How often do I agree with Paul Krugman? Not. Very. Often.
But - here is that blue moon monent.
Ignore the snarky dig relating to the fact that President Bush is a recovering alcoholic. Read on and see why we have lost our collective minds by putting ethanol in our tanks.
Increased demand for the grain helped boost food prices by 4.9 percent last year, the most since 1990, and will reduce global inventories of corn to the lowest in 24 years, government data show. While advocates say ethanol is cleaner than gasoline, a Princeton University study this month said it causes more environmental harm than fossil fuels.
``We are mandating and subsidizing something that is distorting the marketplace,'' said Cal Dooley, a former U.S. congressman from California, who represents companies including Kraft Foods Inc. and General Mills Inc. as president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association in Washington. ``There are no excess commodities, and prices are rising.''
Innovation and creativity to cut back (or better control) our use of fossil fuels? I'm all for it. Ethanol, however, is not the answer, for a myriad of reasons.
last night I was falling asleep but they were discussing this extensively and said that if we changed to ethanol we would only cut our oil consumption by 7%. So it sounds like we are being grossly misinformed on this issue.
Posted by: Ruth Ferguson | Monday, February 25, 2008 at 11:39 AM
It's crazy to use corn to produce ethanol when sugar is better for producing it. We should be importing ethanol from Brazil, which has lots to sell, instead of making our own.
Posted by: JFP | Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 10:05 PM