Ethanol: A good replacement for

Gasoline?By: Christopher Joyce

Jan. 2006

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5173420

Ethanol With gas prices skyrocketing lately, many

corporations are doing research for alternative fuels.

About 1 in 40 cars in the US can run on a mix of ethanol called E85 which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

Ethanol is an alcohol made from distilling the sugars in crops – primarily corn in the U.S.

Why Ethanol? Ethanol is being marketed as an alternative

fuel due to the high prices and limited supply of oil whereas there is a hypothetically limitless supply of ethanol.

The US also would like to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.

Ethanol greatly reduces CO (Carbon Monoxide) emissions.

The Debate Critics say that there is more energy used in

producing ethanol than is gained from it. Even if all of the U.S.’s current corn supply was

recruited for making ethanol, that would only produce less than 10% of the amount necessary for our transportation needs.

The environmental consequences of ramping up pesticides to produce large-scale biofuel crops also must be considered.

Analysis

Price

Quantity

The demand for ethanol as a replacement will decrease the demand for gasoline, causing gas prices to drop.

P0

P1

D1 D0 S0

Q0Q1