corn derived ethanol. The effect of the latter is making a number of foods more expensive.No, it's not. Crude oil pushing $100 a barrel, and well above $70 a barrel for the better part of a year is what is causing food prices, and all other prices, to go up.
Use of corn-burning stoves are on the increase, this last year's sales increased 4X.
Corn for burning is selling for around $275.00 a ton on the east coast.
Wood pellet producers can't keep up with demand, pellets sell as soon as they hit the sales floor.
Some retailers are refusing to sell pellets by the bag anymore, they will only sell ton size lots, and regular customers come first.
I guess it might be more accurate to simply say "Energy Prices" are affecting all other prices.
Likewise, congress failed to continue tax breaks for wind turbine generator farms.
Investment fell by 75%, a real disaster for the still struggling industry.
( What I read only mentioned wind farms specifically, I don't know whether other alternative energy ventures were affected as well. )
Likewise, clean coal technologies are getting the NIMBY treatment in some areas, and getting funding withdrawn by the feds in others.
( To be fair, the Energy Dept. had some valid concerns, and still plans to proceed with some smaller scale projects that will only be partially fed funded. )
This may be indicative of a larger problem, a sociological shift in priorities, some realistic, others perceived.
Thing is, this is an election year, and public perception becomes politically correct action in a bid for career survival.
I would guess politicians are looking at the distinct possibility of having to fund a massive national health care system on top of everything else.
That's done with taxes.
High Energy Prices result in greater tax revenues.
$5.00 per gallon gas will go a long way towards funding health care.
That's only part of it. Corn that fed folks and critters is now being diverted to ethanol. Corn fed critters has driven up the the price of milk and meat. There only so much acreage that can be farmed economically. Other acreage devoted to other crops is now being diverted to corn derived ethanol. Those other crops are now more expensive.
Calming ethanol-crazed corn prices
The front-month contract for a bushel of corn (56 pounds) on the Chicago Board of Trade has jumped from $1.86 at the end of 2005 to over $4 today, said Flynn.(January 30 2007)