Sunday, April 13, 2008

Food, not fuel

The Boston Globe comes out against the ethanol boondoggle: "Can't eat ethanol"

Corn should be used for food, not motor fuel, and yet the United States is committed to a policy that encourages farmers to turn an increasing amount of their crop into ethanol. This may save the nation a bit of the cost of imported oil, but it increases global-warming gases and contributes to higher food prices.
Ethanol is not a green alternative:

When emissions inherent in the production process are included, ethanol consumption generates more carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline, according to a recent report in Science magazine.
My primary opposition to ethanol production is that the corn producers have somehow finagled a sweetheart deal in Washington where Congress keeps 1) calling for more ethanol production, 2) heavily subsidizing corn ethanol production while 3) hindering importation of sugar cane ethanol from Brazil. If corn ethanol had to fend for itself without government subsidies and importation tariffs, it would never survive as a dirty and expensive alternative fuel.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

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