ETHANOL, supposedly an ultra-clean miracle fuel, is actually an energy-waster
that creates more pollution than the petrol it replaces, claims a former US
government adviser. If he is right, it could mean the burgeoning billion-dollar
ethanol industry is nothing more than an economic white elephant.
Agricultural scientist David Pimentel came to this conclusion in the early
1980s when he chaired a Department of Energy study into the economic and
environmental impact of ethanol. Over the past 20 years, scientists working for
the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) say that improvements in farming
practices and ethanol processing have boosted the fuel’s…
