Ethanol Subsidies, Newt Gingrich, and the 2012 Election

Brian Koenig ^ | 2/6/2011 | Brian Koenig

[Free Vulcan]

USDA stats:

Corn acrerage for the last 20 years. It's went up around 12% from the average.

Soybean acreage however is way up...

Which accounts for the loss in wheat but soy isn't used for ethanol. Increased acreage in corn and beans together pretty much offset losses in cotton and sorghum acreage as well as wheat. Cotton isn't food, sorghum is raised for sweetener and not food.

However, wheat production is about at the average of the 20 year production line. Losses of acreages attributable to soybeans than corn hasn't affected our wheat output. What's going on in Egypt has nothing to do with ethanol.

[katiedidit1]

Tricky Ricky supported a mandate on ethanol and look what he told the voters in Iowa

Inconsistencies Though Santorum made few flip-flops during his congressional career, a notable exception was his shifting stance on federal ethanol subsidies. “Prior to 9/11, I was not a big fan of ethanol subsidies but 2001 changed my mind on a lot of things, and one of them was trying to support domestic energy and this is part of it,” Santorum told IowaPolitics.com January 27, 2011. “My pledge to you is to work with this industry to create a bigger and bigger place in the market for domestically produced ethanol biodiesel.”