TodayExperts cite ethanol pros, cons
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Audience member Frank Stearn speaks at the ethanol forum Monday night at Wilson College. (Pam Roy/Special to The Sentinel)
Two ethanol experts speaking to several hundred people at Wilson College in Chambersburg Monday night had little in common.
Tad Patzek of the University of California, Berkley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, cited the high costs and negative aspects of ethanol production.
Dave Morris, vice president for the Institute for Local Self Reliance, argued that alternative fuel benefits the environment and the nation.
They did agree on one point. As Morris put it, "We need a dramatic reduction of fuel used for transportation."
"We need to cut out our use of fossil fuels," Patzek agreed.
Different solutions
But the solutions they offered to achieve that reduction were very different.
Local farmers and families sat beside engineers and politicians, listening as Morris explained that although ethanol cannot replace oil, it can be combined with other methods to produce "high quality energy."
He says ethanol, a fuel made from distilling corn, would reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign oil.
And although the science is still in development stages, Morris believes ethanol is the "beginning of a renewable resource for transportation fuel."
In the future, Morris says technology will be available to efficiently produce ethanol from more than just corn. "We could use any cellulose items — and those include things like wood, cornstalks and agricultural residues."
Still he notes, "There isn’t any panacea. Everything has its costs and benefits."
Takes energy
Those costs include the fact that ethanol production itself uses too much energy and it’s generally an unstainable fuel, Patzek argues. "Even if we used all the bio-mass (in the U.S.), it’s still insufficient to create all the energy we consume."
He said his research shows ethanol might only replace 2 or 3 percent of the gasoline used for automobiles by 2012.
For Greene Township resident Mike Lautenslager, the two-hour ethanol forum helped cement his opinion about the alternative fuel. As a member of a citizens’ group opposing a proposed ethanol plant near his home, Lautenslager came to the forum to learn more about the product he is fighting.
He left the debate feeling more sure of his position.
"I’m not against alternative fuels, but it seems like this is more of a pollutant than a positive. They don’t gain enough from it," Lautenslager said.
Ethanol advocate Jan Chlapowski was not swayed by the presentation either.
"If we can produce enough alcohol and decrease imports by even 10 percent, eliminating imports from places like Saudi Arabia, why should be ignore that product?" he asked presenters.
The Fayetteville resident, who has worked at refineries and nuclear power plants, said he agrees with Patzek that ethanol is not an efficient cycle of energy. Still, he thinks it’s better than nothing.
"Crude oil is getting hard to get at," Chlapowski said. "We are paying $2.50 for a gallon of gas and it’s only going to continue to increase. There is no easy solution but we must explore all available options and try different approaches."
