The 2005 Energy Policy Act mandates that refiners increase the amount of biofuel (mostly ethanol) in the nation’s motor fuel supply from roughly 3.8 billion gallons in 2005 to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. Supporters claim this will help “set America free” from dependence on oil, especially petroleum imports.
However, even with the mandate, more than 95% of all motor fuel for automobiles will still come from oil. Petroleum imports will decline by a miniscule 0.8% or less. See the Energy Information Administration’s study, Renewable Fuels Legislation Impact Analysis.

So how much corn would U.S. farmers have to plant to provide enough ethanol to really “set America free” from petroleum dependence?

In Ethanol as Fuel: Energy, Carbon Dioxide Balances, and Ecological Footprint, researchers at Washington State University used a computer model to estimate how many hectares of land would have to be converted to corn production to fuel the U.S. auto fleet with E-85 (motor fuel blended with 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline).
Here’s what they found. Assuming current ethanol production methods and a 4% annual increase in the U.S. auto fleet:

• by 2012, “all available cropland in the United States would be required for corn production”;
• by 2036, “not only the entire U.S. cropland area but also the entire land area now used for range and pasture would be required”; and,
• by 2048, “virtually the whole country, with exception of the cities, would be covered with corn plantations.”

Oh beautiful for spacious skies and yellow rows of corn! To replace gasoline with E-85, America would have to become Corn Nation–yellow ears from sea to shining sea. A greater economic and ecological catastrophe would be hard to imagine. Š