Getting Real About Ethanol's True Promise
Former Vice President Al Gore took center stage recently when he said was wrong about the environmental and national security promise of ethanol as a fuel to power automobiles. Ethanol was, he allowed, overhyped - by him more than anyone - and after years of subsidized development, it fails to fully deliver...
... That's where Oregon can play a smart part.
Pacific Ethanol in Boardman employs 40 people who annually make 40 million gallons of ethanol, virtually all of it from Midwest corn. While Pacific continues to sell yet more of its product to blenders who must meet rising federal ethanol-use mandates, several Oregon companies, among them ZeaChem in Boardman, will press on in developing a naturally occuring feedstock that is profuse herabouts and could break corn's tyranny: woody biomass.
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