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Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP)

GAO report looks at ethanol's use of water

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A new government report says farmers in the Northern Plains use considerably more water to produce a gallon of corn ethanol than growers in other parts of the country.

An ethanol industry group says the Government Accountability Office report offers little new insight and that most ethanol is produced from corn that is rain-fed, not irrigated.

The November study quotes Argonne National Laboratory data saying farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas use, on average, 323.6 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol from corn.

The USDA's other two major corn producing regions use between 10 and 17 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol.

The Renewable Fuels Association's Geoff Cooper says it's disingenuous to suggest increased ethanol production is somehow driving irrigated corn acreage.