Ethanol energy balance tops others

To the editor:

I would like to weigh in on the ethanol debate. Rather than trying to prove that David Pimentel's research is flawed, as others have done, I would like to assume his figures are correct. His studies show that it takes 29 percent more fossil-fuel energy to grow corn and make ethanol than you get from the ethanol.

Using his methods, the energy balance is even worse for gasoline. (My source is Bruce Dale, chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University.) It is pegged at minus 39 percent, because it takes energy to find, drill and refine petroleum into gasoline and to transport and store it and deliver it to your vehicle. Electricity from coal is even more wasteful, with a net energy balance of minus 235 percent. Coal to gasoline has a net energy balance of minus 100.

Ethanol cannot be the sole source of energy in this country, but it can be a part of a comprehensive plan to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and keep the environment clean.

STEVEN PEEL, Cape Girardeau