A Survey of Studies Published Since 1990
February 2006
Ethanol:
Energy Well Spent
Natural Resources Defense Council
and Climate Solutions
ABOUT NRDC
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national nonprofit environmental organization with more
than 600,000 members. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have
been working to protect the world’s natural resources and improve the quality of the human
environment. NRDC has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and San
Francisco.
ABOUT Climate Solutions
Climate Solutions is a nonprofit organization working to inspire and accelerate practical and profitable
solutions to global warming. We build nontraditional partnerships in the Pacific Northwest to increase
the use of clean energy and build a dynamic, job-generating clean energy industry. Visit us at
www.climatesolutions.org.
This report is based on a study by Roel Hammerschlag of the Institute for Lifecycle Environmental
Assessment commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Climate Solutions. A more
detailed and fully annotated report based on the same analysis was published in Environmental
Science and Technology, a peer-reviewed journal.
For further information on this report, please contact Nathanael Greene, ngreene@nrdc.org, or Rhys
Roth, rhys@climatesolutions.org.
Copyright 2006 by the Natural Resources Defense Council
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Introduction
America’s dependence on nonrenewable energy sources threatens our security, economy, and
environment. America consumes 25 percent of the world’s total oil production, but controls only 3
percent of the world’s known oil reserves. This means that we must pay high prices for oil imported
from some of the most unstable regions of the world and suffer the environmental and public health
consequences of our rampant oil consumption – polluted air, smog-filled cities, and the range of
threats associated with global warming.