Ethanol is not environmentally friendly. Besides the problems created by growing corn, and coal fired electricity used to create the ethanol, when ethanol burns it emits more ozone causing chemicals than gasoline.
A recent study from the Environmental Science and Technology journal raises some new concerns about ethanol-based E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) which can be used in automobiles. The study finds that if much of the country’s fuel supply would switch from gasoline to E85, the number of deaths from respiratory failure (due to ozone) in the United States would rise from 4,700 people a year to nearly 4,900 per year.“It’s not green in terms of air pollution,” said study author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University environmental engineering professor and author of the study. “If you want to use ethanol, fine, but don’t do it based on health grounds. It’s no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse.”