Corn ethanol has a positive energy balance. On average, corn ethanol delivers 67 percent more energy output than it takes to produce (1.67:1, USDA ). This means ethanol yields 67 percent more fossil energy than is used to grow and harvest the grain and process it into ethanol; or for every 100 BTUs of energy used to make ethanol, 167 BTUs of ethanol is produced.

Gasoline, on the other hand, has a negative energy balance. It uses 23% more fossil energy to make one unit of petroleum gasoline (1:1.23). In other words, gasoline requires more than one Btu of energy to deliver one Btu to your car.

The net energy balance of ethanol production continues to improve because ethanol production is becoming more efficient. A March 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory found significant gains just since 2001 and ethanol energy yield continues to increase as farming practices improve, corn yields increase, and ethanol production facilities incorporate the latest in technology.

Cilion’s California plants have an even greater energy balance of 2.6: 1 that was verified by an energy and greenhouse gas fuel cycle analysis by U. C. Berkley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory-Energy and Resource Group (fuel cycle is defined as energy required to plant, grow, harvest and transport the corn—as well as the energy required to manufacture and distribute the ethanol).

Using established, scientifically peer-reviewed methodologies and up-to-date corn production data from fuel-stock procurement regions, U.C. Berkeley studied our life cycle net energy balance and the life cycle of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants determining that our California facilities have a positive energy balance of 2.6:1 and offer significantly reduced life cycle global warming emissions which also translates into an additional 29% reduction in global warming intensity (GWI) from average corn ethanol produced in a natural gas fired dry mill, and a 46% reduction in GWI versus California Reformulated Gasoline (CARFG) without oxygenate.

Our higher 2.6:1 positive energy output can be attributed to several things, including: 1) the use of steam letdown turbine cogeneration which use the steam produced to cook to the corn to produce most, if not all, of the electrical energy for the facility; and 2) because we employ a destination based model in California, meaning that we are located where there is a demand for both the ethanol and our co-product, we are not drying the distillers grain thus using 33% less natural gas than the industry standard.What this means is that for every 1 unit of energy it takes to plant, grow, harvest, transport and convert the corn into ethanol, Cilion’s California plants are receiving 2.6 units of energy from the ethanol.

American-made, renewable ethanol directly displaces crude oil we would need to import, offering our country critically needed independence and security from foreign sources of energy.

Current U.S. ethanol production capacity of almost 8 billion gallons per year can reduce gasoline imports by more than one-third and effectively extends gasoline supplies at a time when refining capacity is at its maximum. Its domestic production helps to minimize higher oil and gas prices by reducing oil consumption by 80,000 barrels per day, as estimated by the Energy Information Administration., .

On December 19, 2007, H.R. 6-The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was signed into law. This legislation set the framework to bring about more fuel-efficient vehicles and require wider use of ethanol, and has been called "a major step" toward energy independence and easing global warming. The energy bill includes a 36-billion gallon renewable fuels standard (RFS) by 2022 of which 15 billion gallons comes from corn. The original RFS called for 7.5 billion gallons of annual use by 2012. Significantly, the RFS requires that 21 billion gallons of the standard must come from advanced biofuels, including a requirement that 16 billion gallons come from cellulosic ethanol by 2022. This legislation provides an historic opportunity for the domestic ethanol industry to demonstrate and live up to its full potential. The bill also asks for studies on the feasibility of ethanol pipelines, higher blend levels, and the optimization of flex fuel vehicles. In addition, it increases the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, the first congressional increase in 32 years. Ethanol is key to reducing our country's trade deficit in crude oil, a figure that has been steadily increasing: $27 billion in 1987 up to $100 billion in 2002. In 2007, the US had a petroleum-based trade deficit of $293 billion, importing 4.9 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products. The U.S. Commerce Department estimates that each $1 billion of trade deficit costs the U.S. 19,100 jobs.

• http://www.ethanolrfa.org/objects/pdf/net_energy_balance_2004.pdf