More On Ethanol Policies

It is no secret that I think the ethanol push is moronic. It is not an efficient fuel and it results in higher food causing great pain to the poor (and everyone else). Furthermore, the free market will dictate the proper solution, not government mandates, which will do nothing more than tie us to what is clearly the wrong solution.

It is nice to see others putting pressure on the G8 nations to cut back on these ridiculous mandates (though I would like to see an all out abandonment, myself). It is also nice to see that Great Briton is starting to make moves in the proper direction. Hopefully we will too.

Why Does My Food Cost So Much?

Blame ethanol.  Actually, blame the idiots who are pushing idiotic ethanol mandates on us.  In this country, ethanol is made from corn.  However, corn is also a staple grain in our food supply.  So, the mandates result in a higher demand for corn.  The higher demand results in higher prices.  Higher corn prices mean that more land is being used for corn production as farmers react to the market.  More land being put into corn production results in less land being used for wheat, soy, and other staple crops.  As a result, the cost of those crops also goes up.  Since corn and soy are used for feed, this means that the cost of raising cattle, chickens, ducks, etc. goes way up.  It has gotten so bad that Maple Leaf Farms has been forced to close a local processing plant because the increased cost of feed makes raising the ducks cost more than they can get back selling the ducks.  It is not stated in the linked article, but in another article (which I could not find on-line), a spokesman for the company directly blames our government's idiotic ethanol policies.

So, our stupid obsession with trying to use our food for fuel is obviously causing pain for food producers and their employees.  It is also resulting in a disproportionate amount of pain for this countries poorer people, for whom food is already a huge part of their budget.  To make matters worse, ethanol does nothing to make our fuel cheaper or cleaner.  Furthermore,  when the fuel consumption, and related pollution, associated with full production cycle of ethanol is factored in, using ethanol for fuel may even have a negative environmental impact when compared to petroleum.

All of this pain, and who actually gains from this?  Some farmers.  Farmers who are growing grains for cash obviously like the higher prices.  However, farmers who have to buy those grains to feed livestock are not exactly enjoying this.  Mostly, the only people who gain here are companies like ADM and BP.  The rest of us just suffer.

Drunk on Ethanol

The state ethanol whores (as Mark Belling calls them) are trying yet again to force us to use ethanol (pdf). This is bad public policy for several reasons.

• Ethanol is not a good replacement for petroleum based fuels.
• It is not as efficient of a fuel as petroleum.
• It takes almost as much energy to produce a gallon of ethanol as you get out if it. In some studies, which also take into account the cost of distribution, it actually takes more energy to produce and distribute a gallon of ethanol than you get out of it, making its production a net lose.
• Ethanol is produced primarily from corn, causing the price of corn to skyrocket. Since corn is also a stable food, this causes the price of almost all other foods to go up.
• As more land goes into production producing corn for ethanol, less land is used producing other crops, causing the prices of those crops to go up, also resulting in higher overall food costs.
• The key is to reduce fuel consumption. Ethanol does not result in reduced fuel consumption. Private enterprise is working on real solutions for this, however, such as improved hybrid engine technologies.
• Other, cleaner fuels, such as hydrogen, exist. Private enterprise is also working on making these types of fuels practical.
  

The legislation that is currently being put in front of the state legislature would allow for other renewable fuels. However, as it stands right now, it is nothing more than pork for farmers and the ethanol producers. Worse yet, it is pork that benefits few, and hurts many while needlessly tying us to a harmful fuel source for no good reason.

Stop the whoring out of our state to farmers and ethanol companies, and let the market place determine the most reasonable solution to this problem.