Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Corn and Ethanol

Don't know if you noticed the news this morning that milk has reached a new high in price. These new high prices we are seeing for milk and meat are directly related to the higher prices for corn being driven by the ethanol production. What many people don't know about corn derived ethanol is that it is significantly more wasteful of energy that gasoline. The energy required to produce the corn, mostly in the form of nitrogen fertilizers, is much higher that the energy returned in the form of auto fuel.

Not only are you paying higher prices for food because of the use of corn for fuel but you are paying also for the subsidized production of the ethanol by way of your federal taxes. The only way corn based ethanol can be priced competitively at the pump with gasoline is by pumping massive amounts of federal dollars at the refiners. This is just a windfall for big agriculture and the refiners and really stupid environmental policy.

If you want to read more there is an excellent article over at the Gristmill in rebuttal to Dick Morris' article in support of corn base fuels. Well worth a read if you interested in environmental issues.

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