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Ethanol groups dispute AP report

Ethanol groups are criticizing an Associated Press (AP) investigative report on the environmental impacts of ethanol.

The AP report claims that U.S. ethanol policy has caused an expansion of cropland in the U.S., including an accelerated conversion of conservation lands.   The AP reporters say that, by using government satellite data, they estimate that 1.2 million acres of so-called “virgin land” in Nebraska and the Dakotas have been converted to fields of corn and soybeans since 2006, the last year before the Renewable Fuels Standard was passed.

Bob Dinneen of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) disputes that claim.

“The fact of the matter is while some CRP and actively-managed pasture land has been converted to cropland, there’s no evidence that farmers are plowing into pristine prairie,” Dinneen says. “Most native grasslands are protected under USDA’s Sodbuster and Swampbuster provisions of the farm bill.”

 The AP story also questions whether corn ethanol production is really having much impact on greenhouse gas emissions when compared to gasoline.  RFA’s Geoff Cooper says there is plenty of research showing that it is.

“Contrary to what the article says, there are plenty of independent scientists out there who have found ethanol significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions—and I don’t believe (AP reporter) Miss Cappiello talked to any of them,” says Cooper.

Dinneen views the article as yet another attack on ethanol that he says ignores the facts.

“It’s just another attempt by people that don’t want to reduce our dependence on oil, that are satisfied with the status quo, that want to see cheap corn, trying to pull the wool over the consumers’  eyes,” he says, “and I don’t think it works in the end.”

The American Coalition for Ethanol is also critical of the AP story, calling it “an incredibly reckless disregard for the truth.”

AUDIO: Bob Dinneen’s comment to AgNewsWire (1:29 MP3)

AUDIO: Geoff Cooper-conference call with reporters (13:40 MP3)