Argument: It requires less petroleum to produce corn ethanol than gasoline

Support

• Bjorn Carey. “Ethanol Fuel More Advantageous Than Thought”. Live Science. January 26, 2006 – “Producing a gallon of ethanol gas from corn requires 95 percent less petroleum than producing a gallon from fossil fuels, a new study finds.”

• Robert Sanders. “Ethanol can replace gasoline with significant energy savings, comparable impact on greenhouse gases”. UCBerkley News. January 26, 2006 – “Producing ethanol from corn uses much less petroleum than producing gasoline.

‘It is better to use various inputs to grow corn and make ethanol and use that in your cars than it is to use the gasoline and fossil fuels directly,’ said Kammen, who is co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment and UC Berkeley’s Class of 1935 Distinguished Chair of Energy.

Despite the uncertainty, it appears that ethanol made from corn is a little better – maybe 10 or 15 percent – than gasoline in terms of greenhouse gas production, he said.”