Photo by roger4336. Some rights reserved.
“Ethanol is ethanol is ethanol.” A biology professor in college used this maxim to dispel the popular myth that drinking different kinds of alcohol has a different effect on one’s mental state. But what else is ethanol? Well, of course, it’s a fuel additive, and one that’s become drastically more popular in the last ten years, so much so that it’s led to an “ethanol boom.”
The New York Times reports this week that land prices in the American heartland are hitting thirty-year highs, as crop prices (corn and soy, in particular) keep ticking up, due largely to an increasing demand for ethanol, both domestically and abroad. As such, farmers across America’s fertile plains are putting their land up for sale, both to other farmers looking to expand or to outside investors interested in a taste, unable to resist the unreal prices.
But what happens when the ethanol boom ends? Reports from the end of last year seemed to suggest that the high international demand for ethanol is a fleeting concept, and is forecasted to begin steadily dropping off, as the amount used as a fuel additive in gasoline (one of its most popular uses here in the U.S.) is already reaching federal limits, and gasoline consumption wanes overall. The high farmland prices that we’re seeing now hold dangerous consequences for those over-zealous folks who rushed to buy more land may be hit with a sudden decrease in land prices and leave their creditors with heavy debts.
Meanwhile, ThinkProgress takes a look at the issue from another angle, in how the steep corn prices are strangling the already stuggling biofuel industry and what it means for sustainable energy.
