NCGA Forum to Focus on Ethanol’s Net Energy Balance, Solutions
to U.S. Energy Challenges (8-19-05)
The National
Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is putting the balance back in the
debate over the net energy balance of ethanol. The association is
hosting an Ethanol Energy Open Forum Aug. 23 at the National Press
Club in an effort to provide the public and media with science-based
information to refute a recently released misleading study on ethanol’s
energy efficiency.
A dubious study
on ethanol’s energy balance recently issued by Drs. David
Pimentel and Tad Patzek has received an extraordinary amount of
media attention in recent weeks. At last count, more than 250 newspapers
and dozens of television stations have reported on the Pimentel-Patzek
study.
At the NCGA
event, Dr. Bruce Dale, a Michigan State University professor, and
John Sheehan, a senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, will debate Pimentel, a Cornell University professor,
and Patzek, a professor from University of California–Berkeley,
on the merits of their latest study.
NCGA CEO Rick
Tolman said the forum, which begins at 10 a.m. EST, will show that
corn and ethanol production have become much more energy efficient
in the past 20 years and that the future promises even more energy-saving
innovations.
“This
forum is all about solutions,” he said. “On one hand,
we have critics of renewable energy who manipulate numbers to create
worst-case scenarios and criticize the potential impact of renewable
energy and biofuels. On the other hand, the public will finally
get to hear about solutions and what biofuels can and are doing
to help with our energy problems.
"We are
very confident in our facts and science, and that is why we want
our opportunity in front of the public microphone to tell the true
and accurate story about biofuels and renewable energy,” he
said.
The debate portion
of the program will be followed by a session on the promise of renewable
fuels. The second session, called “Renewable Energy: Dynamic
Possibilities,” will feature presentations by representatives
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Argonne National Laboratory
and several other ethanol experts.
Tolman said
the second session will shed light on the fact that renewable fuels
will play an increasingly important role in addressing growing U.S.
dependence on imported oil. “U.S. agriculture is one of America's
strategic national assets and offers solutions to many of the challenges
facing our economy,” he said. “This forum is all about
shining the spotlight on how agriculture can help address our growing
energy needs."