Ethanol has a smoggy side

By Tom Davies

updated 4:02 p.m. ET May 7, 2007

PORTLAND, Ind. - The ethanol refineries sprouting across the Corn Belt are typically touted as desperately needed economic engines for rural towns, a boon for American farmers and a way to ease the heavy dependence on foreign oil.

When James Clear hears the word ethanol, he instead thinks about the tons of pollutants that will come from the 50-acre industrial complex being built on the edge of this eastern Indiana town.

“It would just kill me looking out on our playground there and picturing our kids breathing that air,” said Clear, a chiropractor who sold the house on family land after learning a South Dakota company planned to build an ethanol plant a half-mile away.

Ethanol has long been touted as a cleaner-burning alternative to gasoline and it carries the image of an environmentally friendly fuel since it’s derived from plants and plant waste. Experts say replacing gas with ethanol blends will reduce greenhouse gases and help the fight against global warming.

But the more than 200 U.S. refineries in operation or under construction — mostly in a swath from Nebraska and Kansas east into Ohio — also emit thousands of tons of pollutants a year, including nitrogen oxide, a key element of smog.

Increased use of ethanol — proposed by President Bush in his January State of the Union address — could raise smog levels about 1 percent in some areas of the country, according to Environmental Protection Agency officials.

In early April, however, the EPA increased how much pollutants ethanol plants can emit before facing tougher restrictions, prompting concern among some environmental groups.

Shifting the smog?
“I think word is getting around that ethanol refineries can be a heck of a problem if you live near them,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. “You’re taking areas that are generally not seeing a lot of pollution now and darkening the skies.”

A recent study by a Stanford University professor concluded that 200 more people each year would die from respiratory problems related to ozone, the unseen component of smog, if all vehicles in the United States ran on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020.

The study also suggested that areas prone to ozone problems, such as the Northeast and Los Angeles, would see increases in ozone levels under that scenario.

Critics of the study, including officials at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Renewable Fuels Association ethanol lobby group, said ethanol is better than traditional gasoline by any measurement.

Brian Jennings, executive vice president of industry group American Coalition for Ethanol in Sioux Falls, S.D., said areas with histories of using 10 percent ethanol blends have actually shown air-quality improvements.

“Every real-world example that we have of ethanol replacing straight gasoline in the market, whether it is a city or an entire state, the experience has resulted in cleaner air,” Jennings said. “There’s not a city, state or region that has switched over to ethanol and not had improvements.”

Still, Jennings acknowledges concerns about emissions.

“No fuel is perfect, and we would be the first to admit that ethanol-blended fuels are going to emit things just like any other fuel does,” he said.

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