From the
Houston Chronicle - One of the most politically charged decisions the lame-duck Congress will face when it reconvenes is deciding whether to extend subsidies for corn-based ethanol. As rising prices for grain set off alarms among ranchers, consumers and environmentalists, ethanol lobbyists are counting on their generous contributions to key legislators to protect their reserved seats at the governmental feed trough. Several key subsidies — including high tariffs on imports of foreign ethanol and tax credits for ethanol blended into gasoline — are set to expire at the end of December. Congress must decide whether to continue down a track of underwriting food for fuel that resulted in the conversion of 25 percent of the U.S. corn harvest in 2007 to ethanol, a share that experts say will steadily rise in the coming decade along with oil prices. The only thing "green" about ethanol is the material that goes into making it. Large quantities of fresh water are required for its manufacture, and corn production requires high levels of fertilizer that are transported by the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in oxygen-starved dead zones. Ethanol delivers less than half the energy of conventional gasoline per gallon. In a world where millions are starving daily, the use of foodstuffs for fuel additives is a short-sighted solution to energy independence. The United States is by far the major global exporter of corn, and for decades a glut of those yellow kernels stacked up in Midwest granaries. Now America has little available for export. Acreage for growing more corn is in short supply, and failed harvests of wheat and soybeans in Asia this year are pushing up competition for available U.S. farmland to grow those crops. The competing demands on corn inventories — to feed fowl and livestock, fill boxes of packaged cereals on store shelves, and as feedstock for ethanol — have contributed to jumps of 70 percent in the value of corn futures over the past few months.
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Food versus fuel: rising grain costs show folly of continuing federal ethanol subsidies
From the Houston Chronicle - One of the most politically charged decisions the lame-duck Congress will face when it reconvenes is deciding whether to extend subsidies for corn-based ethanol. As rising prices for grain set off alarms among ranchers, consumers and environmentalists, ethanol lobbyists are counting on their generous contributions to key legislators to protect their reserved seats at the governmental feed trough. Several key subsidies — including high tariffs on imports of foreign ethanol and tax credits for ethanol blended into gasoline — are set to expire at the end of December. Congress must decide whether to continue down a track of underwriting food for fuel that resulted in the conversion of 25 percent of the U.S. corn harvest in 2007 to ethanol, a share that experts say will steadily rise in the coming decade along with oil prices. The only thing "green" about ethanol is the material that goes into making it. Large quantities of fresh water are required for its manufacture, and corn production requires high levels of fertilizer that are transported by the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in oxygen-starved dead zones. Ethanol delivers less than half the energy of conventional gasoline per gallon. In a world where millions are starving daily, the use of foodstuffs for fuel additives is a short-sighted solution to energy independence. The United States is by far the major global exporter of corn, and for decades a glut of those yellow kernels stacked up in Midwest granaries. Now America has little available for export. Acreage for growing more corn is in short supply, and failed harvests of wheat and soybeans in Asia this year are pushing up competition for available U.S. farmland to grow those crops. The competing demands on corn inventories — to feed fowl and livestock, fill boxes of packaged cereals on store shelves, and as feedstock for ethanol — have contributed to jumps of 70 percent in the value of corn futures over the past few months. Read more
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