Busting the 5 Myths of Ethanol!

Today, there are 204 ethanol plants located throughout the U.S., with 24 of them being right here in Nebraska. Along with the ethanol plants, there are approximately 2,427 E85 fuel stations and 295 blender pump locations located throughout the U.S. To find where these fuel stations are located, visit EthanolRetailer.com. Currently, the U.S. produces around 900,000 barrels of ethanol a day, which in comparison surpasses the amount of oil that we import from Nigeria. This already shows how ethanol can help reduce our dependence on oil and save us from paying over $4 for a gallon of gasoline.

Although all of that information sounds good, not everyone knows it and there are several myths flowing around that ethanol is not a good alternative fuel for oil. Over these next couple of weeks, I will be blogging about the 5 myths of ethanol.

The five myths we will be looking at are:
Myth #1: Ethanol requires more energy to make than it yields.
Myth #2: Ethanol production reduces our food supply.
Myth #3: Ethanol crops and production emit more greenhouse gases than gasoline.
Myth #4: Ethanol requires too much water to produce.
Myth #5: Cars get lower gas mileage with ethanol.

The information we are going to use to bust these myths were found in a post that Forrest Jehlik wrote, who works for the Argonne National Laboratory. The Argonne National Laboratory is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s oldest and largest national laboratories. This laboratory does research on a variety of different energies that are used throughout the U.S. Through his work at the Argonne National Laboratory, he was able to bust each myth, along with providing us details on why that myth is true or false. However, it should be noted that the research he does is energy-neutral and that his post about ethanol will not benefit him in anyway.

We will bust the first myth on Monday, June 27. Until then, you can visit the Nebraska Corn Board’s website to learn more about Nebraska’s corn farmers and the ethanol industry!