Alternative fuels are making waves in Iowa thanks in part to the efforts of Federal Senate leaders such as Charles Grassley. I may disagree with Grassley on a number of social issues, but I have to respect the efforts he has made to improve the environment for alternative energy technologies. "In 1992, he authored legislation to provide the first-ever tax incentive for wind energy production, and in 1997, Grassley pushed a ten-year extension of the tax credit for corn-based ethanol through Congress." While ethanol does provide Iowa farmers with an expanded market for their corn, I don't think ethanol is a particularly sustainable energy solution. From raw feedstock to distribution, the ethanol production system is too parallel to our current petroleum based fuel production infrastructure.

Thanks to powerful lobbies we can expect that the vast bulk of ethanol produced in Iowa will be derived from corn and corn byproducts. Combined with the 2002 Farm Bill's subsidy program, it follows that large corporate farms will push more and more land into mono-crppoed production. This in turn will increase the use of petroleum based herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, and, of course, further degrade soil quality and water quality. Once the corn grown with non-sustainable agricultural practices is harvested, it is transported to a large production facility where it undergoes the transformation from grain to gasoline.

Large companies such as Cargill and ADM have a tight grip on the ethanol production process; ethanol can be mass produced along side corn starch and high fructose corn syrup. In the end the production technology is a combination of brewing and distillation- familiar enough technologies, but to create a high-grade fuel that is guaranteed not to destroy a modern IC engine is beyond making beer in your basement. Putting this all together, we have a relatively difficult large-scale production process controlled by a small number of corporations who rely on a steady supply of feedstock that is harvested and grown in a non-sustainable fashion thanks in large part to powerful lobbies that promote the interests of profit-driven agribusiness. Sounds eerily familiar to another common energy production system doesn't it?

So, what can you as an educated consumer do about it? For starters, use ethanol blended fuel anyway. Yeah, it is helping to line the pockets of big companies, but the petroleum can be removed from the ethanol production process without much difficulty- the same cannot be said for plain old gasoline. Fight for sustainable agriculture- write to legislators, speak out and support local growers that use sustainable growing methods. Switch to biodiesel. This is more difficult as it means using a diesel vehicle and finding a source of fuel. Thankfully, biodiesel blends and B100 are easy to find in Iowa. Even better, you can make your own biodiesel. Even better- get s few friends together, invest in a large reactor, and start a business collecting waste vegetable oil and selling fuel.