Ethanol from corn is a poor formula

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a request from farm states to raise the ethanol content of gasoline from the current 10 percent to as much as 15 percent. Agreeing to this change could be bad for people's food budgets as well as the engines in their cars and boats — and bad for taxpayers who already are unfairly subsidizing corn-based ethanol.

At first blush, putting more ethanol into gasoline may seem like the right thing for the environment and energy independence. But it isn't, at least in the way ethanol is currently produced in the United States.

The problem is that nearly all American ethanol is made from ears of corn. Converting more kernels into ethanol raises the price of corn used for food — whether it's corn that feeds livestock or humans. And the federal government already pays a subsidy of 45 cents for every gallon of ethanol blended into fuel. Washington should be abolishing the subsidy, not looking for ways to increase its cost.

Worse, an ethanol blend reduces a car's fuel efficiency, and the water attracted by ethanol can be disastrous for engines of boats, lawn mowers or any other machine where the fuel can sit for a long time. Cars currently on the road can handle a 10 percent ethanol mix. But it's far from certain what will happen if that percentage were to rise, and automaker lobbyists oppose the idea for this reason. At a minimum, the EPA needs to give this matter serious study before reflexively mandating a higher percentage of ethanol.

In theory, ethanol makes sense as a renewable fuel source that can be kind to the environment. But for that theory to become reality, the ethanol needs to come from sources — cellulosic grasses are one possibility — that don't divert crops from the food chain and that don't require so much tilling, fertilizer and fieldwork that the net energy gain is small.

There is promising research being done on biofuels made from algae. It is one of many such projects that deserve attention and may merit more research dollars. But continuing to use a foodstuff — corn — as the primary source for ethanol and then mandating its increased use in fuel to create an artificial market for it is poor policy. It is not a good idea to burn food as fuel.