On Dec. 19 President Bush signed the public law H.R. 6, the "Energy Independence and Security Act." This law includes a Renewable Fuels Standard, which calls for 36 billion gallons of ethanol to be combined with gasoline nationwide by 2022.  

At its most basic form, ethanol is grain alcohol, also known as gasohol, created primarily from corn. It's then combined with gasoline to produce a fuel that emits lower amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. 

Ethanol appears to be a promising solution; one that marries the desire to lower America's dependence on foreign energy sources with the increasing desire to improve the environment and lower emissions. It's an alternative fuel source that provides economic gain to Midwestern corn farmers and musters feelings of returning to some more organic roots.

According to The Renewable Energy Policy Project study in 2005, the ethanol industry boosted household income by $5.7 billion by creating 154,000 jobs.

All of this, coupled with pictures of corn stalks, swaying, back lighted, by a beatific blue sky, makes ethanol sound, look, and even feel like a good idea. But like so many things in this world, it is not as it seems.

Politicians and lobbyists are touting ethanol around as an alternative fuel solution while providing the public with pretty pictures of pristine blue skies that promise better days. But it can't deliver. According to the Department of Energy, the United States uses 178 billion gallons of gas a day. That means we put out a lot of emissions. But, the process of creating ethanol also emits a lot of pollutants into the air.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, tests by state regulators and the federal agency at ethanol plants found emissions of volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide -- emissions the plants excused with a plea of ignorance.

And not only are ethanol plants facing scrutiny for the emissions they put out, but also for the land they are clearing in order to grow corn. Despite the growing demand, farmers still have to allow their land to lay fallow. Forests need to be cleared to meet this need. 

This happened in 2006 when land in Singapore was set on fire in order to clear for oil palms intended to supply ethanol plants. While this ridded the land of its ecological value, it also released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as trees burned. 

Because the demand for ethanol has been set by the RFS as 36 billion barrels by 2022, more and more corn will need to be created in a counterproductive process that emits volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide. The process of creating this "alternative fuel" actually pollutes the atmosphere.

And not only that, but as the ethanol industry continues to grow, land will need to be cleared; not only destroying the ecological value that ethanol is promising to protect, but also emitting carbon dioxide into that same air it is claiming to leave unaffected.

Politicians and lobbyists are touting ethanol around as an alternative fuel solution while providing the public with pretty pictures of pristine blue skies that promise better days. But it can't deliver. 

It's just another stupid solution that neglects the ever-decreasing beauty of our landscape.  It pollutes the increasingly polluted air we daily choke down. Really, the only positive that it presents is an economic gain for farmers domestically.

But even as we choke down our lesson in valuing economic gain over quality of life, we're making the same stupid mistake.