derived ethanol often is described as a nonviable energy source over the long run. Why?
As National Geographic observed in a recent issue, Its easy to lose faith in biofuels if corn ethanol is all you know. Corn is a clean-burning fuel source that renewable energy specialists readily acknowledge has played and will continue to play an important role in advancing America down the path toward energy security. Currently, virtually all of the nations ethanol is produced from yellow feed corn. Even so, some experts stress that this role will be only a limited one at best. In the view of some critics, corn requires vast amounts of fossil fuels in the form of nitrogen fertilizer to grow. They contend that processing corn into ethanol exacts an even greater environmental toll, both in terms of the fossil fuels required for its cultivation and of the carbon dioxide the principal culprit behind global warming emitted in the course of its conversion. Indeed, by some estimates, corn production consumes roughly as much fossil fuel in the course of its cultivation and conversion that i
