US vows to supply green-fuel-laggard Japan with bioethanol

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — U.S. officials are touting bioethanol in Japan, which trails other nations on using the green fuel made from corn and other crops.

The U.S. is a top grower of corn, and an embassy official said the U.S. would be “a reliable supplier” of bioethanol.

“American ethanol is a powerful tool for Japan to address climate change, support consumers facing high prices and strengthen energy security,” Aaron Forsberg, minister for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy, said at a conference center in Tokyo.

Cooperation on biofuel between the U.S. and Japan is part of a larger partnership between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in defense, technology and climate change.



Aaron Forsberg, minister for economic affairs from the U.S. Embassy, speaks at a conference on bioethanol in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. U.S. officials were wooing Japan Wednesday on the benefits of bioethanol, a kind of green fuel that Japan lags far behind in adapting, compared to the rest of the world. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/biden-japan-tokyo-business-biofuels-40b509dfab2751e7f58b300efd93fd6e

[NickB79]

1. It's an absolute waste of land and food, and worse than burning gasoline

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-corn-based-ethanol-worse-climate-than-gasoline-study-finds-2022-02-14/

It's farmer welfare of the worst kind.

[Bayard]

4. I'm not entirely convinced by this article

Yes, it takes a lot of land to grow this much corn. But I don't see information about how much oxygen that ads back to the environment. Personally, I'd rather see fields of corn, than one full of oil wells.

[NickB79]

6. The ethanol cornfields wouldn't exist without fields of oil wells

Due to all the fossil fuel inputs modern agriculture requires.

That's the thing: you don't get to choose one or the other.

[Bayard]

7. Sounds like tractors and combines need to be retooled.

I'd buy an electric tractor.

[ripcord]

2. California refineries are moving more production to biofuels

There are now large government subsidies and it is easier to comply with California's environmental regulation while producing it. Another reason gas prices are still going up here.

[Layzeebeaver]

3. and as the climate continues to change it will affect crops

biofuel is not a panacea. We need to unlearn using fossil energy. And we need to understand that corn crops will be affected over the next several generations as the planet's climate continues to change. What's happening is going to continue to happen into the foreseeable future.

[Slammer]

5. yeah, that'll work well...

So we're now deliberately shipping irreplaceable water from our rapidly-shrinking underground aquifers in the plains states and sending it to Japan.