Posted on 03/26/2007 6:09:32 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By JOHN FUNK
[Cleveland, OH] -- The rush to turn corn into ethanol has driven up grain prices and will soon drive up grocery bills here. But it won't solve the nation's dependence on foreign oil, said a respected, longtime environmentalist in a new report.
Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, argues that better solutions are a 20 percent increase in U.S. fuel-efficiency requirements, development of plug-in hybrid vehicles and growth of wind energy.
His proposal comes as Congress takes its first steps toward mandating reductions in greenhouse gases, increasing automotive fuel-economy standards and promoting wind and other renewable sources of energy.
In a teleconference with reporters, Brown said he finds it "fascinating'' that federal policy makers cannot see the food problems that corn-based ethanol will create.
Corn contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade closed March 21 at about $4.10 per bushel, up from about $2.60 a year ago.
Brown argues that the increase is caused by the increasing use of corn to make ethanol. Rising prices already have led to protests in Mexico, where the government imposed price controls on tortillas after consumer costs of that staple increased 60 percent.
Because corn is also a feedstock, the increase has a ripple effect.
Brown said wholesale prices of chicken across the nation are predicted to be 10 percent higher on average this year than last, eggs 21 percent higher and milk 14 percent more.
At the present rate of construction of new ethanol refineries, one-third of the U.S. corn crop will go to ethanol in 2008 — up from about 16 percent last year, he said.
And President Bush's goal to push ethanol production to 35 billion gallons per year by 2017 would take the entire U.S. corn crop, Brown said.
There are plans to make ethanol from sources such as wood chips and grasses, but that technology will not be ready in time, he argued.
"What was the world's breadbasket is becoming the U.S. fuel tank,'' Brown said. "How the world will react (if charities can no longer afford to feed poor nations) is not clear. ... Economists say the market will sort it out. The question is what will be the social and political costs? How will rising food prices affect political stability and add to the list of failed and failing states?''
Against that, Brown endorses Plug-in Partners, a national grassroots group of engineers, organizations and businesses that endorses so-called plug-in hybrid vehicles as a strategy to move away from oil dependence. The group's members already have pledged to buy 8,000 plug-ins — electric vehicles that can be recharged from ordinary outlets — if one of the carmakers would just start producing them.
Chrysler is testing a fleet of 50 vans, while General Motors and Toyota have built prototypes. Making the cars affordable is the challenge because of the high cost of batteries, say analysts.
After charging overnight in a consumer's garage, the cost to drive such a car to work and back would be the equivalent of less than $1 per gallon of gas, Brown said — even in states with the highest electric rates. Today's fleet of more than 200 million cars in the United States could be replaced in about a decade, he said.
Paralleling that development is the staggering growth in wind-driven power generation — already about 30 percent a year. For example, the state of Texas, two utilities and eight wind-generating companies are proposing a set of wind farms producing 7,000 megawatts, he said. That's as much power as seven big nuclear reactors.
That should be a national model, Brown said. "If we [as a nation] at some time invest in wind farms, then we would be running our cars on wind.''
(John Funk is a reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at jfunk(at)plaind.com. Plain Dealer reporter Robert Schoenberger contributed to this story.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
If corn prices have doubled almost, why are we still subsidizing corn farmers?
I've followed Lester Brown's writings for 40 years or so, and he has been dead wrong about everything he ever voiced an opinion about. I'm amazed that he is still writing and not managing a fast food joint.
That said, he is is right about his main point here. Blind hot, acorn incident.
Because what Congress giveth, Congress never taketh away.
And to add insult to injury, not only are we subsidizing the growing of these crops, but many of these farmers use illegal labor to work the fields. So we're paying criminals to hire criminals!
Check this out:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2007a/070314AgrawalBiomass.html
It would certainly affect real estate prices if a need to produce corn for ethanol meant we had to keep more land in agricultural production. We would have to stop chewing up farmland for housing developments to accommodate our growing population.
In some ways this guy is right, but where does he think the electricity comes from to power hybrid vehicles? And has he ever seen the puree of pelican that results from a wind-farm? Those things are pretty hard on birds. Nor is there usually enough wind to generate all the electricity we need.
They can't avoid the N word: the bottom line is that to get the electric power we need, we are going to have to resort to, yes, Nuclear.
We aren't.
Go nuclear!
It's simple, replace the oil and NG power plants with nukes.
That will free up a huge chunk of the available oil, it will also make electric heating of homes cheaper than oil and gas heating which will free up another large amout of fuel. Look at Japan and about a third of Europe, they are doing it right.
I'm sick of these greenies screaming that we need to find a way to reduce our dependance on foreign oil when we already have the technology and have had it for over fifty years.
Wind farms kill birds. Just wait ...
They move in that direction because they are pushed by politics.
Read in a fly fishin' magazine that it's really having an effect on some native and stocked trout waters in IA.
....and it will not even make a dent in the oil we use.
Bummer....
So the pro-alcohol ecoweenies are willing to starve the third worlders by raising the price of corn and not buying their oil. Oh, look what the goodie two shoes just stepped in.
You must not be a farmer. Most farmers haven't and won't get the new price until after the fall harvest, as they sold at the old price.
They won't be subsidied either, as they will jump at the chance to be off the dole.
This will probably be a one-shot at a nice profit. The last one-shot was back in the early 70's.
That's a long time between 'bonuses', to equate it to someone with a regualr income.
...and I have read that all the land capable of growing corn in the USA, would be capable of only producing enough to supply about 10 percent or less, of our usage and that would be based purely on alcohol use which none of our present vehicles are designed for. The present rise of corn futures, and other associated food products is a gentle reminder that stupidity will be rewarded.
I have never been a proponent of ethanol production over drilling for oil. Oil is the developed energy source, for vehicles, and until a viable, marketable, usable, affordable, energy source becomes available, we will be spitting in the wind, and bowing to the misguided and ever so expensive ideas of radical environmentalists on the order of Al Gore.
To think that we are going to instantly change an industry that has provided the go power to us for over 100 years is what passes for thinking of the insane.
Because they vote!
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