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Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The ethanol boondoggle is wreaking havoc worldwide”

May 15, 2008

Edward Lazear, Chairman, US Council of Economic Advisers: “The bottom line is that ethanol production is a significant contributor to increases in corn prices, but neither U.S. nor worldwide biofuel production can account for much of the rise in food prices.”

The Utah Daily Herald: “It’s finally dawning on everyone — even Congress — that the ethanol boondoggle is wreaking havoc worldwide. It’s boosting food prices, destabilizing poor nations and, ironically, harming the environment. It’s the fault of Washington politicians….Have we lost our minds? Apparently so… A recent study from Purdue University puts the added U.S. food cost from the congressional ethanol mandate at $15 billion in 2007 — about $130 per household, and that’s out of date…America’s muttonheaded biofuels policy might be forgivable if ethanol had other benefits, but in almost every way it’s inferior to oil-based fuels. Ethanol provides 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline. Corrected for energy content, ethanol’s cost is equivalent to a wholesale gasoline price of $6.67 per gallon…Ethanol isn’t even friendly to the environment. Creating one gallon of fuel requires up to 1,700 gallons of water. And it’s a waste of good farm land. According to one study, fossil-fuel production is 10,000 times more efficient than biofuel, in terms of energy produced per unit of land.

  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: General Mills CEO says food inflation caused by “a little bit of this…a little bit of that”
    • Republican congressional candidate Grant Bosse: “Our current ethanol policy drives up gas prices, drives up food prices, hurts the environment, and taxpayers get to pay $6.3 billion a year for the p...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Biofuels were developed in response to a very serious problem, they weren’t invented just for fun.”.
    • UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes told AFP:  "I think we should avoid a knee-jerk response. Biofuels were developed in response to a very serious problem, which is the...
  • Today in World Opinion: US, EU biofuel policy a “criminal path” according to UN Special Rapporteur; anti-speculative legislation proposed
    • The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, described US and EU biofuels policy as a "criminal path." The AP reported that  a transcript of a briefing to UN leaders, Ziegler said ...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “There are 21 farm states, and that’s 42 senators…They’re going to have ethanol.”
    • T Boone Pickens, reporting a conversation in 1996 with Bob Dole: "He said, "Ethanol is, you say it's a bad fuel." I said, "Come on Bob, you spend more money making it than importing it." And he said, ...
  • $1 per gallon ethanol for home brewers?
    • In California, Silicon Valley magnate Thomas Quinn has backed a company that says it has developed a $10,000 E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler that will allow consumers to make ethanol at home for $1 per gallon....
  • Study calls Saskatchewan biofuels policy a failure
    • The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reported that Saskatchewan biofuel subsidy programs "are failing both as rural economic development and environmental protection policy." The study: ...

    Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under Opinion 

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