It’s time for Minnesotans, and their Congressional representatives, to realize there’s good ethanol and bad ethanol. We need them to support the good and rid us of the bad by voting for the Waxman-Markey climate bill. 

Before some of Minnesota’s congressmen consider voting against a much-needed federal bill to finally cut global warming pollution, they should consider that farmers and ethanol plants would be helped by a YES vote.

Voting against the American Clean Energy and Security Act would be repeating the mistakes of the past 15 years when bills to increase automobile gas mileage standards were repeatedly defeated at the behest of Chrysler and GM. They wanted to continue business as usual, build the wrong cars and now the taxpayers have to bail them out.

The same is true in ethanol production.
If done right, ethanol can be close to carbon-neutral. While the corn is growing, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then releases carbon dioxide when it is burned in the automobile engine. Gasoline, by contrast, only adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

If ethanol is done wrong, it can actually be a worse global warming polluter than gasoline.

Minnesota has examples of both.

The Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co-op in Benson understands that global warming poses a threat to Minnesota’s farmers and that regulations are coming. As a result, they are distilling ethanol in a way that helps the environment while putting money in farmers’ pockets. They started by using natural gas, a relatively clean burning fuel, to provide the heat for turning corn into ethanol and into a world class vodka called Shakers.

Now, the folks at Chippewa Valley Ethanol have gotten even smarter. They are working with Frontline BioEnergy to turn corn cobs, other agricultural residue, grasses and wood into gas. That gas will replace more than 90 percent of the natural gas in the distillery process, making the heat source nearly carbon neutral. This is the start of cellulosic ethanol some of our representatives have been touting as the future of ethanol. There is no need to wait. It’s here and should be encouraged.

Contrast that with the Heron Lake Bio-energy Ethanol Plant about 125 miles to the south. Even though it started operating a dozen years after the Benson plant, it ignored all of that distillery’s good practices.

Instead, despite repeated objections and an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the Heron Lake plant owners insisted on burning coal to make the ethanol. That’s right, they are using coal, one of the dirtiest fuels, and one of the biggest contributors to gloal warming, to produce a supposedly “green” biofuel. Coal plants also produce other pollutants, including mercury and sulfur dioxide, which are harmful to humans and to fish. Ethanol made from coal can actually result in a fuel that is worse for global warming and the environment than gasoline.

We, the taxpayers, get no benefit from ethanol made from coal. We heavily subsidize the industry ($314 million to Minnesota ethanol plants between 1987 and 2008), the farmers get a nice check, as they should, and the rest of us get stuck with added pollution.

The objections our congressional members have raised against the Waxman-Markey bill because of indirect land use changes need a fair hearing but should not be used to derail this essential legislation. Indirect land use changes result when more land is converted to raising crops for biofuels and possibly release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When done right, Minnesota ethanol will successfully compete with other fuels even when the effects of land use changes are factored in.

It does no one any good to pretend that all ethanol is created equal.  Instead, we should provide incentives for the best and cleanest ethanol plants. We have them here, and they should not be penalized for being best in their class.

Let’s get the Waxman-Markey bill enacted, give smart ethanol producers the incentives they need to continue to innovate, and toast the success with their vodka.