TPO 22 Integrated Task

Both the passage and the lecture talk about whether or not that ethanol is a good substitute for gasoline. While the writer comes up with reasons that It is not a good replacement, the professor disagrees and says that none of the writer's reasons is convincing.

To begin with, the writer claims that ethanol has no environmental advantage over gasoline. For example, it would not help to solve environmental issues like global warming. but the professor casts doubt about this claim. He points out that ethanol is made from plants and plants absorb carbon dioxide in order to grow. Thus, producing ethanol from plants actually remove carbon dioxide from atmosphere which in result doesn't add to the global warming issue.

Moreover, the writer asserts that producing ethanol from plants would reduce the amounts of plants available for farm animals. For example, if most of the corn were used to make ethanol, an important source of food would disappear. but again, the professor disagrees and is not convinced. He elaborates that ethanol can be produced from cellulose in addition to the plants. Therefore, producing ethanol doesn't reduce plants that are food for farm animals.

Last but not least, the writer believes that if government were to stop giving tax subsidies to ethanol producers, it's price would go much higher than It is now and can't compete to gasoline's price. but again, the professor rejects this reasoning by saying that if enough people were to use ethanol, this would force the producers to make more ethanol. Thus, the price of ethanol would drop in a reasonable range.