The Problem with Transportation: From Ethanol to Electric

Ethanol was first blended with gasoline during World War 2 due to fuel shortages, and today’s ethanol industry began in 1970 however it was not required in fuel until 2006, when President George W. Bush created the Renewable Fuels Standard. Ethanol was introduced into fuel originally due to cost concerns over petroleum-based fuels and environmental concerns of leaded gasoline and petroleum gasoline. While ethanol is still cheaper than petroleum gasoline this margin is closing due to falling oil prices (The Illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine did raise oil prices but are back down to pre-invasion levels).

According to some research by Dr. Tyler Lark ethanol is likely to be around 24% more carbon intensive than gasoline, however, this research has since been shown to be an absolute worst case full of cherry-picked data and worst-case assumptions made through the article. (1) While land usage changes can cause huge net carbon emissions mainly from the removal or carbon sequestering plants. While the article by Dr. Tyler Lark states that an extra 6.9 million acres of corn was added from 2008 to 2016 when you look at acreage from 2007 to 2021 it has decreased by 0.1 million acres. (1) (7) This is an example of cherry-picked data from the article as 2008 was one of the lowest years in terms of corn acreage. (7) On top of this, the amount of fertilizer per bushel of corn is down more than 50%, and since fertilizer is responsible for around 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions when looking at a cradle-to-grave assessment, this is a significant decrease. (8) This does not mean ethanol is without its issues as ethanol production accounts for 40 % of U.S. corn crops and current methods of corn production are incredibly harmful to the environment. (10) Corn production in the US large amounts of fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides which leads to water pollution which can affect drinking water, or destroy marine life. Only 28% of rivers in the US are assessed as healthy while 21% of lakes have high levels of algal growth and 39% have measurable levels of toxins created by algae. (11) Common monocropping causes severe soil degradation and makes crops susceptible to pests and disease which leads to more fertilizers more pesticides and more herbicides which inevigtably leads to more runoff and thus more pollution flowing into streams, rivers, and lakes.

If ethanol isn't the silver bullet what about electric vehicles? When looking at cradle-to-grave assessments of similarly sized gasoline and electric SUVs those with 300-mile ranges had 48% lower greenhouse gas emissions per mile while EVs with a 400-mile range were still 40% lower than the gasoline car and 200-mile range cars at 52% less emission per mile. (12) Looking at the surface level this is amazing, with cars and trucks accounting for nearly ⅕ of the entire US emissions the switch to electric can decrease emissions by 1/10 a huge decrease, more than the amount of global warming pollution deforestation accounts for. The ability to slash these emissions in one swoop is amazing! Unfortunately, every rose has its thorn. Simply the battery production required to make an electric car requires 50% more water than the entirety of the manufacturing of traditional gasoline cars. (13) Even worse the majority of this water usage happens in the mining and refining of raw materials which is currently taking place in severely drought-stricken areas like Chile and Argentina. While there is hope companies will soon economically recycle around 95% of the raw materials in battery packs to reduce the need for more extraction this has simply not come to fruition. (13) As of now only 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled. (14) While electric vehicles are taking steps to become greener, as it is they do produce less GHG than internal combustion engines over their lifetime, however, they are not a silver bullet in terms of planning for a sustainable future and more steps must be taken in terms of recycling battery packs from electric vehicles, cleaning up the energy grid and so much more, to truly live green.

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