Ethanol industry pins hope on panel of experts

The nation's corn ethanol industry took a hit on Thursday when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a system of regulating greenhouse gases in fuels that makes gasoline look slightly greener than ethanol.

Even though only one board member voted against it, nearly half of the 10 board members said they had doubts about the accuracy of computer modeling that makes ethanol look worse because of its indirect effects. CARB assumes that growing corn in the Midwest to make ethanol leads to plowing up and burning grasslands and jungles elsewhere to grow more food. When the carbon dioxide released by thoe land use changes is added in to ethanol's "carbon intensity value," gasoline looks slightly better.

So the board moved up a review of indirect fuel effects, from January 2012 to January 2011, the same year the rules for Californias low carbon fuel standard kick in.

source: agriculture