I enjoy Cliff May’s work generally, but I have two large bones to pick with his column this week on ethanol–which to my mind makes little sense economically or environmentally.

First off, it takes nearly as much energy to create a gallon of ethanol as you get out of it. Firing up tillers, harvesters, tractors, and trucks to first grow and then transport corn to the distillery, and then even more trucks to transport the finished product to market — ethanol has to be trucked: it’s less stable than gasoline, and can’t be pumped through pipelines — is hardly an enviro-friendly process. It may burn cleaner than gasoline, but the same can’t be said for the entire production process. Consider the fertilizers, pesticides, and the massive amounts of water required. Ethanol also evaporates far more easily than gasoline, contributing to smog.

Cellulosic ethanol may be even worse, when one pauses to consider the possible unintended environmental impact that switchgrass-dissolving enzymes could have if they become cheaply available in developing nations.

May’s piece begins with the sound proposition that government tinkering with markets doesn’t work. It’s a shame he didn’t apply the same rationale to ethanol mandates and tax breaks. If ethanol is so cheap, why does it need government interference to incentivize its production and consumption?

Ethanol makes little environmental sense. And it makes economic sense only for corn producers and processers. It makes political sense, sure — but the Iowa primary was weeks ago. I’m all for keeping petrodollars out of the hands of the Ahmadinejads and Chavezes of the world, but I’d rather do it by means of ounces of uranium than by thousands of square miles of corn stalks.

Better that automobile manufacturers concentrate on electric cars — drawing power from the grid, where corn will have to really compete with other fuels like oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium for the privilege of powering your Prius. If ethanol can win a share in the electricity-production market, I’m all for it. But it can’t today without government interference.

Ethanol has its place — aging quietly in small oak barrels after vigorous charcoal filtering. I’d love to discuss its benefits in more detail with Cliff May sometime.