E85 myths debunked?

Living in California, I don't have much contact with corn, or with E85.

Interviewing consumers in Hollywood about E85 yielded predictable results for the GM Next Blog, a clever social networking/viral marketing site that GM publishes. Their video mixes clueless consumers with an accessible, well-informed female engineer in a three-minute primer on E85. My colleagues, Christine and Scott Gable, have a very thorough article "Ethanol 101" at About.com's Alternative Fuels site. There's also an organization, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, "a non-profit membership organization which serves as the nation’s primary advocacy group promoting the use of 85% ethanol as a form of alternative transportation fuel."

E85 could save the big SUV -- if the gas companies can just find a way to get the ethanol to the stations around the county efficiently, and if the car companies start distributing more flex-fuel vehicles for sale in areas other than the Midwest. A renewable fuel source that burns more efficiently, releases fewer greenhouse gases, and costs less than gasoline? Sign me up. What's the catch? Oh, there's always a catch, and E85 is no exception. Turns out it takes fuel to grow and harvest the organic material that is converted to ethanol. Then it takes more fuel to get that material to refineries, fuel to convert it, fuel to transport it to the gas stations... you get the picture. And then there's the issue of other uses for the raw materials -- corn in particular, which is one of the crops that has been used to make ethanol. Corn prices have skyrocketed because of the new demand, making a traditional affordable staple food very expensive in a hurry. The US exports a lot of corn as food, and buyers now have to compete with fuel buyers for a finite crop. Pull one thread and the whole tapestry is affected.

Maybe E85 needs more consideration before we throw all of our eggs in its basket.

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