Ethanol a critical component of our energy future

The Wall Street Journal's editorial of Nov. 27, "Al Gore's Ethanol Epiphany," again raises the question as to whether this nation needs ethanol as part of its energy mix.

The foundation of the ethanol industry is built on a three-legged stool of economic security, energy security and environmental protection.Today's ethanol industry is the foundation for tomorrow's diversified, sustainable energy platform. But while that's ethanol's success, it's also a curse.

Ethanol is no longer an annoying fly buzzing around the energy room; it's now close to 10 percent of the gasoline sold in the United States. That fly turns into a full-fledged gorilla by 2022, when the federal government has said 25 percent of our gasoline supply should be replaced by renewable fuels. The competitive stakes are high.

Consider the following: In 2009, ethanol production returned $8.4 billion to federal tax coffers. That's $3.4 billion more than the cost of ethanol's tax incentive. In addition, some $7 billion in much-needed tax revenues were directed to state and local governments hard-pressed by the poor economy.

Currently ethanol, while providing 400,000 workers with good-paying jobs, is displacing some 364 million barrels of imported oil per year. That keeps $21 billion in the U.S. economy instead of sending it overseas each year.

Don't get me wrong. I am not anti-oil. I'm a second-generation Big Oil man whose father went to work for Texaco in the oil fields of southern Oklahoma in 1945. I joined Texaco in 1971 right out of college. I witnessed the impact of the nation's first energy crisis two years later. Texaco had invested heavily in the Arabian American Oil Company and suffered huge supply losses.

After the second energy crisis in 1979, Texaco turned to renewable energy. In 1981, I became marketing director for Texaco's new joint venture with CPC International, producing ethanol at Pekin Energy Co. So began my life in the biofuels industry, which has lasted nearly 30 years.

Ethanol is the foundation for a diversified, sustainable energy economy, but we still live in a fossil fuel world that will continue for the rest of my lifetime. But fossil fuel is not sustainable. Ethanol provides a balance in our energy mix while we develop new energy sources.

As for Mr. Gore's epiphany in front of group of clean energy investors in Greece, renewable energy advocates should recall Benjamin Franklin's statement at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Ron Miller is managing director of Prisma Advisors, LLC, a management advisory firm specializing in alternative fuels and biotechnology. He lives in Pekin.

source: pjstar