Surging food prices fuel ethanol critics

AFP ^ | Apr 10, 2011 | Rob Lever

[george76]

A surge in global food prices has prompted fresh criticism of US subsidies for ethanol, which diverts massive amounts of corn from global food supplies for energy.

Senators Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, introduced a measure last month to scrap the tax credit of 45 cents per gallon for ethanol in gasoline.

"The ethanol tax credit is bad economic policy, bad energy policy and bad environmental policy. The $6 billion we waste every year on corporate welfare should instead stay in taxpayers' pockets where it can be used to spur innovation, stimulate growth and create jobs," said Coburn.

The lawmakers cited a Government Accountability Office report describing the tax credit as "largely unneeded today to ensure demand for domestic ethanol production."

C. Ford Runge, a University of Minnesota professor of applied economics and law, argues that ethanol from crops has many "hidden costs" that should dissuade the government from subsidies.

Runge, who raised concerns about ethanol policy as early as 2007, says his research suggests some 30 percent of food price increases come from diversion of US corn for ethanol.

"If you're taking 40 percent of the US corn crop, the largest of any country on earth, and putting it to one use... you don't have to have a Ph.D in economics to know that's going to put upward pressure on prices," he told AFP.

[Pining_4_TX]

Horrible, isn’t it? I have writeen to both my senators (both very conservative) and did not even receive a reply. There is a website for folks who want to get the old inhalers back, but it doesn’t seem they are making any progress.

[Uncle Ike]

” Horrible, isn’t it? I have writeen to both my senators (both very conservative) and did not even receive a reply. There is a website for folks who want to get the old inhalers back, but it doesn’t seem they are making any progress. “

That’s because even Congress doesn’t dare meddle in the affairs of the all-powerful EPA...

(For months, now, I’ve had problems with my Combi-Vent inhaler running out of propellant before the month runs out - The VA pharmacists tried to tell me that it was my fault, and I’d just have to do without until the prescription came due for refill... Now I’m wondering if it isn’t the non-CFC propellant that’s causing my problem?? I also hate the nebulizer, which ties me up so I can’t do anything else for that half-hour 3 or 4 times/day)

[Pining_4_TX]

“The VA pharmacists tried to tell me that it was my fault, and I’d just have to do without until the prescription came due for refill.”

Ah, yes, the compassion of government health care. Those inhalers are useless. I have heard that there are portable nebulizers, but I haven’t looked into it. Hope you are OK.

Freegards,
Pining

[Repeal The 17th]

I’m still scratching my head over how putting 10% ethanol in my gasoline,
that then gives me 10% less fuel economy, makes me less dependent on arab oil.

[Uncle Ike]

” Hope you are OK. “

Thank you...

I’ve been doing pick ‘n’ shovel work turning over my substantially enlarged garden, and I’m slowly rebuilding lung capacity (cancer survivor- lots of scar tissue in my lungs from the radiation treatments) - sometimes I can get away with just one nebulizer session for the whole day....

Hate to admit that my Dad was right all those years - ‘hard work is the best medicine’... ;)

[george76]

131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTUS.

Thus, 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it.

Every time you make one gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs.

[george76]

If it takes one gallon of gas to make one gallon of worthless ethanol, then this game does nothing for our dependency on arab oil

[george76]

Corn ethanol subsidies totaled $7.0 billion in 2006 for 4.9 billion gallons of ethanol.

That's $1.45 per gallon of ethanol (and $2.21 per gal of gas replaced).

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Thanks for the ping, mountn man.

This is all deliberate and purposeful.

[xjcsa]

Not to mention the ground water that is wasted. What an insane policy..

I agree that it's insane policy, for all the reasons listed above. That said, the "uses too much water" argument is irrelevant here in Iowa. We're not short on water here, and it's not like the water becomes something other than water in the process. This is not by any means a defense of our idiotic ethanol policy, though.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Angry Ben Cardin is doing the right thing for a change? Hell just froze over.

However, Cardin and Coburn can forget about running for President. Iowa, you know.

Maryland “Freak State” PING!

[tobyhill]

MTBE was just fine as an additive and we didn’t have to use food for fuel.

[businessprofessor]

Corn-based ethanol is an economic, environmental, and moral disaster. If there is anything that the left and right should agree on, it is corn-based ethanol.

[headsonpikes]

“Corn-based ethanol is an economic, environmental, and moral disaster.”

OTOH, cellulose-based methanol may be a win-win. I’ve become a substantial shareholder of this company:

http://www.lignol.ca/

It’s the real deal. DYODD.

[redgolum]

Many bio diesel plants are running on animal fat now.

[SunkenCiv]

One-half gallon of oil in the form of pesticides per bushel of corn would cost $2 to $3 per bushel. If this were true -- and it clearly isn't -- it should be enough to illustrate to literally anyone that the price of petroleum is quite literally the ONLY thing driving corn prices. And this idiotic piece of agitprop -- from a hydrogen "energy" advocacy site -- also shows the guy in the encounter suit spraying chemical fertilizer, a sight that I've never been privileged to see, what with me *growing up on a farm*. The Bum Rap on Biofuels Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed