« The Continuing Rejuvenation Of Nuclear Power | Main | Bad News From Anbar, More Of The Same From The MSM »
September 07, 2006
The Corn Lobby And US Energy Policy
Iain Murray in The Corner highlights an interview with Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute. Murray:
... Brown realizes what’s at stake with the current fuel ethanol obsession:Cars are a new concern, the worry arising from the present drive to produce green fuels to fight global warming. A "corn rush" has erupted in the United States, using the crop to produce the biofuel, ethanol - strongly supported by subsidies from the Bush administration to divert criticism of its failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.Just a single fill of ethanol for a four-wheel drive SUV, says Brown, uses enough grain to feed one person for an entire year. This year the amount of US corn going to make the fuel will equal what it sells abroad; traditionally its exports have helped feed 100 - mostly poor - countries.
From next year, the amount used to run American cars will exceed exports, and soon it is likely to reduce what is available to help feed poor people overseas. The number of ethanol plants built or planned in the corn-belt state of Iowa will use virtually all the state's crop.
This will not only cut food supplies, but drive up the process of grain, making hungry people compete with the owners of gas-guzzlers. Already spending 70 per cent of their meagre incomes on food, they simply cannot afford to do so.
A colleague of mine who has followed Brown’s utterances for many years suggests that this “may be the first time he’s ever been right about anything.” Yet he is certainly correct here. Corn ethanol is a boondoggle of gigantic proportions, foisted on the American public by an uncompetitive corn ethanol industry that sees the global warming scare as its lifeline. And this boondoggle harms the world’s poor, not just working Americans who have to pay more for gas. A responsible Congress would cut the ethanol mandate and subsidy to nothing.
Emphasis mine. Just another case of the fundamental conflict between those who champion competitive markets as the best way of making life better for everyone; and those who seek profits for themselves at the expense of the nation as a whole.
We must not allow the corn lobby to run US energy policy.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thebernoullieffect.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/723
Comments
It's all about price points. If the farmers can sell grain to ethanol manufacturers, that's fine! If ethanol becomes cheaper than gasoline that's fine. You can't expect people not to sell things for profit.
Guess what the price point is for electric cars with expensive batteries becoming cheaper than gasoline powered cars? For a daily comuter vehicle it works out to about $3.00 / gallon for gas.
Erik
Golden, Colorado
Posted by: Erik Von Halle at September 10, 2006 11:14 PM
I'm all in favor of profit. I'm not in favor of protectionism. I wonder how cheap ethanol could be if we imported lots of cheap sugar cane? (Or grew our own?)
The article raised some questions about the diversion of corn from the food supply to ethanol manufacture, but my point concerned the influence of the corn farmers on the freedom of the ethanol market.
Posted by: Jeff at September 11, 2006 01:05 PM
