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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, Harvest covers agriculture-related topics through a network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.

Study: Ethanol Cuts Greenhouse Gas Emissions More Than Before

ethanolpics, flickr Creative Commons

A new study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says corn-based ethanol emits less greenhouse gas than gasoline. As Harvest Public Media’s Grant Gerlock explains, it’s a hot-button debate.

The report says corn-based ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent. And with more no-till farming, more cover crops and better fertilizer management, emissions could decline further.

That’s good news for Midwest farmers and ethanol fans. But disputed by many environmental groups and the oil industry.

Millions of acres of pasture or forest have been plowed up to raise corn. Environmental groups say that cancels out the greenhouse benefits of ethanol.

This report argues corn ethanol bears less responsibility for that expansion.

Harvest Public Media's reporter at NET News, where he started as Morning Edition host in 2008. He joined Harvest Public Media in July 2012. Grant has visited coal plants, dairy farms, horse tracks and hospitals to cover a variety of stories. Before going to Nebraska, Grant studied mass communication as a grad student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and completed his undergrad at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. He grew up on a farm in southwestern Iowa where he listened to public radio in the tractor, but has taken up city life in Lincoln, Neb.