You can run your car with these endless fields of corn in the Midwest. It can be distilled into endless gallons of ethanol, a clean-burning, high-octane fuel to meet reducing global warming. And if this could be done successfully, it could end any worldwide oil shortage, reduce emissions that cause global warming, and free the United States from dependence on foreign energy.
Though the end product can effectively contribute towards global warming, the debate rises on its manufacturing process as turning corn into ethanol takes energy. It uses the equivalent of almost two-fifths of a gallon of fuel (usually natural gas), for every gallon that an ethanol manufacturing plant produces. And that does not count the fuel needed to make fertilizer for the corn, run the farm machinery or truck the ethanol to market! The real ‘absolute source’ (if any) to solve global warming is yet to be discovered or invented.
Via: The New York Times