DNR is dealt a setback to its mission of conservation

The Department of Natural Resources' expanding fleet of 300 "flex-fuel" vehicles is undercutting the agency's mission to conserve wildlife habitat and clean up the state's lakes and rivers, according to two Minnesota conservation groups.

The DNR's cars, trucks and vans burn "E85," a blend of 85 percent corn-based ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and can be more expensive to operate than comparable vehicles that use the Minnesota-mandated blend of 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol.

Tens of thousands of federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres of Minnesota grasslands that support ducks, pheasants, songbirds and other wildlife have been plowed under in part to support the state's ethanol boom.

"The irony of having the DNR charged with preserving prairie and grasslands and Conservation Reserve Program acres and at the same time helping to drive demand for corn-based ethanol isn't lost on us, and I don't think it's lost on a lot of people," said Matt Norton, forestry and wildlife advocate with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA).

DNR Lac qui Parle area wildlife manager Dave Trauba has seen firsthand the effects of the land conversion in western Minnesota. "After watching these conservation lands support so much wildlife for so many years, it really kicks you in the stomach to see them plowed up," Trauba said.

Yet, as directed by state policy, Trauba and his staff refill their DNR pickups with E85.

More than 1 million of the state's CRP acres might be lost in coming years, with much of the land converted to growing corn, DNR officials estimate.

Money is driving the switch.

The federal government pays farmers in some parts of southern Minnesota about $80 per acre to plant in grasses and enroll the land in the CRP. By comparison, rental rates to plant corn on some of the same lands have risen to as much as $200 an acre.

Pressure to expand corn acreage in Minnesota likely will grow. In 2005, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill that could require gasoline sold in the state to contain 20 percent ethanol by 2013, up from the current 10 percent.

Lost carbon hard to recoup

Corn-based ethanol burns cleaner, producing less air pollution than conventional gasoline, a significant benefit in metropolitan areas. But the conversion of grasslands to croplands is too expensive by any measure, said Tom Landwehr, assistant state director for the Nature Conservancy.

"The DNR is caught between a rock and a hard place, as we all are, whether to burn petroleum in their vehicles or corn-based ethanol," Landwehr said. "Both have downsides. But studies have shown it will take as along as 140 years of burning ethanol instead of gasoline to make up for carbon losses that will occur by plowing up grasslands to grow corn for ethanol."

State Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Budget Division, said the Legislature and the DNR "haven't fully appreciated the loss of the CRP lands and what it will mean for the state."

DNR vehicles will use about 28,000 gallons of E85 this year, about 3 percent of the agency's total fuel consumption -- up from less than 1 percent five years ago, according to DNR Fleet, Safety and Materials manager Dave Schiller.

Federal and state laws require the DNR and other government agencies to purchase flex-fuel passenger vehicles and light trucks. An order by Pawlenty directing state agencies to reduce petroleum use by 25 percent by 2010 and by 50 percent by 2015 is a further incentive to buy flex-fuel vehicles.

But the operation of flex-fuel vehicles complicates the DNR's attempt to reduce fleet expenses, Schiller acknowledged. "E85 vehicles operating on that fuel get about 15 percent less mileage than the same vehicles burning the 90-10 blend," he said.

While E85 is cheaper than the 90-10 blend, the difference sometimes is less than 15 percent. This means that, factoring in the poorer mileage realized by flex-fuel vehicles, the DNR's net cost to operate a flex-fuel vehicle can be more than what it costs to operate a comparable vehicle burning the 90-10 blend.

A dilemma for the DNR

DNR wildlife section chief Dennis Simon said that he and other managers are aware that their agency is at once an advocate for wildlife lands and clean water, and an accessory to their destruction in their increasing use of E85.

Simon said the agency hopes corn-based ethanol ultimately gives way to ethanol produced from materials such as prairie grasses, woody fiber and other biomass -- what is commonly called cellulosic ethanol. If that happens, farmers would cultivate for conversion to fuels wildlife-friendly grasses and fast-growing trees, rather than corn.

"We're caught in the middle of what we hope is a transition, and it's a dilemma for us," Simon said.

Norton of the MCEA said that the shift to cellulosic ethanol could be accelerated if the Legislature offered the same subsidies it did to jump-start corn-based ethanol production.

"If the state required co-firing of ethanol plants from cellulosic grassland materials instead of natural gas to offset the amount of ethanol used by state vehicles, that would be a start," he said.

Dennis Anderson • 612-673-4424