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October 9, 2003
Wall Street Journal
Editorial Page Editor
New York, New York
Email: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Dear Editor,
By publishing the
article, “Battle Over Ethanol As Additive to Fuel Intoxicates
Congress” by Alan Murray (October 7, 2003), the Wall Street Journal
has once again demonstrated a blatant disregard of the truth regarding
ethanol’s environmental and economic benefits. Mr. Murray’s
piece is inaccurate.
In the introductory
paragraph, Murray says, “In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, the U.S. needs to reduce its dependence on Saudi Arabia…”
We couldn’t agree more. However, Murray speaks out of both sides
of his mouth by defending MTBE which he says, “has had an unfortunate
tendency to leach into groundwater.” MTBE is a groundwater pollutant.
Ethanol is economical, renewable, and environmentally friendly to groundwater
and the air – benefits that have been confirmed by independent
and government studies.
Murray’s
disservice to his readers continues its domino effect as he falsely
terms ethanol “very expensive” and a net energy consumer.
He claims ethanol is uneconomical, for states such as New York and California,
which have to ship it from the Farm Belt. In fact, a gallon of ethanol
is cheaper than a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.
Regarding the assertion
ethanol is a net energy consumer – meaning more energy goes into
the production of ethanol than is actually produced – Murray relies
on flawed material which uses 20-year-old data to reach invalid conclusions.
The net energy balance for ethanol is positive. In fact, current analyses
by U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy prove
that for every 100 BTUs of energy used in its production, ethanol in
turn yields 135BTUs. Numerous other studies have supported the positive
energy yield of ethanol. The conclusions of that one flawed study are
outdated and fail to take into account decades of advancement in ethanol
production technology and farming techniques. The dissenting results
simply don’t add up, and it’s time the real facts about
ethanol’s positive energy balance get the ink.
The establishment
of a renewable fuels standard (RFS) is a valuable asset to an energy
bill. It’s the right thing to do for the nation’s environmental
quality, for reducing dependence on foreign oil, for the positive impact
it has on our nation’s trade deficit, and for the economy. It
is time to make a wise investment in the future of America by enacting
a comprehensive energy bill containing the RFS.
Sincerely,
Dee Vaughan
President, National Corn Growers Association
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