09-25-07 by dugan
I’d wondered why anti-ethanol stories seemed to be popping up more frequently in the last year, and Business Week magazine has one solid answer: Big Oil hates the idea of Big Ethanol. The industry campaign is the opposite of greenwashing. Should we call it "brownwashing?" In any case, the BW story, titled "Big Oil’s Big Stall on Ethanol," describes a smear on the benefits of high-ethanol fuels as even a transitional biofuel.
I’ve always thought that corn ethanol wasn’t the big answer, but it’s part of a biofuel transition. Pushing it out of the mix would keep oil more dominant. And by showing what a big stick the industry wields, the campaign gives second thoughts to those seeking to produce newer ethanols and other biofuels.
Key excerpts of the story, by David Kiley:
Despite collecting
billions for blending small amounts of ethanol with gas, oil companies
seem determined to fight the spread of E85, a fuel that is 85% ethanol
and 15% gas. …
At the same time the industry is collecting a 51 cents-per-gallon
federal subsidy for each gallon of ethanol it mixes with gas and sells
as E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gas), it’s working against the E85 blend
with tactics both overt and stealthy. Efforts range from funding
studies that bash the spread of ethanol for driving up the price of
corn, and therefore some food, to not supporting E85 pumps at gas
stations. The tactics infuriate a growing chorus of critics, from the
usual suspects—pro-ethanol consumer groups—to the unexpected: the oil
industry’s oft-time ally, the auto industry.
Those who criticize the industry’s stance see it as reminiscent of its
attempts to discredit the theory that human use of fossil fuels has
caused global warming. Mark N. Cooper, research director at the
Consumer Federation of America, authored a recent paper characterizing
the situation as "Big Oil’s war on ethanol." The industry, he writes,
"reacted aggressively against the expansion of ethanol production,
suggesting that it perceives the growth of biofuels as an independent,
competitive threat to its market power in refining and gasoline
marketing."