Imagine a fuel that doesn't deplete fossil resources, puts more money and jobs into the hands of Americans and may boost the environment.
At first glance, the idea is intriguing.
As gas prices climb and dependence on foreign oil grows more controversial, ethanol - a fuel produced from the fermentation of plants - looks more and more like the magic answer.
Not so fast, says the 2007-2008 reporting team in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's In-Depth Reporting class, based in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
The team of 16 undergraduate students - reporters, photographers, designers, videographers and editors - worked with journalism faculty and NET television professionals for a year.
The group traveled the country, interviewing experts, reading everything they could about the subject and eventually producing two major projects: a full-color magazine and a 60-minute documentary.
The documentary, "The Ethanol Maze," will be screened this Thursday at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, followed by a panel discussion by Senate candidates Mike Johanns, Scott Kleeb and Steve Larrick.
The magazine, "Ethanol: Salvation or Damnation?", will be sold at the screening along with the documentary.
The in-depth reporting class is a competitive one to get into, said journalism professor Joe Starita. One year, he said, he remembers 40 applicants for six spots.
The course is divided into two segments: one dedicated to research, and the other to honing information and producing something for the public.
"The Ethanol Maze" originally premiered in the summer on NET, a co-producer of the film. Lincolnites will see the magazine for the first time on Thursday.
"We are very proud of (the students)," said Carolyn Johnsen, the journalism professor who taught the course with Starita. "We just sat back a lot of the time and encouraged them and applauded them and were amazed by the kinds of things they found out."
Students traveled to the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, a Ford auto assembly plant in Kansas City and various locations in California, such as Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
Some interviews required little travel, though; after all, the voices of local farmers were as vital sources to the students as any other.
The challenge, Starita said, was for students to remain balanced amid so many conflicting viewpoints.
"Our job is to try and find out what is the truth about ethanol," he said. "And the truth about ethanol is pretty complex. It's not all black, and it's not all white."
Penny Costello, a broadcasting major who worked on the documentary, spoke to the ever-changing nature of the ethanol debate.
"With this ethanol story, it's evolving and changing every day," she said. "So, for me the challenging part was, if you're producing a documentary, you come to a point where you have to say, 'Okay, we're going to stop gathering information here, we have to write it, we have to shoot it, we have to edit it.'"
She recalled a boom of ethanol plants planned for towns like Wahoo when the class began; now, Costello has read an article stating that many of those ethanol plants may never open.
"I'm excited to sit in the audience and see or hear their impressions," Costello said. "When you're sitting in your living room watching it on TV, you don't really know how people are receiving it, or if it's been helpful."
The Web site for both projects is at netnebraska.org/ethanol.
renaeblum@dailynebraskan.com
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