Ethanol Hypocrites ( Environmentalists...)

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY ^ | March 08, 2007

[george76]

Environmentalism: President Bush has long been blasted by the left as big oil's tool, indifferent to alternative energy. Now that he's got a big plan to develop ethanol with Brazil, the left hates ethanol. Who needs this?

Only yesterday, we were hearing about the glories of ethanol as a renewable resource superior to oil because of its low carbon emissions. Fill up with ethanol — help end global warming. Bill Clinton was big on this, lobbying against offshore oil drilling in California in favor of big-government ethanol programs.

But now that Bush, on a visit to Brazil on Thursday, is launching a major alliance to develop ethanol, nobody in that camp is applauding. Instead, we hear how sugar production for ethanol is trashing the otherwise forgotten rain forest and now adds to global warming. The United Nations stepped right up with this new warning. Others are blaming ethanol for everything from poverty to floods.

The argument doesn't even get the facts right. For one, Brazil is not growing sugar for ethanol production on rain forest land but in the southern grasslands, making environmentalists' renewed interest in cuddly rain forest creatures irrelevant.

And on the grasslands, ethanol production has barely started. Brazil's entire agricultural production is done on only 8% of the nation's arable land. Clearly there is room to expand.

Environmentalists, however, are trying to sell Brazil as one big rain forest in need of "saving" instead of a diverse, rapidly industrializing country whose development is critical to conservation.

Poverty, not development, is the biggest danger to rain forests, as UC Berkeley professor emeritus Jack Hollander found in a study.

[Keith in Iowa]

ping.

[Issaquahking]

IBD the conservative investors newspaper. Thank you William O'neill.

[george76]

IBD is good.

I never go there enough.

[GSlob]

"Fill up with ethanol — help end global warming."
If I fill up with ethanol, I run the risk of becoming dysfunctional. Excessive spirituality could make me flammable, like ted kennedy already is.

[Clint Williams]

I have this great idea. Let's burn foodstuffs for energy.

[satan]

How many children must starve to fuel Al Gore's SUV?

[P-40]

President Bush has long been blasted by the left as big oil's tool, indifferent to alternative energy.

That is what is so funny...the President has been very big on alternative energy but largely through tax credits...which are only good if you can actually produce something. What a concept!

[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off

Click pn POGW graphic for full GW rundown

Ping me if you find one I've missed.

---

When not to burn your food...

[Chena]

Greenies and Liberals are hypocrits and far too often, they are liars.

[Stultis]

They don't seem as hypocritical on most counts if you bear in mind the big, central hypocrisy: The "environmentalism" movement isn't about the environment. Hasn't been for decades.

Several times I've tried to discuss with environmentalists what policies are really good for, or really damaging to, the environment. They genuinely don't care about the facts or about actual results. It's all about ideology and politics.

[Stultis]

That is what is so funny...the President has been very big on alternative energy but largely through tax credits...which are only good if you can actually produce something.

Exactly. Greenies are only interested in either reducing production and/or forcibly taking a cut of the profit (through government or via lawsuit).

[wodinoneeye]

Tyranny cares for little but its own power.

[george76]

[george76]

Most on the left see environmentalism as a tool to use to beat us.

They do not care to modify their lifestyle and they will not give up their private jets, their suv's, their...

[Chena]

Perfectly true and very funny! LOL

[norton]

I just keep flashing back to the seventies, when 'gasohol' ate my fuel lines.

[george76]

exactly correct...

only good if you can actually produce something. What a concept!

.

[george76]

It is not as friendly as the eco-nuts proclaim.

[P-40]

forcibly taking a cut of the profit

Right now they seem to be terribly, incredibly upset that oil companies are making money supplying alternative forms of energy that are 'green' if one wants to call it that. Instead of being happy, they are mad that companies are not doing it out of the goodness of their own hearts.