Ethanol might set back the bay
Source: Baltimore Sun, by Rona Kobell
September 04, 2007
New report warns rise in corn acreage could lead to more fertilizer pollution
The ethanol boom might reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, but the huge increase in corn crops that it requires could seriously harm the Chesapeake Bay, according to a government report to be released today.
The report by the multistate Chesapeake Bay Commission estimates that demand for ethanol will lead to an increase of 300,000 acres of corn in the six-state watershed. That increase would erode the progress that farmers have made in reducing the amount of pollution flowing into the bay from farms, sending an added 5 million pounds of nitrogen into the estuary each year.
But if done right, ethanol could be a major opportunity for the region, said Ann Swanson, executive director of the commission, which wrote the report, Biofuels and the Bay: Getting it Right to Benefit Farms, Forests and the Chesapeake.
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