CRS: ETHANOL'S BENEFITS FOR ENERGY CONSUMPTION, GHG LIMITED

Renewable Fuel News, March, 2006 by Gantz, Rachel

While ethanol has the potential to significantly displace petroleum demand, the overall benefits in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gases are limited, especially for cornbased ethanol, according to a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

The report, Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues, looked at a host of ethanol issues, including the fuel's much-discussed energy balance. "Since large amounts of fossil fuels are used to make fertilizer for corn production and to run ethanol plants, ethanol use could lead to little or no net reduction in fossil energy use," the report said. However, most studies have concluded ethanol has a positive energy balance.

"With only a slight net energy benefit from the use of corn-based ethanol,...

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works. HighBeam Research

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here