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Ethanol Craze Cools As Doubts Multiply
By Mr Ethanol | November 29, 2007
Wall Street Journal:
Little over a year ago, ethanol was winning the hearts and wallets of both Main Street and Wall Street, with promises of greater U.S. energy independence, fewer greenhouse gases and help for the farm economy. Today, the corn-based biofuel is under siege.
In the span of one growing season, ethanol has gone from panacea to pariah in the eyes of some. The critics, which include industries hurt when the price of corn rises, blame ethanol for pushing up food prices, question its environmental bona fides and dispute how much it really helps reduce the need for oil.
A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that biofuels “offer a cure [for oil dependence] that is worse than the disease.” A National Academy of Sciences study said corn-based ethanol could strain water supplies. The American Lung Association expressed concern about a form of air pollution from burning ethanol in gasoline. Political cartoonists have taken to skewering the fuel for raising the price of food to the world’s poor.
Last month, an outside expert advising the United Nations on the “right to food” labeled the use of food crops to make biofuels “a crime against humanity,” although the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization later disowned the remark as “regrettable.”
The fortunes of many U.S. farmers… read on.
Topics: Agriculture, Ethanol, News |
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