Redstate

Posted at 11:50pm on Jun. 23, 2008 The Obama Alternative Energy Plan

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Bought and paid for by the ethanol industry:

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol "ultimately helps our national security, because right now we're sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth." America's oil dependence, he added, "makes it more difficult for us to shape a foreign policy that is intelligent and is creating security for the long term."

Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, "he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy."

Mr. Obama's lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Mr. Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation's largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.

Read on . . .

Posted in Barack Obama | Energy | Ethanol | John McCain — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:01pm on May 3, 2008 Corn Ethanol: Maybe Not Such a Good Idea After All

By Vladimir

Well, the love affair between the Senate and corn-based ethanol appears over almost before it started. This, from the Wall Street Journal. Link requires subscription. Emphasis added.

Corn Ethanol Loses More Support

Two dozen Republican senators on Friday -- including Republican presidential candidate John McCain (R., Ariz.) -- asked the Environmental Protection Agency to ease requirements mandated by Congress in 2007 to blend more ethanol and other renewable fuels into the gasoline supply.

Posted in Alternative Fuels | Energy | Ethanol — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:34pm on Apr. 29, 2008 What's the Over/Under on the Ethanol Mandate?

By Vladimir

How long will our crazy rush to corn-based ethanol last?

Environmentalists don't seem to like it; it takes too much water to grow and process, and it doesn't help with the global warming bit. It seems to be an inefficient and nasty fuel, when you get down and deal with the practicalities of it.

Now ADM is playing defense:

Archer Daniels defends ethanol in wake of rising food costs

Posted in Alternative Fuels | Energy | Ethanol | Scam — Comments (21) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:12am on Jan. 31, 2008 Ethanol's Dirty Little Secret

By Vladimir

Even hard-core environmentalists are starting to acknowledge that there's nothing green about ethanol.

This is the folly of the so-called "Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007", which mandates 36 billion gallons of ethanol as a gasoline additive in 15 years (vs. 4.7 billion gallons in 2007). Pardon me for asking, but if our environment is already reeling from the impact of ethanol production, what happens when we make nearly eight times as much?

Ethanol Not Green or Clean, Some Charge

9 States Deemed Biggest Dead Zone Contributors

More overleaf...

Posted in Energy | Environment | Ethanol — Comments (78) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:31pm on Dec. 17, 2007 Nourishment Is Expensive These Days

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Get ready. The price of food is skyrocketing:

Import tariffs for major agricultural commodities, in particular cereals, vegetable oils and rice, are being slashed in an effort by developed and developing countries to cushion their local markets against rising food inflation.

The move comes as food inflation, which hit countries over the summer, shows signs of resurgence, with cereal prices rising sharply, boosted by strong demand, in particular from China, and tumbling inventories.

Turkey is the latest country to announce a reduction in custom duties, having recently cut its import tariff for wheat from 130 per cent to 8 per cent, for corn from 130 per cent to 35 per cent and scrapped the previous 100 per cent duty for barley.

The European Union - the world's top importer of wheat and one of the largest buyers of soyabean and corn - has also announced that it will set zero import duties for cereals until next June.

See also this. It's nice to see that tariffs are being slashed. Of course, they should have been slashed long ago and now, there is a concern that tariff cuts won't keep up with the rate of inflation when it comes to food. Note as well a cause of food inflation that the article missed: The reliance on ethanol as an alternative source of energy, a policy shortcoming that I noted here almost one year ago.

Posted in Economy | Ethanol | Food Prices | Food Tariffs — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:40pm on Dec. 4, 2007 Ethanol: The Green Fuel? Part Deux

By Vladimir

People are slowly coming to the realization that it would be a chore to invent a motor fuel that was less efficient and harder on the environment than corn-based ethanol.

Part One of this series documented the impact of high nitrogen and phosphorus in the Gulf of Mexico. Run off from the main agricultural basin of the U.S. causes an algae bloom offshore, which results in a Dead Zone, which this year reached some 8,000 square miles, an area bigger than the state of Connecticut.

Posted in Energy | Ethanol | Law of Unintended Consequences | Water Conservation — Comments (10) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:39pm on Nov. 30, 2007 Now Everyone Hates Ethanol

By Vladimir

From the Wall Street Journal:
Ethanol Craze Cools As Doubts Multiply

Of course, in my previous diaries "Here Comes Big Corn" (Jan 07) and "Ethanol, the Green Fuel" (Jun 07) I was just shilling for the oil companies.

But it seems that the push for widespread use of ethanol as a motor fuel is a case study in the Law of Unintended Consequences writ large.

more...

Posted in Alternative Fuels | Energy | Ethanol — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Read More »