One of the perqs of having feet in both the environmental and libertarian worlds is that the Antiplanner gets emails from people of a wide range of political persuasions. But I was still surprised to get an email from someone promising to “bring the good news about Ethanol and renewable energy for American energy independence.” In fact, as the Antiplanner’s faithful ally, Ken Green, points out in a recent paper, it is really hard to find any good news regarding ethanol in the United States.
When mixed with gasoline, Green reports, ethanol produces more nitrogen oxides (which, aside from being a constituent of photochemical smog, is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) than gasoline alone. As a result, an article in a recent Science magazine reported that corn-based ethanol “nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years.”
