People across the world "are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to give up eating meat, fruit and even tomatoes," reports the Associated Press. High food prices are partly the result of "demand for crops to use in biofuels" like ethanol, which the government subsidizes.
Food prices will rise even further if the global-warming legislation backed by President Obama passes, since it contains ethanol subsidies that reward big corporations for turning food into fuel. Ethanol subsidies damage the environment by wiping out forests, polluting water supplies, and eroding the soil. By converting food into fuel, they cause famines and food riots in the world's poorest countries. That fuels Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global-warming bill that is chock full of corporate welfare and environment-destroying ethanol subsidies. The bill was crafted by lobbyists for big companies like BP: “For years, BP has lobbied for climate change legislation, until recently running around with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.” BP has a much worse safety and environmental record than most oil companies, which drill safely and avoid oil spills.
Democratic strategist James Carville, who was raised in Louisiana, called Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill “lackadaisical“ and “unbelievable“ in its “stupidity.”
Until recently, the Obama administration ignored the pleas of Louisiana’s governor to allow Louisiana to build barrier islands to contain the damage from the oil spill, citing bureaucratic procedures. Yet the Obama administration granted BP a waiver from environmental regulations in April 2009. ABC News reports that the “top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 cycle was President Barack Obama himself, who collected $71,000.”
The global warming legislation backed by President Obama would drive jobs overseas, since it would impose a costly cap-and-trade carbon rationing scheme on American industry, while leaving foreign plants operated by multinational corporations unregulated. Companies with plants overseas are lobbying for the global-warming legislation, which would give them an advantage over American competitors. The legislation Obama backs may perversely increase pollution by driving industry overseas to places with fewer environmental regulations.
Comments
And there is talk in congress of raising the 10% in gasoline to 15%.
Watch all the older cars stop running and then Obammy can have another cash for clunkers.
You have to be kidding. American Farmers are producing enough corn to provide feed, food, fuel and fiber. The U.S. exported more corn than ever in recent years, along with increased ethanol production that is lessening our countries dependence on foreign oil, creating a cleaner environment with less GHG emissions and over half of a million good paying jobs. Ethanol susidies do nothing more than ensure a young alternative energy's spot in the market place.
This article is absolutely false! Ethanol is America's best fuel alternative. Food prices are 85% driven by the price of oil and 15% driven by additional demand for corn due to ethanol production. All the fat, fiber, and protein from corn ethanol production is staying in the food chain as high value livestock feed called Distillers Grain.
The U.S. is importing 300 Million Barrels of oil per year and much of that oil is coming from hostile areas of the world. Thus, we are transfering American wealth to fund terrorism! Ethanol is supplying nearly 10% of our gasoline supply now and is working to give our nation the option of where our oil comes from. It is part of the solution but much more work needs to be done to create true energy independance from these hostile regions of the world!
Ethanol production has stabilized grain prices and eliminated all variable grain production subsities! Support ethanol and stop listening to this nonsense! Ethanol is creating American jobs today
Increased ethanol requirements will destroy many older motors like lawn mowers. Terrible.
Contrary to what the ethanol lobbyists say below, the environmental and economic damage of ethanol is well-established.
Environmentalists Lester Pearson and Jonathan Lewis point out, ”food-to-fuel mandates are leading to increased environmental damage. First, producing ethanol requires huge amounts of energy — most of which comes from coal. Second, the production process creates a number of hazardous byproducts, and some production facilities are reportedly dumping these in local water sources. Third, food-to-fuel mandates are helping drive up the price of agricultural staples, leading to significant changes in land use with major environmental harm. Here in the United States, farmers are pulling land out of the federal conservation program, threatening fragile habitats. . .Most troubling, though, is that the higher food prices caused in large part by food-to-fuel mandates create incentives for global deforestation, including in the Amazon basin."
The alternative to Ethanol is Gasoline. No other fuel is competing with gasoline which is getting dirtier every day. Ethanol is getting cleaner every day. Ethanol producers are investing and innovating to reduce energy in order to make ethanol even cleaner and greener. Todays U.S. plants primary energy input is clean burning natural gas, not coal! The natural gas is used to cook the mash, distill the ethanol, and dry the Distillers dried grains. This is all done with 30,000 BTU/gallon input or less while a gallon of ethanol yields about 76,000 btu's per gallon. Ethanol that is blended into gasoline at 10% rate cuts emmisions by 25% minimum because ethanol is an oxygenate which helps your car burn the gasoline more complete. 15% ethanol will not hurt any car engines. Infact ethanol burns cooler than gasoline which is highly prefered by the racing community. The Indy Racing Leaque races with 100% ethanol because of the positive performance and environmental benefits. GO ETHANOL!
Whats driving the price of food is the world demand for fossil fuels and the inadvertant input of these fossil derived fertilizers and fuels used in getting you the food. As demand for fuel grows by emerging economies, alternatives like ethanol lower the cost. As Big Oil will soon be accountable for spill cleanup costs, the effect is already being seed as oil is now over $75 a barrel. Like electricity, the best unit of energy saved is the unit not used. Everyone needs to be aware of the consequences of wasteful habits and conserve their own carbon use. Buy a hybrid, carpool, unplug appliances that aint being used. Just switching to solar hot water will save energy for your home.
There are many new technologies just coming into mainstream that will enable America to continue to add homegrown energy that will save many dollars from overseas that combined with proper field management will increase efficiency of these biofuels.
Ethanol mandates have terrible consequences.
As Time Magazine and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman observed, ethanol is a scam that starves Africa. In the New York Times, Krugman says:
"The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a 'scam.' This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly 'good' biofuel policies, like Brazil’s use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation. And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa" to benefit American politicians.
Ray, America will have over 1.5 billion bushels of corn in stocks at harvest this year. Africa is starving because we have a distribution problem not a shortage of food! Ethanol from corn only uses the starch portion of #2 yellow corn leaving the fat , fiber and protein for livestock feed. Nothing is wasted and making ethanol out of the starch portion is more efficient than feeding livestock corn direct becase much of the starch ends up in the manure. Also, deforestation rates have no corrolation with ethanol production. Do a little research and you will find Krugman's observations were not accurate. Deforestation rates have decreased as ethanol production have inceased. In 2008 America spent $600 million importing oil and funding terrorism. We spent another $400 million on oil from the U.S. This expense resulted in a recession which increased poverty in Africa due to our in ability Globally to afford to increase our aid. The U.S. needs energy freedom, ethanol is here today!
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!