Ethanol's rationale shifts through the years

WATERTOWN, S.D. — Over four decades, Orrie Swayze has been a part of promoting ethanol for a progression of reasons. Every several years, the focus shifts to a new advantage.

n Better corn profits: In the 1970s and 1980s, corn prices were in the dumps and farmers promoted ethanol as a new market.

“We were growing it and subsidizing the export of it,” Swayze recalls. “We were almost paying people to take it, ’cause we didn’t want paid set-aside.”

n Rural development: Local communities needed some economic activity. Farmers should own it, so they’d make money either with the higher corn prices or with the returns from ethanol. Critics say ethanol drives up costs for livestock producers, who provide many more jobs than ethanol plants. Farmers have enlisted nonfarm investment in ethanol, which has taken some of the profit, but also some of the risk in the wake of notable bankruptcies and reorganizations.

n Energy independence: The public should buy it because America shouldn’t be so dependent on foreign sources — especially the Middle East countries, where ideologies oppose U.S. democratic principles. Here, Swayze joined forces with the Veterans of Foreign Wars to promote ethanol as the patriotic thing to do. Critics have debated about whether a 10 percent ethanol blend is significant in displacing foreign oil, but promoters have said it doesn’t have to be the entire solution.

n Renewability: The U.S. needs a “renewable” source of liquid fuel for vehicles, and that is ethanol. This remains a primary national goal, with a Renewable Fuel Standard, despite debates about how much petroleum and Btus it takes to produce it. Other critics have assailed corn-based ethanol as being less efficient than other sources, although technologies for producing cellulosic and biomass ethanol are just getting started in the U.S.

n Pollution: This is a recurring rationale.

“The best thing we ever did was produce a fuel that didn’t cause birth defects,” Swayze says.

He says 10 percent of American children have birth defect surface by age 5. Premature births have increased 36 percent from 1980 to 2005. Half of the birth defects are preventable.

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