Biofuels

Julie Brautigam and Danyal Kennedy

Professor Kevin Schulte

Economic Issues

10 November 2011

Will Biofuels Such As Ethanol Reduce U.S. Dependence on Foreign Oil?

With the global economy in turmoil, substantial unemployment, and a world at war, one would not expect the topic of biofuels to get much attention. On the contrary, this has been a topic of contention for many years, however; it has really flooded the public arena within the last ten years. The following will address some of the pros and cons of investment in biofuels, and the plausible positive and negative impacts that it might have on the United States economy and national security as a whole.

To start with, it is true that the U.S. dependence on foreign oil is an ever-growing problem. President George W. Bush said it best on September 26, 2005 when he exclaimed “I’ve often said one of the worst problems we have is that we’re dependent on foreign sources of crude oil, and we are…It is clear that when you’re dependent upon…hydrocarbons to fuel your economy and that supply get disrupted, we need alternative sources of energy”. The issue is that there is contention about what alternative sources of energy to use and how this will ultimately impact our economy and environment as a whole. With this in mind, many advocate for the use of biofuels.

Biofuels are, in essence, ethanol and biodiesel. Biofuels are mainly used in transportation, but can be utilized in other ways as well. Ethanol is the main biofuel in discussion to replace fossil fuels and ultimately reduce dependence on foreign oil. Ethanol and biodiesel take liquid form and are derived from biomass, which are organic nonfossil materials of biological origin. For this reason, many people believe that production of these fuels is better for the environment. The origins of ethanol are very simplistic and come from things that many rural people see every day. It can be derived from crops such as corn, barley, and sugarcane. These are...