How 'Green' is ethanol?

There has been a lot of confusion about the status of ethanol as a 'green' alternative to other petroleum fuels. I would like to take this opportunity to clear up some of the misconceptions about ethanol and other bio-fuels in terms of environmental impact.

The most common view taken is that gasoline and ethanol are both hydrocarbons and both produce carbon dioxide when burned. That is true, and from that viewpoint ethanol is not any more 'green' than gasoline. People at that vantage point see ethanol only as a financial tool to try to break the monopoly that the petroleum fuel cartels hold over current fuel prices.

There is another aspect that is often overlooked in the production of bio-fuels, and that is that the plants, which are used to make them, take the carbon dioxide from the air in order to grow. With that in mind, we can see that the complete cycle of absorbing the carbon from the air and then putting it back, brings ethanol 'closer to zero' on the environmental scale, at least in terms of carbon waste.

Yes, ethanol is a 'green' fuel. It may not be perfect but it is far healthier for the planet than petroleum.