Weather key to ethanol availability

Many economists blame the rise in costs of gasoline and food on the demand for ethanol.

Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel for cars and other gas-related machines that is made primarily in the United States from corn, wheat and barley. Because of the high demand for crude oil in the U.S., China and India, many are looking to this new energy source to reduce or eventually replace our dependence on foreign oil.

In Brazil, where sugar cane is used to make ethanol, the country is self-sufficient for its fuel and no longer imports oil.

Enough plants are now under construction or being expanded to more than double U.S. ethanol production in the next three years to nearly 11 billion gallons, a 5-billion-gallon increase, according to industry estimates.

The demand for ethanol, however, doesn’t mean less corn for people to eat. Ethanol is produced from field corn grown for livestock feeding and fuel. People eat sweet corn. However, major food companies claim that the higher demand for ethanol will increase the costs of meat and milk because much of the corn used to feed livestock will be sold to ethanol producers. As farmers quickly switch to planting more corn, other crop yields like wheat, soybeans and cotton, will also suffer declines as planted acres are reduced.

Much of our food, especially corn, is grown in the Midwest, which is often called our bread basket. Although we do import some grain, soybeans, fruit and vegetables from other countries, much of the food we consume is produced in the U.S.

At this time of year, many of these food crops are pollinating. Weather usually plays a key role in this process. For example, too much heat and dryness severely damages or destroys plants in the Great Plains and Midwest. In 1980, 1988, 2003 and 2006, severe heat and drought led to major damage of soybeans, corn and wheat crops. During that time, food prices rose dramatically, especially in recent months.

We’re starting to see a “big ridge” build into the center of the United States, which could damage some pollinating crops in the next 30 to 60 days. If this happens, our food costs would likely go even higher.

Often, our Inland Northwest weather is also affected by these big domes of stable air. If the current large high pressure in the heartland moves slightly back toward the West, we’ll see temperatures in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho soar well into the 90s. However, if the high pressure system heads more to the East, we would typically see cooler and showery conditions in our region.

At the end of June, it appears we’re on the line between the very warm and cool temperatures as the high pressure systems build into the central United States. A small shift in this ridge in will dramatically affect our weather.

I still believe that July and August should be quite warm with limited amounts of rainfall as the Midwest ridge expands. However, I don’t expect that this summer will be nearly as hot or as dry as the blistering 2006 season. There may be times that we’re well into the 90s or even approach the century mark, possibly sometime next week or in late July or early August.

This fire season may be a tough one as we’re less than 70 percent of normal precipitation at Spokane International Airport. In Coeur d’Alene more rain from spring thunderstorms has pushed totals to slightly above 90 percent of normal precipitation.