About 90 million acres of the United States has got corn on it — a region about the size of Montana. About 40 percent of the corn crop goes towards producing ethanol. The Renewable Fuel Standard, passed in the mid-2000s, required gasoline to include ethanol, and that ethanol is from corn. As priorities shifted away from reducing demand on foreign oil and towards addressing the climate, the question arose of whether it’s actually best to spend all that time and money and chemicals and acreage on growing corn to offset the use of fossil fuels. The Renewable Fuels Association claims that ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent to 50 percent compared to gasoline. Other research counters that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the Renewable Fuel Standard is actually likely 24 percent higher than gasoline. However, other researchers dispute that. Still, it’s a lot of acreage: one new study found that solar panels would generate as much energy as corn ethanol on just three percent of the land that corn takes up.
Ames Alexander, Floodlight
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