While the answer to the question of alternative fuels has not yet been determined, ethanol may play a role in the solution despite its possible consequences on a global scale. While Illinois was at one time the No. 1 producer of ethanol, the state is now somewhere between second and third as other states such as Iowa and Nebraska have increased their production in recent years, said Mark Lambert, communications director of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board.

Ethanol is made through a scientific fermentation process and can possibly be used an alternative fuel, he added.

“One challenge is going to be getting used to different fuel options,” Lambert said. “There is not any one thing that will respond to future needs but a variety of things.”

One possibility is that the perfect alternative fuel has not yet been cultivated, discovered or even invented.

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Lambert said. “There could be a lot of new ideas in the next few years, ideas that we haven’t even thought of yet.”

Ethanol is made from corn at facilities such as the Aventine Renewable Energy plant in Pekin, Ill.

The Pekin plant has been producing ethanol since 1981 and is one of the two oldest ethanol companies in Illinois, said Les Nelson, director of investor relations for the company.

The plant produces 207 million gallons of ethanol annually and sends it to many different places, including large oil companies BP and Exxon Mobil as well as small and independent gasoline distributors, Nelson said.

One benefit for ethanol is the significant price benefit it has, Nelson added.

As gasoline is trading at $2.99 a gallon and ethanol for only $2.49 a gallon, the standard shows ethanol costs less, he said.

Also, building more ethanol plants can have an economic benefit for small towns.

“Places in rural America are becoming robust again because of ethanol plants,” Nelson said. “They are creating jobs and booming economic growth.”

But despite these benefits, ethanol has gotten a bad reputation recently because of the controversy over rising food prices and the global food crisis, Nelson said.

“Ethanol has gone from saving the world to now being blamed for food riots and problems around the world,” Nelson said. “Oil is the real bad guy out there, but ethanol has become the poster child for everything wrong with the world. That is just unfair.”

A main complaint against ethanol is the effect that using land to grow fuel will have on the food market, said Robert Thompson, professor of agricultural and consumer economics.

“The demand for food on the planet will double in the first half of the 21st century as the population grows from 6 (billion) to 9 billion people by 2050,” Thompson said.

As world poverty decreases, the amount of people that can afford food will go up and so will the demand for agriculture and food, Thompson said.

In the future farmers will have to grow more and more food, but with less water and no more land, he added.

“The only possible way to double food production and global agriculture is if we have a very substantial increase in agricultural research, especially in low income countries,” Thompson said.

Some large oil corporations have begun internal operations consistent with the “green” movement.

“We have thousands of employees who do nothing but work on these issues,” said Allan Jeffers, spokesman for Exxon Mobil. “We spend $3.2 billion on environmental expenditures worldwide.”

Exxon Mobil is also working on a project with Stanford University called the Global Climate and Energy Project, Jeffers said. The project is looking at how to develop technology for solar and wind energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease the company’s environmental footprint.

Another problem in the global climate change issue is the developing countries of China and India, said Michael Schlesinger, professor of atmospheric sciences. China and India have seven times more people than the United States, and as they develop, they have the potential to emit 42 times more carbon dioxide than the U.S., he said.

People in these countries are developing cars and other modern forms of technology that pollute the environment, possibly on a much broader scale than America, Schlesinger added.

“The challenge will be for developing countries to develop differently than we did,” Schlesinger said. “Unless that happens, the game’s over. That’s it. Even if we stopped polluting the world today, we are responsible for all the climate change that has already happened.”