EDITORIAL: Don't fall for ethanol

Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom and rural lawmakers are pushing a measure that would mandate the use of ethanol in gasoline sold in Louisiana, arguing that doing so will be good for farmers and for the environment.
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But ethanol is an empty promise for Louisiana. The fuel additive makes gas burn cleaner, but its environmental value is debatable since it takes a lot of energy to produce ethanol from agricultural products.

Ethanol isn't the answer for farmers, either. Mr. Odom is touting it as a way to help struggling farmers. But propping up one heavily subsidized commodity, such as sugar, with ethanol, which is also heavily subsidized, isn't a good plan.

Right now, no ethanol or biodiesel is produced in Louisiana. But if at some point production reaches 10 million gallons per year, House Bill 685 by Rep. Francis Thompson would require gasoline sold in Louisiana to be 2 percent ethanol. The same terms would apply to biodiesel.

The bill was unanimously approved by the House Agriculture Committee, but it faces stiff opposition from the oil and gas industry, which says that the requirement will increase the cost of gasoline for consumers. Oil interests also point out that the federal government is already requiring an increase in production of ethanol.

Jim Porter, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, criticized the bill for being vague, and that's on target. The measure doesn't specify how the mandate would be enforced, leaving all those details up to Mr. Odom. That alone ought to give lawmakers reason to hesitate.

There's no question that Mr. Odom is sold on ethanol. He's counting on it to make a syrup mill that he built in Lacassine profitable. If bagasse, a sugar cane by-product, can be turned into ethanol, it would greatly help the bottom line of the mill, which is a shaky venture at best.

No ethanol plant has materialized so far, however. Mr. Odom broke ground for such a plant last May, but the company that was supposed to build the plant didn't do so, and now the state is suing to break the lease. In the meantime, Mr. Odom says that he's in negotiations with another company to produce agricultural-based fuel at Lacassine.

Even if Mr. Odom is able to work that out, Louisiana shouldn't count on ethanol to rescue anything else. The full House should reject this nebulous piece of legislation.


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