Ethanol And Abortion
Columbia Daily Tribune:
Maybe you think I’ve lost my mind, linking ethanol and abortion, but I do have a point, to wit: Sometimes we oversimplify our contentions about controversial subjects. Sometimes in the heat of battle we fail to recognize nuances that can make all the difference.
Thus, as this column and others criticize ethanol, we use too broad a brush. What many really mean, including me, is to criticize some aspects of current government policy regarding the production and use of the alternative fuel.
As I gazed out my window this growing season and observed the stately rows of corn marching out across farm fields, I pondered one of my main concerns: the use of corn as the primary raw material in the United States for the production of ethanol. I know the prices my share-farmer will get for our corn will be high, largely because of ethanol demand, and who can blame him for choosing this crop this year? He and his fellow corn growers might have supported the corn ethanol industry, but the people who made the decisions to inject government into the economic equation work in Washington and Jefferson City, not Ashland or Laddonia.
So, let’s hear it for ethanol, but not made with corn.
Indeed, federal government policy vaguely hints at this long-term goal. Even as it increases mandated use of ethanol, it seems to favor disproportionate subsidies to make motor fuel from cellulose or nonfood sources. Private companies are developing ways to make ethanol or other liquid fuels from wood chips, wheat straw, waste plastic and municipal garbage. Maybe they’ll find a way to use old rubber boots. Read more.
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