Fighting Climate Change With Smog?

Burning ethanol will increase smog and public health risks according to Scientific American:

burning ethanol adds 22 percent more hydrocarbons to the atmosphere than burning gasoline and this would lead to a nearly 2 parts-per-billion increase in ozone. This ozone, which has been linked to inflamed lungs, impaired immune systems and
heart disease by prior research, would in turn lead to a 4 percent increase in the number of ground level ozone-related deaths, or roughly 200 extra deaths a year. "Due to its ozone effects, future E85 may be a greater overall public health risk than gasoline," Jacobson writes in the study published in Environmental Science & Technology. "It can be concluded with confidence only that E85 is unlikely to improve air quality over future gasoline vehicles."

The findings are even more disturbing given that here in Colorado, the number of ethanol fuel pumps has quadrupled this year and Governor Ritter is pushing for increased ethanol use. Unfortunately, the push seems only to promise smoggier and more sickly skies.

True, using ethanol will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help combat climate change. But should we be fighting climate change with smog?