BioWillie. Its not a genetically modified country singer; its a
new alternative fuel. And as the media have reported on Willie
Nelsons crop-based energy business venture, some journalists have
been caught up in his celebrity and overlooked the fuels problems.
American Morning reporter Carol Costello fueled interest in
Nelsons new endeavor on the December 30 CNN show: Willie Nelson,
he's got a brand new career. Now hes selling fuel. Hes making
biofuel; its made from any number of crops. She continued, Nelson
says it not only helps the farmers but it is an anti-war statement.
Miles OBrien then said, wed have to invade Nebraska, to get the
corn, right? and both anchors had a hearty laugh.
Three days later Today on NBC ran a segment on BioWillie. It can
keep us from being so dependent on energy from around the world,
which weve got to do that, Nelson said. The only other person
interviewed was Tim Guiterman, the biodiesel director at the
University of Colorado. He said that biofuels work in any diesel
engine. The engines need no modification. Its accessible, its
affordable, its available.
But that rosy picture isnt the whole story of biofuels. Danny Hakim
of The New York Times wrote an article about BioWillie on December
30, titled His
Car Smelling Like French Fries, Willie Nelson Sells Biodiesel.
Unlike CNN and NBC, Hakim included the shortcomings of biofuel.
Though advocates claim that it reduces smog-forming emissions, it
generates more nitrogen oxide, which creates ozone smog.
Hakim also stated that biofuels could not be produced in vast
enough quantities to supplant oil-based fuel, or come close to it,
unless the nation starts turning the suburbs over to farmland.
Environmentalist George Monbiot described this in greater detail in
the Guardian. He lamented that By promoting biodiesel as a
substitute, we have missed the fact that it is worse than the
fossil-fuel burning it replaces. This is in part due to
deforestation that occurs from farming. From 1985 to 2000, oil-palm
plantations used for biofuels caused approximately 87 percent of the
deforestation in Malaysia.
Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute noted another problem with
ethanol.
He quoted former CIA Director R. James Woolseys congressional
testimony. If ethanol is produced from corn, Woolsey said, it takes
about seven gallons of oil to produce eight of ethanol.
The Oregonian also reported on the inefficiency of producing
biofuels. Tad Padzek from the University of California and David
Pimentel of Cornell University found that growing corn, soybeans or
other plants and converting them into bio-fuels can use more energy
than the bio-ethanol or bio-diesel generates.
Willie Nelson claims that his fuel yields better gas mileage, but
that is not necessarily the case. Catos Reynolds explained that
ethanol is impractical to produce, and it is not fuel-efficient.
With fuel that is 85 percent ethanol, Dodge Stratus mileage drops
20 to 15 mpg in the city, and from 28 to 20 on the highway.
Likewise, a Ford Explorer goes from 16 to 12 and 21 to 16 for city
and highway mpg, respectively.
Even the Sierra Club isnt sold on the idea. Daniel Becker, its top
global warming expert, said, In order to grow soybeans, you need
multiple passes over the field with diesel tractors, you need a lot
of fertilizer thats energy intensive to produce and, at the end of
the day, you have a product that is no boon for the environment. He
continued in the New York Times article: If youre going to go to
the trouble of using an alternative fuel, use a good alternative
fuel. If you really want to listen to Willie Nelson, go buy one of
his records and play it in a hybrid.
When the Sierra Club and Cato agree that an environmental policy is
bad, that should tell us something.
On the Inefficient Road Again
January 5th, 2006 2:00 PM
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