88% Support Renewable Energy

Poll results can be notoriously misleading, depending on how the questions were formulated and who was asked, so it's good to view them with a strong sense of skepticism -- particularly when the organization sponsoring the poll has a dog in the fight.

Still, the results of the poll by the Clean Fuels Development Coalition that show, among other things, that Americans generally think well of ethanol, have some interesting results.

• 88% believe the U.S. should pursue renewable energy sources.
• More people believe higher oil prices have a substantial impact on rising food than believe that ethanol does. Numerous reports have suggested that government subsidies for production of the alternative fuel ethanol have led to higher food prices because so much corn that would otherwise have gone for food and feed is being made into fuel. That has driven up the cost of corn, which it turns out is an ingredient in a huge percentage of foods for sale in the average grocery store.
• 78% believe ethanol would lesson the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Ethanol, despite the poll results, has had a mixed debut in the American fuel supply. Besides rising food costs, the ethanol boom has fueled an increase in the size of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, as nutrients from over-fertilized Midwest farm fields course down the Mississippi Valley, feeding excessive algae growth that sucks the oxygen from the water. More and more people are questioning the wisdom of investing in so much corn-based ethanol, but the presidential candidates have generally supported it -- in part, no doubt, to the importance of Iowa as a primary state.

Ethanol can be made from a variety of sources, and scientists are working on formulations that can use waste and grass crops, among other sources. So-called cellulosic ethanol, if it can be made cheaply, would offer benefits that corn-based ethanol does not: less pollution, the ability to grow it on marginal farmland, a better ratio of energy output per energy input. That could be the breakthrough that ethanol needs.

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