Some hail ethanol as the methadone needed to wean Western countries off fossil fuels. Others deplore it as environmental sabotage. 

The effects of Brazil’s growing sugarcane industry have prompted scientists to ask the question: are biofuels sustainable?

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that it aims to protect human health and the environment, Profs. Harry de Gorter and David Just, applied economics and management, say the agency may not be living up to its mission. According to de Gorter and Just, the EPA’s latest announcement about corn-based ethanol includes a “flawed” emission reduction standard that fails to take into account other sources of pollution.

About $6 billion is spent yearly by the U.S. government to subsidize corn ethanol. Around 1700 gallons of water are consumed for every gallon of corn ethanol produced. Corn is the number one cause of soil erosion in the United States and its overdependence on nitrogenous fertilizer, herbicides and insecticides is the prime reason of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, corn ethanol produces only 1.3 percent of nation’s total oil consumption, which, according to Prof. David Pimentel, entomology, defeats the purpose of energy sustainability.