Articles by Ron Steenblik

Why are you, too, subsidizing corn ethanol?

The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest-circulation newspaper, ran an interview yesterday with Ken Field, chairman and majority owner of GreenField Ethanol, Canada's leading (corn-based) ethanol manufacturer. I will bite my tongue and refrain from comment. Let's just say that the interview says it all. And, as Dave Barry would no doubt feel compelled to add, "I swear I'm not making this up!"

Here's a selection:

Ethyl alcohol dulls the imagination

What explains The Economist's fascination with ethanol? In this week's issue, Britain's leading current-affairs magazine has published an extended article on "Green America: Waking up and catching up." Although most of the article actually talks about other energy sources besides ethanol, and about state-level efforts to encourage energy conservation and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the photo editors chose to illustrate it with pictures of ethanol, ethanol, ethanol.

Rising tortilla prices in Mexico point to a usual suspect

For decades, the price of corn tortillas -- a staple for many families -- was subsidized by the Mexican government. The tortilla subsidy was eliminated in 1999, just as cheap, subsidized corn imported from the U.S. started to flood into Mexico, putting downward pressure on Mexican prices for the grain. Consumers continued to enjoy low prices for tortillas, but Mexican farmers struggled to compete.

That situation has changed dramatically over the last several months. According to an article by Marla Dickerson in the L.A. Times, prices for tortillas have risen by more than 60% in some parts of Mexico in recent weeks. Several factors appear to be responsible for the price rise -- including, allegedly, price gouging by the food giant GRUMA, which commands an estimated 70% share of the market for tortillas and cornmeal in Mexico. But rising demand for yellow corn from U.S. ethanol plants has also been blamed, even though a different (white) variety of corn is used for making tortillas. The following day, in another L.A. Times article, Dickerson reported that Mexican corn produces are rejoicing at the high prices they now receive for their product.

Bait and switchgrass, again

I've only just seen this study by Tiffany A. Groode, a graduate student in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and not looked at it in detail, but several statements in the press release stand out:

Now a new MIT analysis shows that the energy balance is actually so close that several factors can easily change whether ethanol ends up a net energy winner or loser.

Regardless of the energy balance, replacing gasoline with corn-based ethanol does significantly reduce oil consumption because the biomass production and conversion process requires little petroleum.

Groode incorporated into her analysis the uncertainty associated with the values of many of the inputs. Using a methodology developed by a recent MIT graduate, she used not just one value for each key variable (such as the amount of fertilizer required), but rather a range of values along with the probability that each of those values would occur.

Based on her "most likely" outcomes, she concluded that traveling a kilometer using ethanol does indeed consume more energy than traveling the same distance using gasoline.

So why does the press release proclaim, "MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels"? Because cornstarch ethanol forms part of a continuum, you see: