The ethanol chickens are coming home to roost

From The New York Times:

The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.

But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.

Oh may it be so! Ethanol is not, never has been and never will be anything but a feel-good measure for idiot politically correct politicians who want to be seen to be "doing something".

The energy obtained from burning a gallon of ethanol is only slightly greater than the energy required to produce that same gallon of ethanol. Ethanol cannot be pumped through the existing system of pipelines so it must be trucked to the refineries where it is mixed with the gasoline, using even more energy.

And on top of all that it is starving people to death by turning their food into motor fuel.

At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.

Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.

That growth, much faster over the last four years than the historical norm, is lifting millions of people out of destitution and giving them access to better diets. But farmers are having trouble keeping up with the surge in demand.

So why are we making the problem worse?

Ethanol supporters maintain that any increase caused by biofuels is relatively small and that energy costs and soaring demand for meat in developing countries have had a greater impact. “There’s no question that they are a factor, but they are really a smaller factor than other things that are driving up prices,” said Ron Litterer, an Iowa farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association.

He said biofuels were an “easy culprit to blame” because their popularity had grown so rapidly in the last two or three years.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called the recent criticism of ethanol by foreign officials “a big joke.” He questioned why they were not also blaming a drought in Australia that reduced the wheat crop and the growing demand for meat in China and India.

“You make ethanol out of corn,” he said. “I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.”

The senator’s comments reflect a political reality in Washington that despite the criticism from abroad, support for ethanol remains solid.

Oh, Follow the money. I should have known.

Here's the thing. If the rise in corn prices is almost all due to factors other than biofuels then scrapping the biofuel program would only cause a slight drop in prices - right? Since corn prices are at an historic high that should be too much of a problem - right? After all since corn farmers are making more money than they ever have before they can surely do with just a little bit less - if ethanol is only responsible for 10-15% of the price hike.

Of course if you suggest this to the corn farmers they will squeal like stuck pigs because they know that ethanol is the main driving force behind the surging corn prices.

Politicians in Washington are just going to have to screw their fraking courage to the sticking place and end this madness. That is if there are any politicians in Washington who still have any courage.