion pounds in one week.

Better still, Danielson says that the same situation using ethanol derived from cellulose could reduce greenhouse gases by 282 pounds per car per week, or 38.5 billion pounds a week if used by every car on the road.