Karen Tolkkinen wins a Spotty ™
For her column about ethanol in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune (which recently became a bigger mouthful), Karen Tolkkinen wins a coveted Spotty™. That’s a gift link, so you can all go and read it, but here are a few grafs:
That was my first introduction to growing corn. [Her father-in-law raising it.] Over nearly two decades of marriage, we’ve occasionally grown corn ourselves. But certain aspects of corn growing baffle me. A huge percentage of our crop ends up in ethanol. Testimony during a recent public hearing in Fergus Falls said that the amount of corn processed at the local ethanol plant amounted to 70% of Otter Tail County’s corn crop. Uff-da!
Back in the 1970s, people thought ethanol was a green alternative to gasoline. Then in 2022 a study funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy found that, from start to finish, it’s actually worse for the environment than gasoline.
It turns out that not only do corn fertilizers hurt our drinking water (more on that in a bit), but ethanol plants emit tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide. So much that a company, Summit Carbon Solutions, wants to build an $8.9 billion network of 2,500 miles of pipeline to capture that planet-warming gas from ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, and whisk it off for burial in North Dakota. [The last bit being a wonderful, ironic turn of a phrase.]
There are links in the column which are removed here, partly because links and formatting in Strib articles seem to drive the WordPress editor crazy.
LeftMN writer Dan Burns has been on the ethanol in Minnesota and the Summit Carbon Solutions stories for some time. If you’ve read them, you know that ethanol is far more trouble than it’s worth. If you follow @RiverRaccoon or @ProfSecchi on Twitter, you also know what ethanol has done to water quality in Iowa.
Remember, a Spotty™ is awarded for an op-ed, column, letter to the editor, web article or comment that I wish I had written myself.
Further note: There is an application before the Public Utilities Commission to approve the pipeline in Minnesota. Tolkkinen notes:
If you want to comment on this proposed pipeline, you have until Sept. 11. Its environmental impact statement is available on the Public Utilities Commission website.
Thanks for your feedback. If we like what you have to say, it may appear in a future post of reader reactions.