by Christopher Calder

Created on: April 13, 2008

Beware the unpatriotic ethanol con men!

To be 'patriotic' means to be inspired by love of country. Patriots want the best for their nation, and do not support policies that damage their country's economy, environment, or the welfare and safety of their fellow citizens. Ethanol biofuel production harms everything that true patriots wish to protect.

Certain television networks, government officials, and biofuel manufacturers are misleading the American people with propaganda that biofuels are somehow "patriotic" and freeing us from dependence on foreign oil. They say that if biofuels cause rapid food price inflation, then Americans should suffer with a smile because ethanol is good for our "national security." This argument is nonsense, and a rationalization used to take money from ordinary American citizens to subsidize large agricultural corporations that make our biofuels. Big business makes ethanol, not Mom and Pop, and ethanol production is equivalent to a new tax on food that starves the poor to feed the rich. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the German Government Development Minister, stated ahead of a recent World Bank meeting in Washington D.C. that "Increasing production of biofuels was 30 to 70% responsible for the rapid rise in food prices."

We have to use substantial amounts natural gas, coal, and oil just to manufacture ethanol, and it takes more fossil fuel derived energy to produce ethanol from corn than it does to make ordinary gasoline from crude oil. America needs real energy solutions, not a destructive product that yields no positive net energy gain. To add insult to injury, ethanol is subsided by our hard earned tax dollars through a $.51 per gallon federal tax credit, so we are paying more money for less energy.

The other false argument is that ethanol is a "clean" fuel that will reduce air pollution. That would only be true if ethanol had the same energy content as gasoline and yielded the same gas mileage, which it does not. Ethanol inherently has 30% less energy per gallon than gasoline, so you have to burn much more ethanol per miles traveled. On a per mile basis, which is the only basis that counts, ethanol does not reduce automobile exhaust emissions.

Ethanol speeds global warming because ethanol production releases more greenhouse gases than gasoline, and the added corn farming causes water shortage and water pollution due to fertilizer run-off. Farming for ethanol erodes topsoil and eliminates essential food surpluses, so we have no food safety net when we need it the most, which is NOW! American food banks are running low on supplies, and many low income Americans are going hungry because our politicians wanted the financial and political backing of the powerful biofuel lobby, a monster they created by their own scientific ignorance and myopic political selfishness.

The ethanol con men are acting in an "unpatriotic" way by shrinking the human food supply as they turn countless warehouses of our own precious food into inferior quality fuel. Our politicians have created a world food crisis, and millions are going hungry, from Tibet, to Indonesia, to Haiti, to Louisiana. President George W. Bush's Katrina style mishandling of the United States food supply may be the biggest man made disaster of the 21st century.

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