In this part of the country, corn-based ethanol is still touted as the route to America’s energy independence. Step outside the Corn Belt and you hear a different story.

• Using an important food source for fuel is leading to higher prices in the grocery store.

• Record-high prices for corn could lead to crop monoculture in the Midwest. Forget traditional crop rotation patterns. Why bother when corn pays so well?

• There’s little or no net energy gain and little reduction in the need for imported oil (diesel fuel used to plant, cultivate and harvest corn; diesel needed to transport ethanol by truck and rail because ethanol corrodes pipeline seals; fuel to power ethanol production plants).

• Massive tax subsidies, estimated last year at $6 billion.

• New research bringing into question the  supposedly green-and-clean aspect of ethanol.

Here in Lenawee County, we welcome corn ethanol as an exciting move into our energy future. In other places, people wonder why we ever chose to focus on corn-based ethanol. Was it a desire for a quick fix amid rising oil prices, with a nod toward farm state politicians?

Even as corn-based ethanol plants continue to be built, many energy specialists believe the sun is setting on these new facilities. They won’t remain a preferred source of fuel for long. There’s too much going against this process.

If it’s going to be ethanol, then money should go toward further development of cellulosic ethanol (made from non-food vegetation—often from waste products). That’s a direction backed by the Michigan Agri-Business Association.

There’s one other approach to fuel savings that never seems to make its way into a State of the Union address: conservation.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, reducing gasoline consumption by 10 percent through fuel economy standards would cost about $3.6 billion annually. To make that same impact via ethanol production, taxpayers would pay close to $10 billion.

We’re happy that area farmers are making money off the increasingly valuable commodity of corn—although their colleagues in the livestock industry might not be smiling—but we don’t believe it’s going to last.

In the long run, corn-based ethanol is not the smart choice for a new fuel.