How E85, Ethanol reduce Oil Dependency

A study by the U.S. Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors advocating the production of 90 billion gallons of biofuel a year by 2030 shows that amount is sufficient to replace more than 60 billion of the estimated 180 billion gallons of gasoline that would be expected to be used annually by the year 2030.
The study assumes that 75 billion gallons would be ethanol made from non-food cellulosic feedstock and 15 billion gallons would be ethanol produced from corn. The study used a new tool known as Biofuels Deployment Model (BDM) to determine that 21 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol could be produced a year by 2022 without losing current crops. The study examined the costs of producing, harvesting, storing and transporting sources of ethanol to newly constructed bio-refineries and it also considered four sources of biofuel production -- agricultural residue, which includes corn stover and wheat straw; forest residue; energy crops such as switchgrass; and short rotation woody crops, including willow and other trees. Our take? We would assume that this study helps prove that ethanol can be produced in sufficient amounts by using sustainable non-food sources. This should settle the controversy that ethanol production should be curbed due to its use of foodstock in its manufacturing. Opponents of ethanol have been pointing to the rising price of food due to the use of foodstock as a reason for its opposition of ethanol.