Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel 

The former governor late last year co-founded the Interamerican Ethanol Commission to promote ethanol use throughout the Americas. The president recently traveled to Brazil, the world's leading producer of ethanol, to sign an ethanol partnership agreement with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

This is a good thing, up to a point. The United States has a severe trade deficit, so increasing imports of anything is no panacea. But it sure beats importing oil from the politically and militarily volatile Middle East or from anti-American Venezuela.

Still, if the United States is really to benefit in the long run from ethanol and other biofuels, it should turn its attention to domestically grown sources. But that presents potential problems of its own.

Brazil gets most of its ethanol from sugar. In the U.S., the far more abundant source is corn. But even partly converting the corn industry from food production to energy production could have drawbacks, including undermining our food independence.

Moreover, it takes a lot of energy to produce ethanol. Because that energy must come from existing sources at least for now, some of the gains would be given back through the energy used in the production process.

Consider also that water may well become as precious a resource as energy in the 21st century. You need a lot of water to produce, from corn or sugar, the huge quantities of ethanol it would take to supply America's energy needs.

For environmental and strategic reasons, the United States simply must diversify its sources of energy. Ethanol is a good place to start. But the search for cleaner energy and energy independence shouldn't end there.

BOTTOM LINE: Ethanol is promising, but won't solve all of our energy problems.