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A Dutch company and an American ethanol producer hope to put a new kind of fuel in your gas tank — whether it makes economic sense or not. Thanks, Washington. Amid the cornfields of Emmetsburg, Iowa sits an ethanol plant that takes in 20 million bushels of corn and churns out about 55 million gallons of corn ethanol a year. Rising next to it is a revolutionary new facility. It will make ethanol as well, but instead of using juicy kernels of corn, its feedstock will be 285,000 tons a year of corncobs, leaves and husks. Although its 25 million...

"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank. "First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. Gore: "It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going. One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the...

On a day that Democrat Alexi Giannoulias released a new commercial slamming him as a liar, Republican Mark Kirk tried to shift the focus back onto Giannoulias’ family bank, saying the bank gave a loan to Nadhmi Auchi, who Kirk said sold arms to Saddam Hussein. “According to the New York Times, he was a banker to Saddam Hussein,” Kirk said of Auchi. “And According to the Observer of London, he was a middleman in the billion-dollar naval arms deal between Hussein and the Italian Navy.” Voters should care, Kirk said: “This is not political Kryptonite -- this is Hemlock,”...

At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food? Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009. But, as a safety valve, Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the power to waive the new mandates if...

Will Media Remember Gore's 1994 Tie-breaking Vote Mandating Ethanol? By Noel Sheppard | April 22, 2008 As the international disaster of ethanol begins taking its toll across the planet -- and, maybe more important, as press outlet after press outlet finally begins recognizing it -- will media remember that Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate requiring this oxygenate be added to gasoline? After all, regardless of recent reports blaming ethanol for world hunger problems, rising food costs, and increased greenhouse gases, it seems highly unlikely green media will want to tie any of these problems...

World Bank president calls for action as food prices cause rioting Jenny Booth The president of the World Bank has called for immediate action to deal with rapidly rising food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence and threatened the economic stability of the world's poorest countries. A doubling of food prices over the last two years was potentially pushing 100 million people deeper into long-term poverty, said Robert Zoellick. “We have to put our money where our mouth is now, so that we can put food into hungry mouths. It is as stark as that,” Mr Zoellick said...

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French oil major Total SA's head of exploration and production Christophe de Margerie is being investigated by a French judge in a probe related to the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Margerie, who is due to succeed Thierry Desmarest as chief executive, was put under formal investigation by a French judge on Thursday after being held in custody for 48 hours in Paris and then released. In a statement released on Total's Web site on Thursday night the group said it would like to "reassure Mr de Margerie of its total support". Citigroup analysts said...

(2006-03-06) — Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, in a landmark speech Sunday on the global dynamics of terrorism, said a ’strong United Nations’, working with ‘moderate Muslim leaders’ could save the world from terrorism if the West stops propping up Arab kingdoms by purchasing oil. The senator proposed putting the French in charge of U.N. military operations, appointing a member of the Hamas Palestinian government to head the U.N. Human Rights Council, and “transitioning the Arab Middle East from an oil economy to an agricultural one, where lush, green acres replace the sand stretching out so far and wide.” “Some say...

BENON Sevan, the former head of the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq, expects to be accused of getting money in oil deals, allegations his lawyer calls "entirely false" and without evidence. In a lengthy statement, the lawyer, Eric Lewis, anticipated a report next Tuesday from a UN-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, led by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve Chairman. The panel, Mr Lewis said, intends to say that Mr Sevan received money from a contractor, doing business with the $US67 billion ($86.96 billion) humanitarian program. But the lawyer said, "The charge is categorically untrue and no evidence has been...

WASHINGTON, May 13 (AFP) - In a bid to improve ties with France, Iraq's intelligence service sought to influence top French politicians, including former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, a US congressional committee said Friday. The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the US House of Representatives said it had obtained memos and letters from files of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) showing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had personally "ordered the improvement of dealing with France" in early 2002. In a statement, the committee said the documents "reflect a concerted effort on the part of Saddam Hussein's government to influence individuals,...

