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Letter Re: Thanks to Congress, Ethanol and Biofuel Mandates Cause Food Prices to Soar
Jim,
You may have noted the article titled Thanks
to Congress, Ethanol and Biofuel Mandates Cause Food Prices to Soar,
before and I missed it.
The article [by Dana Joel Gattuso a senior fellow at the National Center
for Public Policy Research--a conservative think tank] is
very interesting. I can't vouch for the veracity of the report, or the organization,
however,
it
doesn't
do
anything
to lessen
my fears
that
any congressional involvement in the energy business only makes things worse.
Here are a few scary quotes from the article:
" ...ethanol requires enormous quantities of water, a valuable resource
already in short supply in many areas of the nation. Producing one gallon of
ethanol
fuel, including the water needed to grow corn, requires an astonishing 1,700
gallons of water, according to Cornell University ecology professor David Pimentel."
"Yet Washington remains fixated on biofuels, ironically furthering our
dependence on foreign oil. Government's selection of ethanol as the chosen
source of fuel
discourages refiners from expanding capacity. Since ethanol can't come close
to meeting U.S. demand for fuel - turning our entire corn crop to fuel production
would only replace 12 percent of our current gasoline consumption - we dangerously
risk increasing our reliance on imports."
None of this will matter, of course, when Congress acts on the energy
bill. As is the way of the world in the nation's capital, the powerful agribusiness
and ethanol interests will trump science, and Congress will turn a blind
eye to the poor's struggle against soaring food prices." - Bill P.
