They point to a number of things from the deforestation of rainforests in order to come up with the resources to make biofuel or the land to grow the proper plants for use in ethanol and other biofuels. They point to the fact that more energy is consumed making the ethanol thus causing more pollution. They point to the rise in the price of food because part of the foodstuffs are being used to make ethanol and not being consumed as food. In short, the so-called experts are piling on.
Well, the supporters of ethanol are fighting back. The Renewable Fuels Association is saying that the production and use of ethanol should be praised because it has reduced the world’s consumption of oil and has helped to keep oil prices lower. They argue that, although oil prices are high, they could be a whole lot higher.
Supporters of ethanol argue that world oil prices would be 15 percent higher without ethanol. They argue that worldwide ethanol production will reach more than 16.2 billion gallons by the end of this year and that is equivalent to 1 million barrels of oil a day. Moreover, they point to one estimate that says that the U.S. consumed more than 1.9 billion gallons of ethanol since April 4 and that is equivalent to about 46 million barrels of oil. They say that this is evidence that the oil industry would have had to reduce gasoline inventories and import barrels to compensate. With all this and more taken into account, they say, without ethanol gas prices could be more than 25 percent higher than they are today. And the price of diesel, which is already higher than gasoline, would be an additional 16 percent higher.
More details can be found here. Our taake? All of that is probably true. And, although there are indeed problems with ethanol, in the long run we’ve benefited by it.