As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they touched off a cascade of unintended consequences, including wiping out millions of acres of conservation land, polluting water and destroying habitat.
Here, Ted Bridis, the lead editor on the months-long investigation, describes what went into reporting the hidden, dirty cost of this green energy source:
What prompted AP to explore the topic of ethanol?
This year, among other stories, the Washington investigative team
has been exploring some of the little-known costs and consequences of
green energy. This project developed out of reporting by and
conversations with Dina Cappiello, our excellent environmental reporter,
who was “loaned” to our investigations team in the newsroom away from
her everyday specialty beat responsibilities to work on some longer-term
reporting efforts.
What were the most striking findings?
We were able to conservatively quantify how many acres farmers
had set aside for conservation purposes but, driven in part by
Washington’s biofuels mandate, had been converted to crops. The figure
was at least five million acres _ more than Yellowstone, Everglades and
Yosemite National Parks combined _ that have vanished on President
Barack Obama’s watch.
We also conducted by computer a satellite-imagery analysis to show how many more acres of pristine grassland in the Corn Belt had been plowed into cornfields or soybeans since 2006, the year before the ethanol mandate passed. Insiders revealed to our reporters how the government’s analysis of ethanol’s carbon dioxide footprint was flawed and influenced by input from the industry. But in many ways no one in government is keeping track of its environmental toll.
I also think one of our findings was how friendly and accommodating we found farmers and others in the Midwest when our journalists visited and explained the story we were investigating; many farmers, especially, explained they were genuinely conflicted by economic forces, chasing corn profits at the expense of continued conservation.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in reporting this project?
The tale of U.S. ethanol policy is complicated for many different
audiences: farmers, motorists, policy makers, politicians,
environmentalists, farmers, scientists and others. Turning months of
reporting about agricultural and energy policies, scores of interviews
and hefty data analyses into a narrative that readers will find
compelling and informative is always a challenge.
How did you draw on AP’s resources — around the world and in the 50 states — to do it?
This project represents the efforts of dozens of AP journalists,
photographers, video producers, data experts, editors and others who
helped in its production
See the AP reporting here, which includes companion photos, video and a detailed interactive. Join a conversation about the AP’s reporting on ethanol today at 3 p.m. ET on Reddit.
