BioFuels Journal

There have been numerous new — and erroneous — attacks on domestic ethanol for contributing to the "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.

Big Oil, notably BP, would love nothing more than to change the subject away from the catastrophic results of policies that rely on drilling for oil.

We need to respond to these attacks with the facts about domestic ethanol, and the facts about the Dead Zone, and some perspective.

You can find your local news media outlet — and write a letter to the editor — by clicking here.

You can also write a letter to your Member of Congress; find their address by clicking here.

This graph is from the USGS and charts the total size of the area in the Gulf where dissolved oxygen is less than 2 mg/L.

As you can see, the levels measured from the summer of 2009 are considerably smaller than those from the early part of the decade despite the fact that ethanol production has been on the rise over the same time period and corn yields are up.

Finally, don't forget to turn to these facts any time you see someone in the press or on a blog misstate the facts about ethanol and the opportunities domestic ethanol provides. — this piece on the San Francisco Chronicle website.

There have been other wildly inaccurate portrayals of U.S. ethanol from our critics; we urge you to engage whenever and where ever you can.

• Last year the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico was estimated to be about 3,000 square miles. Last year, the U.S. produced 10.8 billion gallons of ethanol. In 2001, the dead zone was 8,006 square miles, and ethanol production in the U.S. was 1.8 billion gallons. How do critics of ethanol explain how the dead zone shrunk while ethanol production increased by more than 6 times in the U.S.? (Read more here)

• As of today, the Deepwater Horizon spill could be 12 times the size of the Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The Deepwater spill will be much larger before BP is able to cap the well. (see map here)

• Biofuels like ethanol can actually help prevent runoff, according to a recent study of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. The study found that production of biomass can reduce erosion, absorb excess fertilizer from idle farm fields and capture carbon dioxide as they grow. (read report here)

We've got a longer list of facts about the Gulf on our web site and I encourage you to take a look.

Thanks for your help. And check back to our Growth Energy blog, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook, to join the conversation.

For more information, call 202-545-4000.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• Growth Energy

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