(May 5, 2009, AutoBlogGreen)
The nail in the coffin of corn-based ethanol might be made of water. The magazine Environmental Science & Technology has published an article that pegs the amount of water needed to make enough corn ethanol to move a vehicle one mile at 50 gallons. That’s pretty high.
ES&T calculated the amount of water [...]
(April 10, 2009, FoxNews)
The production of bioethanol may use up to three times as much water as previously thought, a new study finds, becoming the latest work that could burst the biofuel bubble.
A gallon of ethanol may require up to more than 2,100 gallons of water from farm to fuel pump, depending on the [...]
(Jan. 16, 2009, Bloomberg)
Corn crops in the Argentine province of Entre Rios are still suffering a “severe water deficit” even after some areas of the country received rain, the government said.
The drought remains “very serious” in parts of Entre Rios, while areas of the Santa Fe, La Pampa and Cordoba provinces are also facing [...]
(Dec. 22, 2008, Huffington Post)
I’m reminded of the farmer who was asked whether he believed in baptism. He replied, “Of course. I’ve seen it done.”
Well, as the ethanol boom has continued, I’ve seen new corn fields in Arizona and California where farmers water the fields with groundwater. Foolishness, oft repeated, does not become wisdom. Repeated [...]
(Dec. 18, 2008, The Huffington Post)
If I could offer our soon-to-be Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack one piece of advice, it would be this: “We’re already running low on water. Don’t make matters worse.“
