Report You Won’t Hear About: Ethanol Emissions No Cleaner Than Gasoline

An as yet unpublished report from Ottawa, Canada, suggests that there is absolutely no ecological advantage to using ethanol blends in cars versus conventional unleaded gasoline.

Think this will make headlines here in America?

Regardless of the answer, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported on Friday (video available here, emphasis added throughout):

An unpublished federal report appears to undermine the belief that commercially available ethanol-blended fuel produces cleaner emissions than regular gasoline.

The piece marvelously continued:

Scientists at Environment Canada studied four vehicles of recent makes, testing their emissions in a range for driving conditions and temperatures.

“Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn't much difference between ethanol and gasoline," said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada's toxic emissions research.

"Our results seemed to indicate that with today's vehicles, there's not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions."

Shocking. Think Katie, Brian, and Charles will do such a report anytime soon?

While you ponder, read on:

The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel.

Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions.

Amazing. Ethanol blends could actually release MORE hydrocarbons into the air? Shocking.

Bill Rees, an ecology professor at the University of British Columbia and longtime opponent of ethanol, has read the report and thinks Canadians need to know its conclusions.

"I must say, I'm a little surprised at that, because it seems to fly in the face of current policy initiatives," he said.

"People are being conned into believing in a product and paying for it through their tax monies when there's no justifiable benefit and indeed many negative costs."

Hmmm. Seems the con is universal.

Now, consider just how detrimental to America this is if it turns out to be true. After all, given the federal government's ethanol blend requirements during the summer, gasoline prices are significantly higher than they should be.

Furthermore, as a result of the dramatically increased demand for corn, corn prices have skyrocketed across the world making all foods using this commodity much more expensive.

As such, this con -- if it indeed is the case that ethanol blends are not any cleaner -- has done nothing but cost Americans and people across the globe moneys that could have been spent elsewhere.

Isn't that special?