College Park, MD 20740-2496
Ethanol buzz flows in the halls of Congress, on Wall Street and Main Street, and in the press. Despite scattered criticisms, ethanol has clearly arrived in terms of public relations and political interest. Nevertheless questions abound about the significance of this gasoline substitute. Will it remain a boutique additive, or will it really muscle SUVs down the road? Will its main feedstock remain corn, or will cellulosic ethanol generate a brand new technology for energy production? Will ethanol remain a project to raise corn prices and revitalize the Midwest, or will it truly reweave the American energy economy? Will it always remain a creature of subsidies, or will it march into markets with a competitive edge? What happens if ethanol rises to anywhere near the levels its avid supporters envision? This talk addresses these questions by examining ethanol’s recent history and current trajectories. The talk will also address the lessons from the ethanol story for other energy issues. It seeks a framework for understanding the human and environmental dimensions of this new energy technology.
John Perkins is writing a new book on the building of a new energy economy. Previously, he has written extensively about the history of agricultural technologies. His first book (Insects, Experts, and the Insecticide Crisis, 1982) looked at the reasons we developed highly toxic insecticides and how we dealt with the crises they caused. In 1997, his second book (Geopolitics and the Green Revolution) explained why scientists and political leaders embraced high yielding varieties of wheat in the midst of the Cold War. Recently he co-authored an essay, “History, Ethics, and Intensification in Agriculture,” which the UNFAO will publish in a collection of essays to guide agricultural scientists through treacherous ethical waters. Perkins is on sabbatical leave from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. His AB and Ph.D. degrees are both in biology, and he did post-doctoral work in history of science and environmental history.