UN and our schools--forum What's being taught in our schools about the United Nations? Dick Rush and his committee will present their recent findings to members and guests of the Northern Colorado Chapter of the United Nations Association/USA. Saturday, May 7, at 3:00 p.m. at Fort Collins Main Library. Free and open to the public. For information, call..............

WASHINGTON and TORONTO — Canadian Maurice Strong agreed to step aside Wednesday as a special envoy for the United Nations, but vowed to clear his name after being linked to Tongsun Park, a Korean lobbyist charged in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. At the same time, new details emerged about a Calgary oil company in which Mr. Strong and his son, Fred, were major investors during the 1990s together with Mr. Park -- whom the younger Mr. Strong described as "a spooky guy." Shareholders in Cordex Petroleums Inc. also included CSL Group Inc., the holding company owned by Prime...

Envoy Admits Ties With S. Korea Business A prominent Canadian businessman and envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged ties Monday with a South Korean businessman who has been accused of wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal. Maurice Strong, Annan's special adviser for North Korea, said in a statement that he has "continued to maintain a relationship" with Tongsun Park and that Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997. The statement did not identify the company and Strong could not immediately be reached for comment. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Strong was in the Dominican...

Canadian coincidences are piling up in the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program. Fox News reported on Tuesday that Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny. Kofi Annan’s #2 is Canada's Louise Fréchette. Louise Fréchette served under Prime Minister Paul Martin when he held the title of Canada's Minister of Finance. According to Fox News, "Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Fréchette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the UN Security Council." Born in Montreal, Louise Fréchette has served directly under UN Chief Kofi Annan since March 1998. According...

With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) next up for review by Paul Volcker’s inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief’s office — by way of Annan’s second-in command, Louise Frechette (search). Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food (search) program, with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Frechette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the U.N. Security Council. This detail was buried on page 186 of the 219-page interim report Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee released Feb. 3....

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Tareq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's jailed right-hand men, was interrogated in Baghdad by representatives of a UN panel investigating corruption in Iraq's oil-for-food programme, his lawyer told AFP. Aziz also made a desperate handwritten and verbal appeal through his lawyer to be allowed to see his family. The meeting with the three investigators lasted almost eight hours and took place at a detention facility near Baghdad's international airport in the presence of US military and government personnel and an Iraqi investigating judge, said defense attorney Badie Aref Izzat. "They had no right to question him like...

WASHINGTON — Two major American figures in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal worked together to ship humanitarian supplies to Iraq through a charity connected to celebrities, The Post has learned. According to documents recently obtained by the House International Relations Committee, Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt and Saddam Hussein's American oil spy, Samir Vincent, worked together to finance shipments of medicines and baby formula for Iraq in 1997 and 1998 through such charities as the Friendship Force Foundation, a group closely connected to former President Jimmy Carter, his wife, Rosalynn, and other luminaries.

I always love the bit on the big international news story where they try to find the Canadian angle. A couple of months back, every time I switched on The National, there seemed to be no news at all and Peter Mansbridge was in the middle of some 133-part series of reports on “Canadians making a difference in the world,” which at least three nights a week seemed to be an “encore presentation” of the same worthy soft-focus featurette about some guy helping with an irrigation project in Sudan. Once upon a time, it didn’t seem such an effort to...

This Washington Post editorial seems to place blame on American and other companies for the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal, revealing an anti-corporate bias. The editorial seems to ignore the role that certain foriegn nations played in the scandal, including France and Russia. The outrage continues as the editorial calls for MORE funding to the UN, since it blames a lack of funding and resources for the failures of the UN - not just in the scandal but in Kosovo and other places in the world where the UN has shown itself a failed institution. The UN has sufficient resources to fulfill...

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post wrote a story the other day about how MSNBC President Rick Kaplan has put more NBC into MSNBC. Since Rick Kaplan was named president of MSNBC a year ago, Kurtz reported, his colleagues say that one of his main achievements has been "forging a tighter partnership with NBC News." The assumption is that NBC is a valuable resource. But on one of the hottest stories around, the U.N. corruption scandal, NBC has been out to lunch. Why? Its U.N. reporter has been on the payroll of the U.N. lobby. Linda Fasulo, the U.N. correspondent...