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Tory ethanol plan waste of money — and energyToronto StarMay 24, 2006. 07:03 AMDAVID OLIVE
Was Stephen Harper a corn farmer in a past life? You'd have to think so, given the trained economist's sudden interest in ethanol, a supposedly eco-friendly gasoline additive derived mostly from corn, one of North America's most heavily subsidized crops.

Possibly during a recent sleepless night, as Harper struggled with how to square Canada's self-image as an environmentally responsible nation with the Tories' intent to effectively scrap Canada's commitment to the Kyoto protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions, an apparition of Corn Cob Bob appeared to point the way to a political solution. (More worrisome visitors have dropped in at 24 Sussex after hours.)

Corn Cob Bob is the mascot of Canada's corn industry, whose perpetual picking of taxpayer pockets might otherwise offend Harper's sensibilities. But that was before a leaked report on the weekend revealed the Tory government's determination to retreat from Canada's Kyoto commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Which put Harper in the need for a diversion, given the majority Canadian support for Kyoto and the predictable unpleasant fallout of yet another Harper policy in apparent lock-step with a Bush administration that repudiated Kyoto in 2001.

Enter ethanol, hastily seized upon as a cornerstone of Harper's "made-in-Canada" response to the global-warming crisis, whose manifestation in above-average sea-surface temperatures will, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned Monday, result in a 12th consecutive year of unusually brutal storms.

Presenting herself as a furiously busy champion of global environmental protection, Rona Ambrose, the federal environment minister, emerged from a meeting with her provincial counterparts in Regina yesterday with the happy news that, despite the appearance of relative inactivity at the conclave, Ottawa and the provinces have agreed to require the use of ethanol in gasoline.

If the Earth didn't move for you, consider that mandated ethanol-blended gasoline was already a Tory campaign plank last winter; that Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba glommed onto the ethanol panacea long before that campaign; and a chorus of scientists and environmentalists are poised to denounce the initiative for what it is — an enriched farm subsidy program, and not a solution to the global warming dilemma.

For many experts, ethanol is a long-running eco-hoax. Yes, gasoline with a mandated 5 per cent ethanol content does burn more cleanly. (In the sickly farm economy of the U.S. Midwest and Plains states, producers are pushing for 85 per cent ethanol content, and the Saskatchewan government wants at least 10 per cent.)

But ethanol, sad to say, consumes more energy in its production than it contains. Traditional gasoline is actually far more energy-efficient, requiring about 22,000 British thermal units per gallon to produce, and containing 116,000 BTUs of energy per gallon. A gallon of ethanol takes about 98,000 BTUs to produce, but contains only 76,000 BTUs of energy.

And because ethanol contains only two-thirds the energy of gasoline, blending it into gasoline reduces the fuel's heat content — and the distance a vehicle can travel per fill-up of the stuff. All to say that U.S. President George W. Bush was following the script of the farm lobby and not scientific reality in his latest State of the Union assertion that "the more ethanol we use, the less crude oil we consume." Certainly it is true that the more ethanol we consume, the richer Cargill Inc., Archer Daniels Midland Co. and other ethanol refiner-promoters get, since the current return on sales from ethanol production is a heady 80 per cent.

The truth is ethanol not only burns more energy than it saves, it is a notorious sponge for taxpayer handouts. The U.S. Treasury was dinged to the tune of $37 billion (U.S.) in corn-producer subsidies between 1995 and 2003. Ontario, where about two-thirds of Canada's corn is produced, is subsidizing ethanol producers by $500 million (Cdn.) over the next decade. If we got serious about ethanol-blended gasoline, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure of specialized refineries, pipelines and service stations would have to be built to accommodate it.

Oh, and prices for meat and poultry will rise in tandem with increased corn-feed costs as the over-supply of corn is absorbed by boosting ethanol production.

Except for a government troubled by optics, the ethanol lobby — er, industry — is easily recognizable as a chronic corn glut in search of new markets, not a solution to one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. Embracing it as a silver bullet is a backward step for a country in the vanguard of progressive thinking on this issue as recently as the Rio Summit in 1992, when Canada's previous Tory PM exhorted the world to join us in embracing a progressive regard for sustainable development.

It was that Canadian self-regard for being on the right side of environmental history to which Al Gore, environmentalist and former U.S. vice-president, appealed to Canadians last weekend on hearing of the leaked Tory document strategizing about a stealth reneging on the previous government's Kyoto commitments.

"The Canadian people take their obligations as citizens of the world perhaps more seriously than the people of any other nation on the face of this Earth," Gore said. "This is why nations around the world look up to Canada as a source of moral leadership, and if the Harper government — which is, after all, in thrall to the tar-sands interests and other polluting interests — tries to take the Canadian people for granted, personally, it's not for me as a non-Canadian to say, but I do not for one minute believe the people of Canada would ever turn their backs on that noble tradition."

Gore was merely adding his voice to the European Union officials and international environment groups that have condemned Canada's apparent new Kyoto policy — or non-policy — in recent days. But, as the kids say, speak to the hand.

Or to Corn Cob Bob, our new global-warming czar.