Bipartisan Consensus: Ethanol Mandates Are a Disaster
Posted April 29th, 2008 at 2:01pm in Energy and Environment 
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Recently our leaders have told us:
The New York Times, April 15, 2008:
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he had come to realize that Congress made a mistake in backing biofuels, not anticipating the impact on food costs. He said Congress needed to reconsider its policy, though he acknowledged that would be difficult.
“If there was a secret vote, there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing,” he said.
The Hill, April 28, 2008:
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday that U.S. ethanol policies may be partly to blame for a global food crisis threatening to leave millions hungry.
…
“I’ve supported ethanol from the beginning. The object of having homegrown fuel in America is a good goal, and it’s one we’re moving toward ever so slowly,” he said. “But we have to understand it’s had an impact on food prices. Even in the Corn Belt, we’d better be honest about it.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), April 29, 2008:
“We are in the midst of global food difficulties brought on by decades of misguided environment and energy policies. As worldwide food availability decreases and prices continue to skyrocket, decades of ill-conceived planning by politicians and bureaucrats afraid of expanding our energy supplies are now bearing an ugly fruit. American families and the international community continue to suffer from these misguided policies; Washington must take the first steps to begin addressing these problems.”
Hopefully more in Congress have learned the ethanol lesson. If they have, then they will avoid future draconian government action like mandatory carbon caps that, like ethanol mandates, will harm America’s (and indeed the world’s) poor the greatest.
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